Journal

Today we travelled to the ELC and watched the kids whilst they played outside. We found that once they got out there most girl's went to the home centre and the boy's went to the truck's. We thought this would be because it was a comfort zone and after awhile they went to other areas and mixed more. There was the exception of some girl's that straight away went to the playdough and some that went and played with the boat's in the water. Some boy's also did this but most stayed where they were for a longer amount of time. I choose to watch a boy (Child B) and a girl (Child A) and they appeared quite different in the first 10mins then the last 10mins. Child B started to play with the boats in the water first, enjoying that there was new boats. He liked to sink the boats and watch the bubbles come up from them. He wanted others to play with him but his friend wouldn't. He changed to the cars and trains and played with the train's, when asked he said train's were better. Child B played with others on the tracks but got told by another boy that he was 'doing it wrong'. So he started to argue with that boy and bossed him around himself. Started to get quite destructive of the tracks. Started to be mean after that. The girl however, once was let out of the classroom went to the playdough area. She played by herself for a long time but took the time to seperate the big lot of playdough into smaller bits around the table. She appeared to set up for others to come later. This act caused no arguments once others came about how much each person had. She liked to squash the playdough and make shapes with it. When I came over and started playing she made the noises of the animals she had made with the shape cutters. Liked to show what she made and feel that she accomplished something. Both student's enjoyed play time and were happy and comfortable. || Today we read more about play and the different types. We then played a game that we had to put small lego pieces into a container. First we tried it with chop sticks and I put 15 lego pieces in successfully. We then tried with out good hand achieving 26. Once we closed our eyes it became harder but most of us didn't do to bad. I got 21 into the container. However Luke found most of these, difficult. Boys are said to be worse at fine motor skills but better at navigation then girls. Aleisha also found it difficult with the chop sticks as she hadn't used them before. With our toy that we make we have to take this into consideration as some children at the 3-5 year old range don't have very good fine motor skills. Also some children may find it frustrating and not like the toy and possibly break it. || Today we looked through our books at the different types of playing and social relationships between kids. We looked at the fact that some children are onlookers and some social. This is important to consider when buliding a toy as we need to know what our kids that we have chosen play like. There are also many different types of play like functional, symbolic, constructive and rule-bound play. Tomorrow we will look closer at how our kids play and what type of play they enjoy. || Today when we went to the ELC it was inside play. This is completely different to outside play as it is more constructive and functional play. Lots of different activities were present inside like drawing, reading, building blocks and puppets. Child B was playing firstly with the building blocks with the other boys but then went over to the puppet area. He liked to play with others shoing that he was co-operative and social to the other students. He liked to be loud and to be the dinosaur or an animal when playing in the puppet show. Once I came along and played, he wanted me to be the dinosaur and to eat everyone up. His favourite colour is blue and enjoyed playing with the girls. Child A was also willing to play with others but was playing parallel by just reading a book. She told me that she liked bratz dolls, dressing dolls up and makeup. Throughout the whole time of talking to her she was very active and always moving. She also showed me that she could run very fast across the room. Her favourite colours are yellow, purple and pink. She has one brother but most of the time plays by herself. When she does play with her brother she doesn't mind playing with 'boys toys'. Child D was solitary and liked to draw pictures. She said she liked playing with others and with herself and also playing inside and outside. Her likes are: santa toys, barbies, blue, purple and pink. Was a very good drawer and loved it when she got told it was good. They all played nicely together and had fun but at the same time were learning rules such as being more quiet inside and sharing. || We went on an excursion to MegaToy today to learn more about how toys are made. We learnt that many things come into place before even making the toy. All safety requirements were looked at and needs of the customer. MegaToy makes sure that their toys are colourful as children love it. It also can identify that toy as being theirs as they have certain colours they use. Many plans are modified and looked over before anything is made also. In their toys they also put moving parts, extras such as a toy mircophone and other learning games. They have also started to make playgrounds that have sounds and move more, to keep the interest in their playgrounds. This can all be used when we make our toy so that the children keep interest in it and also something to make it 'ours'. Overall it was a good excursion that opened our eyes to the many possibilities that we could build and also to ensure that it also is safe for a child to use. || In class today, we went and visited our kids again whilst they were having inside play. Child A was the first one to notice me and started talking to me and showing me around she then pulled me to the reading area and she drew in my book. I asked her if she liked bubbles and also what she liked doing. She likes to play and said she loves bubbles. When I went over to talk to Child B, Child A came with us and was willing to play with the boys trucks and didn't mind playing with people she normally didn't play with. Child B said he LOVED bubbles and that they were his favourite. He liked the fact that the fire truck had a ladder that you could pull out and also liked noises coming out of the trucks. Still was very destructive and got told by the teacher that he needs to be nice to them otherwise they are getting packed away. He also said he liked to draw but didn't want to draw. Child B and A both have very good gross motor skill development but Child A has better fine motor skills. Child D wasn't at the early learning centre today, so i didn't get to talk to her. Child A was a much more caring person and showed that to me by wanting to make a necklace for me, whereas Child B was destructive and didn't talk to me as much because he was busy smashing into the other kids trucks and/or buildings. ||
 * __**Date**__ || __**Results**__ ||
 * 31st January 2008 || __First Observation of ELC (early learning center) kids__
 * 4th February 2008 || __Learning more about fine motor skills__
 * 7th February 2008 || __Class discussion__
 * 8th February 2008 || __Second Observation of ELC (early learning center) kids__
 * 12th February 2008 || __MegaToy__
 * 14th February 2008 || __Third Observation of ELC (early learning center) kids__
 * 18th February 2008 || Today we played with lego to find out how long it would take to build a structure that we were given. We found that boys were much better than the girls with 9 mins 30 seconds difference between us.

