Anecdotal Records

Child’s Name: Matilda
Date of Observation: 16/01/ 2020
Age: 3 yrs old
Location: Outdoor area of child care centre
Time: 9:30 am – 10:30 am
Observer: Kristen Sterling & Kassandra Tischer

ANECDOTAL RECORDS AND INTERPRETATION

Anecdotal 1: Matilda rides a bike with a musical symbol in each hand and her forearms on the handles of the bike. She travels on the bike path down the hill with both feet on the ground. As Matilda travels on the bike path along the fence she puts her feet on the pedals and starts to travel up the hill on the bike path. After several attempts on pedaling forward Matilda stops the bike, drops the symbols and puts the bike she is on to the side with the rest of the bikes lined up. Matilda walks over to another bike and she rings the bell on one bike three times and then walks away from the bikes and up the hill towards the covered seating area.   Domain: Physical Skill: 5.2 Gross Motor Skills- Riding Interpretation 1: Matilda appears to enjoy playing on her own as she moves around on the bike with no one else around. She seems to be practicing the ability to pedal on the bike with two feet as well which is what is developmentally appropriate for her at this age. Matilda does seem a little interested in the bell that appears on the other bikes as she goes to ring them. It is interesting to note how keen Matilda was on holding onto the musical symbols and using the bike at the same time.

Anecdotal 2: Matilda walks toward a low square table that has a bin of musical instruments in it. She searches through the bin and picks a wooden instrument in her left hand and swings it around. Matilda then picks up a cow bell with her right hand and starts to knock the wooden instrument on the cow bell and starts to march in place. She continues to march forward towards her educator and says, “I need to go to the washroom.” The educator responds saying, “You need to remember to go before we come outside.” The educator brings Matilda and three other children inside to use the washroom. Domain: Physical Skill: 5.2 Gross Motor Skills – Movement and Expression  Interpretation 2: Matilda appears to be fascinated with the bin of musical instruments as she surfs through it. You can tell she likes music as she was grasping onto the musical instruments before and is now going through the musical bin outside. She picks up 2 different objects and starts to bang them together. It also seems that she likes the sounds she is smiling and marching in place. Matilda is also able to communicate with adults properly about how she feels as she needed to go to the washroom and was able to ask the educator.

Anecdotal 3: Matilda returns from the washroom with her educator and three other children. Matilda smiles and gallops towards the green turf in the middle of the playground. She steps onto a 3 foot wooden U shape board. Matilda starts to rock side to side. She starts off slow and slowly moves faster while Matilda sits on it with her back facing the board and starts to rock back and forth. She then lies down with her legs out and feet up on the board and watches other children play around her. Matilda stands up and then sits back down with her back facing the open area on the wooden U shaped board. She starts to rock back and forth by herself for 2 minutes.   Domain: Physical Skill: 5.2 Gross Motor- Balance Interpretation 3: Matilda is able to express herself through her facial expressions as she appears to be happy after returning from the washroom.  Matilda expresses a large interest in the wooden U shape board and she spends a tremendous amount of time on it and exploring it. She is exploring how the wooden U shape board moves in adjacent to how she moves her body. She is working on her balancing skills, as she rocks it side to side. It is amazing to the the amount of concentration and experimentation that she is experiencing while on the board.

Anecdotal 4: Matilda is then approached by a boy and he tries to rock her on the wooden U shaped board. Matilda says, “stop it I don’t want to to shake me on dis.” The boy then walks away from her. Matilda while sitting on the board moves her body and lies down on her side with her legs on one side and head on the other. She then slips off the board and the boy that approached her earlier returns and takes the wood U shaped board from her. Matilda then stands up and shrugs her shoulders while looking at the boy. She then walked away from him and walked towards a 2 foot wooden spool which is on the green turf area. Domain: Cognitive Skill: 4.1 Self-regulation  Interpretation 4: Matilda’s ability to communicate with her classmates through both verbal and nonverbal actions is displayed in a very positive manner.  Without using her body she is able to express what she wants verbally to the boy that tries to rock her off. Once she slips off the board instead of getting into some sort of confrontation she is able to self regulate herself by shrugging her shoulders and walking away from the boy rather than getting into an altercation or crying. It is amazing how she then is able to focus her attention and energy to another object outside.

Anecdotal 5: As Matilda grabs the wooden spool, a couple of girls walked towards her and she waved her hands at them and said, “no this is mine.” Matilda started to push the spool up the hill with two hands. As she reached the top of the hill she approached two girls who were crying. Matilda looked at them but continued walking with the spool. By herself Matilda sits on the spool and then falls forward. She tries to do it again, and she balances herself and then falls again. Matilda rotates the spool and proceeds back down the hill with her stomach on the middle part of the spool. She slowly rolls down the hill until the spool hits the fence at the bottom of the turf area. At the bottom of the hill Matilda raised her right hand up towards an educator with her thumb pointed upward. Matilda then was helped by the educator to sit on the spool with Matilda’s back against the fence.      Domain: Communication, Language and Literacy Skill: 3.1 Using Verbal and Non-Verbal Communication    Interpretation 5:         Again here we notice that Matilda is able to non-verbally communicate with her peers what she wants by waving her hands at them. Matilda is fascinated by the wooden spool in the yard and tries to move about on it by balancing. She is very determined and does not give up and this is shown by her falling down and getting back up and trying again. Matilda is experimenting how the spool moves by lying down on it on her stomach and rolling around. With communication with her educator she is obtained help from her educator. Matilda is able to complete what she was attempting to do on her own and that is sitting on the wooden spool. This time around she is doing it with her back against the fence.

Anecdotal 6: Matilda rolls the spool on the concrete and the ECE tells her that, “it’s not safe” and that, “she should go on the grass”. Matilda asks the ECE, “will you play with me?”. The ECE replies, “yes, I’m coming”. Matilda then rolls the spool off the concrete and onto the grass, stops and looks at the ECE and stares. Domain: Communication, Language and Literacy Skill: 3.4 Conversing with peers and adults Interpretation 6: Matilda seems to enjoy the company of the adults in the centre. This may be because she has an older sibling and is used to being around older people.

Anecdotal 7: ECE meets Matilda on the grass and begins to sing the song “rollie, pollie, ollie” with Matilda as she continues to roll on the wooden spool. The ECE says, “you have great upper body strength” as Matilda lies on her stomach on the wooden spool. Matilda sits on the spool while continuing to interact with the ECE. Domain: Physical Skill: 5.2 Gross Motor Skills- Movement and Expression Interpretation 7: Matilda is at an age where she feels comfortable taking risks in the outdoor area. This may be because she has developed enough gross motor skills, body coordination, and strength to do risk taking activities safely.

Anecdotal 8: Matilda joins the ECE and the three other children on the carpet for music and movement. The ECE begins to sing the song, “head, shoulders, knees, and toes”. Matilda repeats the action that the ECE does. First by touching her head, then her shoulders, then knees, and then toes. Matilda is also repeating the words while mimicking what the ECE is doing. Domain: Physical Skill:  5.4 Auditory Skills and Music Interpretation 8: Matilda is aware of her body parts. She can say/sing them as well as point to them at the same time. Being able to identify the different parts of the body is a requirement of her age in the Ages and Stages Questionnaire.