Early Learning Project
Video & Background
This video clip shows one kind of exploration that is possible when educators arrange outdoor experiences for young children. Tom, who is 34 months old, is on a field trip to a local dam with several other children from teacher Ruth Brewer’s home-based early childhood program. The children range in age from 11 months to 5 ½ years. Conversations between the teacher and other children can be heard from time to time during the video clip.The road over the dam is closed to vehicle traffic and the children can safely cross from one sidewalk to the other. The video clip starts with Tom on one side of the dam where he has been looking through the bars of the railing next to another child. The sound of rushing water is especially loud on that side of the dam. The camera follows Tom as he crosses to the other side, where he stands listening and looking through the railing. Five-year-old Jamilah joins him, but Tom does not interact with her. He hunches over to look between the bars. He then turns around and runs back across the road to where he started, calling out as he runs, “I don’t want to hear that!” His tone of voice and facial expression suggest enthusiasm and engagement. Even though he seems to be saying that he does not want to hear the sound, he does not avoid it.
Tom begins to position himself to look through the railing with others in his group, but he does not stay long. He starts to cross the road again, but pauses purposefully for a moment partway across. He appears to be listening or thinking as he turns back, then returns to the railing to look through the bars again. He is clearly engrossed in what he is doing, and does not interact with the other children. After a few moments, he runs across to a place on the quieter side, several feet to the left of where he stood previously. He bends over, holding on to the railing, and peers between the first and second bars for a few moments. Turning around, he lets go and starts back toward the other side. He pauses at the edge of the sidewalk with his arms held out from his sides and looks to one side before stepping into the road. As he crosses again to rejoin the other children, he says something – to no one in particular – that is drowned out by the sound of the water. When he reaches the railing, he looks between the bars at the water below.
A short time later, Tom runs across the road again, veering from the path he followed before, heading more to the left. This time, he fits his head and shoulders into the space between a concrete structure and the end of the railing, holding the railing with one arm and looking downward.
In the final part of the clip, Tom is again on the quieter side of the dam. He holds a pair of yellow binoculars. He stands by the railing, looking toward the water with the binoculars for a few moments. He then turns away from the camera and announces, “It’s not too loudy.” The teacher rephrases that statement with more precise vocabulary, showing awareness of what he has been doing during his many trips back and forth, and providing him with comparative words with which to describe his experience: “loud” and “quieter.”
Throughout the experience recorded in this video, the teacher and the other adult provide supervision and a safe environment for Tom and the other children, who are then free to look, listen, and move about in order to find out more about this relatively unfamiliar outdoor space. The adults allow Tom to pursue his own interest without interruption, although they might instead have stopped him during his trips back and forth and to ask him to talk about what he was doing. (Some readers may feel strongly that the teacher should have involved Tom in a conversation as he crossed back and forth, while others may believe that doing so would have intruded upon the child’s own efforts to make sense of his experience, in his own way.) However, the teacher’s close observation of Tom’s behavior enables her to interpret and respond to his final comment, which in a sense summarizes his exploration. This teacher also regularly revisits video footage with the children, so it is likely that Tom will have a chance to say more about his experience with the sound at the dam.
Video footage courtesy of Ruth Brewer, The Child’s Garden, Westerville, Ohio
Transcript
Sound of rushing water.
Tom crosses the road from the noisy side to the quiet side, looks through the bars of the railing, then runs back to the noisy side.
Tom: (running) I don’t want to hear that!
Tom makes another trip back and forth across the road over the dam.
Teacher (to another child): Tristan, Tris, down.
Tom calls out as he returns to the noisy side, but his words cannot be understood.
Tom makes another trip from the noisy side to the quieter side of the dam.
Tom (standing at the railing on the quieter side): It’s not too loudy!
Teacher: It’s not so loud. It’s a lot quieter on this side.
Benchmarks
Benchmark |
Benchmark Description |
How Benchmark Was Met |
|---|---|---|
Math |
Show understanding of and use comparative words. |
Tom uses the comparative adverb “too” in his statement, “It’s not too loudy.” |
Math |
Describe qualitative change, such as measuring to see who is growing taller. |
Tom seems to be assessing changes in the volume of the sound of water on either side of the dam. He briefly describes the differences as “It’s not too loudy.” The teacher rephrases that statement with more precise language: “It’s not so loud. It’s a lot quieter on this side.” |
Science |
Show an awareness of changes that occur in themselves and their environment. |
Tom shows awareness of the changes in the level of sound on the two sides of the dam. He repeatedly varies his own location, suggesting that he is also checking the variation in volume from place to place on the same side. He comments about loudness at the end when he is on the quieter side. |
Science |
Describe the effects of forces in nature (e.g. wind, gravity and magnetism). |
Although he lacks the vocabulary to fully describe what he is learning about sound energy, Tom is fully engaged in finding out about it. |
Science |
Express wonder and ask questions about their world. |
Tom’s “wondering” is evident as he crosses repeatedly from one side to another; his body language suggests how deeply involved he is in this exploration of sound. He has not verbalized a question but the variation in sound level clearly is the focus of his interest. |
This section of the Illinois Early Learning Web site links to activities related to the Benchmarks in the Illinois Early Learning Standards. We expect that early childhood professionals and parents will use these ideas in ways appropriate to their children and their setting. We are sure that you will find many ways to adapt these activities into themes, projects, and units in your program or at home.
An Illinois Early Learning link to a Web site does not imply an endorsement by the Illinois Early Learning Project or the Illinois State Board of Education of any product, resource, or service on that Web site.
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