Refrences:-

Burris, Kathleen Glascott. "Preschoolers' Play Behaviors With Peers in Classroom and Playground Settings. (Research Into Practice)." Journal of Research in Childhood Education 15.2 (Spring-Summer 2001): 270(2). General OneFile. Gale. Rochester Hills Public Library. 21 Mar. 2009
http://find.galegroup.com/ips/start.do?prodId=IPS
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Gale Document Number:A80711104




Dunn, Judy and Hughes, Claire (mar/April 2001). “ I got some Swords and You’re Dead!” Violent Fantasy, Antisocial Behavior, Friendship, and Moral Sensibility in Young Children. Child development, Vol. 72, No; 2, PG 491-505

Goodenough, E.(2007)where do Children play? Ruth mott Foundation, Michigan Television

Goodenough ,E. (2008) . Aplace for play. Published by The national Institute for Play.

Greenfield, Cheryl. "What is it about the monkey bars?(playing outdoors)(Report)." Early Childhood Folio 11 (Annual 2007): 31(5). Academic OneFile. Gale. Rochester Hills Public Library. 21 Mar. 2009
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Gale Document Number:A175444924



Keefer, Laura,R., (2006) Defiant Behavior in Two-and Three-yrs-olds: A Vygotskian Approach. Early Child hood Education Journal.Vol.33.No.2.EJ74027
http://eric.ed.gov:80/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=EJ747027&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=EJ747027



Lowell,C. Beyond The Lorax? The Greening of the American
Curriculum, Phi Delta Kappan, Vol. 90, No. 03, November 2008, pp.
218-222.
http://www.pdkmembers.org/members_online/publications/Archive/pdf/k

Levenson, L. Richard, and Herman, Jack (1991). THE USE OF ROLE PLAYING AS A TECHNIQUE IN THE PSYCHOTHERAPY OF CHILDREN. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, practice, Training American Psychological Association. Vol. 28, No. 4


Spinard, T,L., Eisenberg,N., Harris, E., Hanish,L., Fabes,R,A., Kupanoff,K., Ringwald,S., and Holmes,J. (2004). The Relation of Children’s Everyday Nonsocial Peer Play behavior to Their emotionality, Regulation, and Social Functioning. Developmental Psychology, Vol.40, No. 1, 67-80.

my reference list which is growing very fast as i am reading lot of articles and books related to my subject.

Importance of out door play.

After meeting with Shannan and my group members the other day and discussing about my research topic, Experience with nature and out door play promotes social and emotional development. It is exciting and overwhelming when i come to know of so much about the importance of outdoor play. As i have been encouraging and supportive to outdoor play and experience with nature of children. When i went to Italy last year and learned a lot about Reggio approach.basically in Reggio approach they let the children experience nature a lot, and children learn through nature. Teachers make daily plans according to children's aptitudes and they are children led activities. I learned there how children are more involved in learning with natural resources. When i returned ,i attended Lella Gandini's & Jeanne Goldhaber's lectures at WSU, both emphasized on outdoor play and how to document them. Also out door play is more beneficial for children in social and emotional developmental aspects along with other aspects of development. As our lives are getting busier with the passage of time, we are neglecting our future generation. We adults provide all kind of toys and video games to our children but deprive them of environment and nature.

Journal #3 playing outdoors and children's view/interview quetions.

Journal # 3
After meeting with all my group members and Shannan, my thoughts became much clear about the interviewing a child.When i read the chapter 5&6 it was helpful to me to understand to be a good interviewer of children.A good interviewer possess following qualities,
Characteristics of a good interviewer
*develops rapport with youth.
*genuinely demonstrates empathy with youth.
*Calms an anxious,shy,or hostile young person.
*Invites and responds to youth questions and concerns during the interview.
*Allows the youth to participate in setting the direction of and strategies within the interview.
*uses appropriate language and sentence structure.
*Ask open ended questions and follow up questions to encourage youth to tell their story.
*and most important, Gets an interview back on track when a young person becomes fixated on one question or responds in a silly way.
as well as the questions to be asked can be useful if they are:
1. Direct and personal.
2. Indirect and concerte.
3,Indirect,personal,concrete,and connected to emotions.
from all of this information i felt very confident in developing a format of interviewing children in my day care.
I used photoelicitation technique of interviewing because the age of my day care children is 2 1/2 yrs to 3 1/2 yrs.
and in this age they usually get diverted from one situation to another very quickly.
But when i showed them the out door and indoor activities in which they were involved, they just got very interested in recalling the events and talked about it freely and openly. They were all very excited when i asked them
1. what were you doing in this picture do you remember?
2. along with talking about the events i asked them did you enjoy in the snow when you were making snow balls? I instantly got the attention of Tommy and 3 1/2 yrs old and he was very eager to answer and tell the story of incidents in his words. He said, " Remember when we were playing with glue and we made paper plates for mommy",(paper Musche')so i asked did you enjoy working with glue? he said , "yeah" but it was very sticky". "but i like it appi, i made plate for mommy".next when he saw the pictures on tree in fall time and in winter, he laughed and said, " i like it outside appi"and lets go outside now.I asked but we did have fun making plates didn't we? you said you had fun doing that. so did you have more fun out side or inside? Instantly he replied, " outside".I like that tree it's like my horse" i said where is your teacher and he laughed , said , "you were taking pictures appi". hahha." you don't remember"." remember when we went outside in snow it was cold and i ate snow". i asked did you enjoy more in snow or when snow was not there.He replied , 'I like it outside" we had fun all time".he said, It was cold in winter, remember we had plastic bag because i did not have boots." i laughed because it was true, he forgot to bring snow boots and we put plastic bags on his shoes and he was all set.
I had following questions in my mind on the basis i made him talk and although he did talk about his different experiences related to these incidents.and lately we did go out and tracked the deer hoof tracks and deer poop. when we did see the video i made, Tommy was very excited to share his experiences.
The questions i had in my mind were,

