I first visited the 5 year old’s rainbow room, where I was able to sit with some of the children and observe their behavior and interactions as they completed their various tasks at multiple stations. I first noticed that a young girl worked through the first problem briskly while another struggled a bit. As this struggling 5-year old explained to me what she was suppose to do, it helped her successfully complete it. When she had success once and was told to repeat the process several times, she skipped the placing aspect of blocks on a page and instead counted them and wrote down the number on her paper. When I asked her why she didn’t place the blocks to confirm the final number, she confidently told me, “I know how to count.” This was a clear combination of initiative and industry. She wanted to complete the task in her own way, and was sure to tell me that she knows what she’s doing.  I observed this trend again in the workshop where a 5-year old boy was trying to screw a bolt into a block of wood. It was obviously pointed out by the teacher that they had to first drill a hole into the wood before putting the bolt into it. He was certain his way was most efficient and told her so before he continued.

In the 4-year old space, I saw awesome teamwork going on. Three kids were building the tallest tower that they could, while another was having difficulty completing the same task on his own. He was placing the pieces inside of another instead of stacking them. This could’ve been an attempt at autonomy, believing his was being more creative and could come up with something better. This boy alongside another was also using a construction hat as a bowl to hold blocks as they carried them back to the trough to clean up the room.

Finally, I only observed the 3-year olds in the outdoor space. Their attention spans are very short as they ran to get pumpkins in a field and immediately dropped them at whatever part of the playground they wanted to play at next. For example, one girl dragged her pumpkin to the waterplay area, forgot she even had a pumpkin, and played with the water toys. I also observed autonomy at play when one boy drove his tricycle into the grass and became stuck. His teacher immediately asked if he needed help and he silently ignored her while he fixed his tricycle and returned to riding on the track.