Part of Lesson Plan: Observation of Young Children Part One

Activity Overview / Details

I like to use fun, interesting video clips to capture my students attention at the beginning of class. It also gives me time to take care of attendance and other class tasks before starting the days plan.

Introduction: Children develop skills at a rapid rate compared to when we get older and development slows.  Development comes in stages with a wide timeline. What do you notice about this young lady? What are her strengths? What do you actually see and hear her doing?

Replay the video and ask your students to write down just what they see her physically do or look for evidence of each area of development: physical, cognitive, social and emotional.

The challenge for students is to just write what they see and not interpret or add to the observation. For example:

Girl is holding cup

Cute girl is holding cup of juice.

I take this opportunity to make points about objective and subjective statements.