1.Do you like to play indoors or outdoors?

2.what do you enjoy most outside?Like to play on slide,trees, sand box,running and playing What do you like?

3.Why do you like to play outdoors or indoors?(i asked according to child's previous answer)

4.What does your teacher do with you outside?

5.Do you like to play alone or with your friends outside?

6.What is your favortie play   indoors?

7. If you cannot go outside because of weather what do you play with your friends, or do you like to play alone?

8.Do you enjoy playing indors as much you enjoy playing outdoors.

9.what do you play with your mom and dad, do you like going on picnics and nature walks?

I noticed children are more tolerant while playing outdoors with their friends and they are more playing in groups and sharing better. through all the information i learned, i enjoy more interacting and interviewing children in different ways.But with young ones drawing and photoelicitation approach seems very much workable with young children.

journal #2

Journal # 2
Agenda
As being a group home day care provider and an ex-elementary teacher . I have always been interested in hands on activities and children learning through nature. I always observe when children are playing outdoors they enjoy more and are more creative. It seems as if they are also part of nature . Children are more involved in their play outdoors rather than indoors. I noticed if an infant is cranky or fussy and if we take them outside ,they right away becomes quite and calm down mostly unless they are very sick. It has been always of interest to me to understand children’s perspective towards their adults around them and also about the world , how they feel about what is going on around them ? and learn about children’s perspective and connection with nature and their surroundings.
As I read through chapters 5 and 6 in "Researching Children's Experiences" book, it was interesting to learn how children behave in different situations. As we interview children as a group we see how they react socially and consider the situation as a group. They do care for the choices of their friends and do contradict with the opinions of those they do not get acquainted with. In contrast, when we interview them as an individual they are more responsive about their own feelings and focus what they want, rather than copying what others in the group say. In groups they tend to show some of their inner feelings about other members of the group, as well as friendship and liking for the friends. It becomes interesting when children are given chance to show their capability to take the responsibility of communication and expression. It is beneficial for the researchers to let children participate in their research, because they get the most clear information of the child’s thoughts and how they interpret the world around them and feel about the adult actions and express what they feel for the individual adults in their life. As a teacher of very young children at a day care, I asked my young friends to express their feelings and how they see me. We played an interview game and took turns in interviewing each other. E said “I like you singing the songs for us and when you play with cars and bat man.“ Appi like your scarf too. He said after a pause saying, “ huuuummm---- you play hide and seek and I like that too. I also like you appi”. And gives hugs. Which tells a lot which he couldn’t express in words. Then it was my turn to give interview to him. I told him I like him because he is my friend and he is sweet and caring to his friends and I love him because he gives me the nicest hugs. Then rest of the children became very excited for giving interviews and started asking for turns. I felt as if they did gain confidence in expressing their thought and ice is broken. It was interesting to know how they felt about each other and me. As researcher we can learn a lot from children’s honest reflections about their surroundings. As one of the students expressed about one of the children and said about him, “I like him and he is my friend but he pushes very hard and sometimes bites and then he is not my friend”. Children do enjoy watching their interviews that I record and laughs about that and feels good about their expression. I sense as if they feel a burden lifted from them and they have expressed what they always wanted to say. They do feel good in participating in my study ‘cause they know I am studying and they are helping me. As it is in the chapter 6 interviews can be of different forms but I usually prefer informal form of interviews with very young ones so they feel relaxed and express their true thoughts. While interviews sometimes some of the children like to draw pictures also and want me to add it in my book (notes) that I write and they like it. Ethan asked me, Are you going to write it or not. I answered I will if you allow me and help me to write your interview as every one does on TV, when they take the interviews. He said yes do write and I will draw a picture for you to use it.I said ok. As it is mentioned in stimulus drawing approach, with young children I believe it is very good approach because sometimes it is better for them to draw what they have in mind rather than use words initially. It is easier for them to see visually what they have in mind and express about it in words. Also I like to use photo elicitation interviews. I take lot of pictures and ask the children about the incidents in the pictures, having specific questions in my mind related to my research topic. My research topic is related to the experience with environment and outdoor play develops social and emotional skills in children. I showed children their pictures I took playing outdoors and how did they feel and what was the experience they were experiencing while they were outdoors. It was interesting to get back their feed back. Sometimes it is very different what an adult feel about the incident and thinks how a child must be thinking.
As I have always been interested in children learning through nature and environment around them I encourage my young group to talk and ask questions what comes to their minds about things going on around them. I give them confidence for asking questions and to be heard. I plan my activities along with children, depending on their new interests and what they want to explore next. I enjoy asking them and learning what they want to do as a group. If the weather does not allow we do activities related to nature but indoors and enjoy. Learning from children I have become more patient/better listener and observant, and this helps me in my research project. As we need to be more patient with each others opinions and learn more and better as a group. Often times we have to let others take the lead and follow them and other times give our opinions and be leaders. In this way I think we all grow into better teachers as researchers.
As we are moving on in our journey of learning and research, we do come across lot of theories every time. This teaches me to be thinking more like a researcher in my professional and academic life. I notice my children’s activities and their behaviors more closely and according to these observations and documentations I develop my theories. I have been always more focused about the effects of environment on children and their experience with nature, as it does promote children to develop socially and emotionally as well as physically. When I started my research part 1 class, I was keen to work on finding and developing theories to diffuse anger through outdoor play, but ultimately by narrowing down my topic and listening to other classmates I decided on working experience of children with environment and outdoor play. Whenever I look at the pictures I tool with my students outdoors previously, I now see them differently as I have learned from different research studies how environment effects children socially and emotionally. Now when I see children play outdoors I am always thinking as a researcher and I notice how happy and creative children are when they are outside. I talk with parents and provide them with information about the benefits of outdoor play and children’s experience with environment. I do explain them children playing side by side with nature is along with play a great learning source for children and adults as well. Often parents tell me my child does play with his toys, I always tell them children climbing trees ,playing in mud /sand and jumping in puddles makes a difference in play. This is true play, through which they are learning as well as teaching their adults as well. I am certain by this research project we will become more beneficial for community and better teachers.

