One day the children were playing outside jumping from the top of the climbing frame onto a big mattress. Kate wrote her very first observation using photos on Robbie who after a nervous start, became very confident copying another boy doing spins the air and landing backwards. Robbie did this physical activity over a couple of days and on the second day was trying to land on his feet. This was a massive achievement for Robbie as only months before he did not like going outside.
Kate wrote the above observation.
What was great about the observation was:
Kate used the photos Angela had taken as a prompt to remember what had happened and also to support the documentation she wrote up.
Kate identified the links to learning that this outdoor learning experience had for Robbie eg: gross motor skills, coordination, confidence, emotional wellbeing, the ability to pick something up fast.
Kate picked up on Robbie's sense of achievement and pride.
Kate noticed that Robbie had been scaffolded (helped) by another boy Peter who is very confident and whose physical development is off the charts. This taught Kate that children can learn from their friends as well as their teachers.
What could have made the observation even better and what Kate will need to think about in the future was:
Tell a little story about Robbie and his pathway to this moment of learning. Did he used to have trouble with climbing and balance? How did he get to being able to jump from the top of the climbing frame and doing tricks?
How could this learning experience be extended to take into account Robbie's new found confidence and physical abilities?
For example, over the next weeks, Angela extended the jumping experience to include a longer obstacle course. It ended with the children jumping from a plank put across two climbing frames which was up much higher onto a big mattress. Robbie loved this new experience as well and didn't need any encouragement at all. He had mastered it!
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