Doing the Observation:
1.Choose an early learning environment. Please note that for this assignment, I loosely define early learning environment as anywhere that young children might have an opportunity to learn something. Thus, parks, playgrounds, children’s museums, homes, childcare centers, and pre-schools all count as early learning environments.
2.Pick a time when children are likely to be present and you can focus for a half-hour.
3.Observe, and as you are observing take field notes. Do NOT collect video or audio data! However, taking a picture of the setting is encouraged (preferably without children present).
a.First, describe the setting. Whos there? Whats there?
b.Next, pick one child to focus on. Subtlety is key to naturalistic observation. If you stare intently at a child you don’t know, nervous (and possibly angry) parents may accost you with questions and/or leave.
c.Observe your focal child for at least 20 minutes. As you are observing your child, take notes. What is s/he doing? What is s/he saying? Who is s/he interacting with? How long does s/he engage in an activity? Focus on what you see and hear. Try to suspend judgment. Take notes on anything that seems relevant to you. Keep in mind that as you write up your paper you will likely want a lot of details.
d.As you are observing, do your best not to disrupt the childs natural activity. If you become involved in the childs activity, youll need to document your interaction in your notes.

Typing Your Notes:
First describe the setting and your focal child. MAKE SURE TO USE PSEUDONYMS for all people and places! Next, break up your notes into multiple episodes. It is likely that your child did several different things over the course of 20 minutes. For example, she went down a slide, and then went to her mom and got a cracker, and then played in the sand. Describe each of these things as separate episodes. Again, focus on separating your objective observations (what you see and hear) from your subjective judgments. When typing up your field notes, you should follow the format below.

1.The Setting: Describe the setting (short paragraph)
2.My Focal Child: Describe the child including your best guess of the childs age (short paragraph)
3.Episode 1: What did the child do first? (objective and subjective)
4.Episode 2: What did the child do next? (objective and subjective)
5.Keep describing each episode. If you have more than 10, just stop at 10.

Writing the Paper:
Write a brief paper (about 3 pages) that links your childs behavior with the Washington State Guidelines and an empirical research article.