journal #1

journal #1

Journal #1

1. Describe your understanding of what is expected from this assignment, by the end of the term.

As of lately I have been very uncertain of what to understand from this assignment and what I am expected to do. Especially the previous topic of my research was very vast, I had to narrow it down but still I was confused. So after discussing it with Shannan I have changed my topic. As I have always been very much determined about the importance of outdoor play and children’s experience with the nature. My previous topic was also related with out door play and nature experiences and anger in children. I have changed it to, “children’s experience with nature and outdoor play promotes emotional and social development in children”.

I understand from this assignment, we are required to find and focus on specific topic related to children and then document it accordingly on daily basis by observing children closely. The goal of this assignment is to research in specific area of children related issue and make it visible through photos, videos, anecdotes, children interviews, and general observations of the settings and surroundings. This all should revolve around the research topic that we choose, and in the end write a reflective qualitative paper on the topic, explaining in detail, the thoughts and observations we did throughout the process and strategies we use to promote what we want to promote, like in my topic I promote outdoor play and experience with nature to promote social emotional development. Also provide references and feed backs from other resources and the provide the conclusions that were reached.

2.Reflect on what strengths, knowledge and ability you bring to this and how it might influence the way in which your journal is constructed.

I always love to capture moments of children’s life in my digital camera and also video tape children.In that way I get very true picture with emotions and in children’s own words. Later I document them in there portfolios. I always did it with my own children and with my day care children.It’s very interesting to see them through the eyes of camera later on and share the experince of children with children by showing them their pics. and videos. It is another interesting part of collecting information for the journal when children talk about their own experiences while watching their own photos or videos. After reading the article posted about reflective journal and finding more about how to write a reflective journal and what is a reflective journal, I feel confident enough, and feels I can do it and will do it good. And I am excited to share my reflective journal.

2. List things you need to investigate, learn more about to be able to use this qualitative form of research.

The most important thing comes to my mind that I need most to find, are authentic articles to support my topic. Also how to compile my whole qualitative research/ reflective paper properly, so everyone understands my point of view clearly. Along with this I need to investigate, do I need to explain in conclusion what is the end result we found or the change we see after applying certain strategies related to our research topic? Do we need to show results or we just have to document and provide a reflective paper? I am little confused here.

Me and my strongest Support ,My husband.

My husband is my most strongest support in my work and studies. I admire and respect him.
As well as all my four children are also very supportive of my mission and cause,to help children gain the best of education since infancy.They all helped me in my work and studies. They were my best critics, and editors as well as my tutors. I admire my team and Pray it stays as strong and close as it is ,always. Ameen. I am blessed!
 I believe without a strong and close team you cannot strive or progress. Team work and trust among team members is especially important.

I have always been interested in writing a blog, even tried it once but couldn't keep it up. My dear son my friend Khalid introduced me to blog and he is a good blogger. But now i think since our prof. Shannan Mc Nair has introduced us to blog , i think i will surely keep it up. It is required for our journal writing for class .It isinteresting and good to comunicate with other fellow students as well as see ones own progress in research journal writing. So wish me good luck.