2/25/10 -NDE

I observed at Notre Dame Elementary in De Pere as one of my non-structured environments.  After school, the children spend time in one of the classrooms before their parents come to pick them up.  Watching the children interact with one another was very different than my other experiences.  The children were in fourth grade, both boys and girls.  The interesting thing about them which I did not see in my observations of younger children was how they did not agree with anything they wanted to do.  Also, as they engaged in activities, nothing included any type of imaginary play.

Together, they would walk the room until they found something interesting they wanted to play with.  They found a puzzle and decided to put it together on the floor.  During their time putting this together, the girls sat across from the boys.  Also, the boys always fought with the girls about where certain pieces went.  The girls were very persistent, every time, about the boy being wrong.  Although things got very heated, no one yelled at each other or physically hurt anyone over this.

The children definitely showed gender differences in play.  The male and female separation was  impossible to miss and did create a few small problems.  These problems were overcame when the girls explained situations to the boys, and it appeared that the boys just accepted what they were told.

The boys tended to be a bit more explorative in the classroom as they children were finding things to do.  As they searched for things they would pick things up and play with them a  little, and be very precise about knowing exactly what all the gadgets were on the shelf and what they did.  The girls just shuffled through things quickly and laughed with each other as they did so.