Lego Construction Test: Science 21 Class: Levers Kit Teacher (M) - 4 mins Student (M) - 7 mins Student (F) - 10 mins Student (F) - 11 mins Student (F) - 15 mins Student (F) - 20 mins

Male Av - 5:30 mins Female Av - 14 mins Class Av - 11.67 mins || Read through child development in our books. Children grow and we learnt that their toys need to combat these changes. The right toys can contribute to an environment which challenges the child, makes full use of his or her existing abilities and promotes the next stage of development. || Read through energy sources and stores in our books. Studied the magnetic and spring toy to look at the transfer of energy. || Today we observed their movement around they inside play area. Child A didnt move at all but the boys both moved. Had to change one of my kids as Child D wouldnt be coming to the ELC, as she is on holidays. Child C: Liam -Said he would love a train as a toy -likes trucks, cars and thomas the tank engine -messy Child B: Angus -neat and tidy -thinking about different situations Child A: Ellie -loves drawing -excited about fireman coming to the class tomorrow -energitic
 * 21st February 2008 || __Child development__
 * 22nd February 2008 || __Magnetic toy and spring toy__
 * 25th February 2008 || __Fourth Observation of ELC (early learning center) kids__

|| Today we worked on our wikispaces and continued to research on toys and children playing. || Today we went down to the ELC and took photos with our kids. We also talked to them a bit before coming back and made toys with gears and a flywheel. Photos of these to toys are in Toys with energy. || We were given three questions to answer about our toy. The questions were: Why choose these materials? What physical properties do these materials have? What energy transformation has occured?
 * 26th Feburary 2008 || __Working on wikispaces__
 * 28th February 2008 || __Photos__
 * 3rd March 2008 || __Answering questions__

We also researched more about the materials we wanted to use for our toy and also the safety features of those materials. || We played with a range of boy toys that had different range of movements. We looked at action figures that threw an axe and McDonald toys that when you pushed a button the arms and glasses moved. Another toy we looked at had gears inside that when the piece of plastic was pulled it turned the arms and body around in a retarded fashion. They all worked well and were likeable but we found that the geninue buzzing bee was the best toy. When moved by the string in moved its wings and made a clicking sound. As it made a noise and also was painted in the primary colours, we thought it was the best toy. After playing with the toys we made cars out of lego with the battery pack. We all made very different cars and then tested them out, outside. I made my car to be long which gave it better stability when going up the steep hill. It went up but was very slow. However, Aleisha's car was powered by two battery packs on all wheels so it was more like a 4WD so it found it was easier to get up the hill. Luke also made a car but it was short so once it hit the steep hill it flipped over. || Today we worked on our websites and added more to it. || Today we went to the ELC and showed them our prototype. I gathered the three kids and we came inside and discussed what they would like in the toy. Child A wanted the train to be yellow and have dinosaur stuff in it. She liked the train and thought the stuff inside the carriages would be fun to play with. Child B liked the idea of a train as he loves trains. He also wanted the train to be yellow and thought about having dinosaur stuff in it would be awesome. Child C was quiet but did like it to be yellow and to have all the stuff the others kids wanted. Overal they loved it and Child B even wanted to play with the prototype that kept on breaking. || Today we updated information on our website and also looked more at the energy of our toy. || Tried to find out information on the internet about the horn that I am having on the toy train. Couldnt do much though as all sites were blocked. Discussed with class about the different toys I would be placing in the carriages and showed the teacher. He said that they seemed good and also wondered if the pens i was using were non-toxic. All safety notes have been met and nothing is not safe for the kids to play with. || Put more on wikispace about energy conversions and fixed punctuation. ||
 * 6th March 2008 || __Playing with toys__
 * 7th March 2008 || __Working on website__
 * 10th March 2008 || __Fifth Observation of ELC (early learning center) kids__
 * 11th March 2008 || __Working on wikispace__
 * 13th March 2008 || __Looked at horn__
 * 17th March 2008 || __Working on wikispace__
 * 20th March 2008 ||  ||