Aussie Childcare Network Forum

Hi all,
I'm doing my observations assignment. We have to do 5 different type of observations on 4 children. Now I'm in the babies room, as I'm group leader in there half the week, so I'm observing babies.
So far I have done these Obs -- ancedotal record, running record, time sample and checklist.
Now I'm trying to figure out what to do for the 5th OB. I've got fine motor to do for this OB and I did two activities with the babies -- finger painting yellow on ducks and playing with yellow play dough. I've got photos of the children who I'm observing. So I'm wondering if a photo observation would be sufficient for this development area??

I would put a small narrative saying we had a yellow themed week in the room and we got the babies to finger paint a picture of a duck and play with yellow playdough. Then say specifically how the child participated in the activity, focusing on the fine motor development.

Does this sound right??

Hi there
I think what you are planning sounds great & you are covering many different forms of obs this way. You could set up the photo ob as a learning story - just a suggestion - if you have photos of different parts of the activity.
There is lots on this site about learning stories that could help.
CAthie

Thanks.
I actually checked with my TAFE teacher and she said that I can use photos but I still need to do a form of observation eg ancedotal, running record, diary entry. I've only got diary entry or event sample obs left to choose from so I decided I would do the diary entry. I checked if that was ok with my teacher as well and she is happy. So just have to get the photos from work and then I can complete it all.

Just a side note - if you do get photos of your work, make sure you have permission from parents and centre to include the children in your photos.

I actually work at the centre as babies group leader now and got the permission from parents to observe and take photos, so all good for that
Thanks

I actually read this assignment again and I totally missed where i had to do emotional development area as well I've already done 5 areas - social, cognitive, language, fine motor and gross motor so I'm going to ask if I have to do the emotional or if I can combine the social with emotional because my obs for social have all got emotional things in them, being its babies I observed.
Just so annoyed at myself that I didn't read the assignment criteria right Grrr!!!