Running Record

So for my Assessment in Early Childhood Education class, I had to sit down for 15-20 minutes and write down everything my study child (Anna) said and did, without making judgements or comments, trying to be as objective of a recorder as possible. This is called a running record. I have to go back in later and add in my comments/notes on the other side of the paper, and then I have to write a summary of comments to go along with it. But I thought this was pretty funny. I think everyone with kids should pick a time and just record everything they do and say for about 10 minutes, especially when they are completely engrossed in their play and ignoring you. I honestly don't think my kids realized I was at the table or paying any attention to them. It was pretty funny what went on while I wrote.

June 14, 2009 8:35 PM Recorder: Jamie Dooley
Child: ANNA DOB: 12/22/05
Setting: Anna and her 5-yr old brother Jonathan are at table creating people with Play-doh, using the Play-doh tub as the body, and adding various details such as hair, face, arms, legs, etc. with Play-doh.
J. drops his tub of Play-doh on floor. A. gets down from chair and picks up play-hoh from floor. A: Hey, you pick this up now! A. hands him the play-doh. J: Thank you. J. gets down from chair and looks in his craft bin. J: I need scissors to cut hair and my scissors aren’t in my bin. J: Anna, I can’t find my scissors and I want to trim my Play-doh hair. A: You can share my scissors, Bubba. J: OK, thanks. Waits for a minute while Anna continues to use scissors. J: OK, But I don’t want to share, actually. Can I have them? J takes scissors from A’s hands. A screams and says NO! But J has scissors and A starts to work on mixing Play-doh colors together instead. A says to her Dad, Can you open this please?
Dad does not hear her. He is working on computer. A: I want to mix the colors together! J: No, don’t mix the colors together! A: We not at Nona’s, Bubba! Mama don’t care, she said it okay! Anna again asks Dad to open Play-doh. He does not hear her. She screams at him loudly and flings the play-doh across the table. Dad says, Anna, you need to say please and ask nicely! She takes the open play-doh, and starts to mix the 2 colors together and roll them into little worm shapes. J: My boy has alien hair! It’s cool! J crashes his play-doh person into A’s Play-doh person. A: Hey! Don’t do that Bubba! I am making a grandma! I am making her hair and I am cutting her hair! I don’t want to play fighting! J: Where are your eyes, then?


A: Who are you, you have crazy hair? A. rolls her eyes and points at her brother’s creation.
J: Why don’t you even have a face?
A: I couldn’t make a face! J smacks her grandma person with his alien person. J: Oh No! My face got dirty with your face! A tries to pick off the pieces of Play-doh that transferred onto J’s Play-doh person. A then picks up another piece of Play-doh and starts to separate it into pieces and roll them on the table. A: I need better hair. I need rolly hair. A. takes playdoh and places it on her play-doh person’s head.
J: I made you an arm, Anna! A: Good, now we can shake hands! A and J take their play-doh arms and shake hands with them. A returns to cutting her play-doh up and then moves the scissors into her lap. J: Hey! Anna’s scissoring her legs! A: No, I not! I just pretending! J: Let me have them! Let me have them! A: NO! J: Fine, then I will take your lady! He takes her lady and moves it to his side of the table. J looks at the two figures and says: You don’t have any arms or legs or face! And I do! A looks at the two figures for a while, and then takes her Play-doh person back to her side of table and says: Can you shake hands? Pushes her figure towards J. A: Ok, shake hands! A. then takes large piece of dough and places it on top of her figures head. A: I made strong hair for mine! J: Is your hair supposed to be big? A: Yeah, I have big hair. Can we shake hands? I made a hand. J. does not respond. Anna rips off all the dough from her figure and says: I wanna make a new guy! Daddy, can you open this for me? He opens it for her, hands her the tub. A: Can I please have the lid too? J. looks at the new tub of play-doh and says: Purple, purple! Please can I have a whole bunch of purple? A: Sure. A gives him some. J: I want more! He reaches over and takes it from her. A: Hey!


J: I’m just going to take it! You have to share! A: I’ll be there in a minute! Walking in the water, walking in the water, she sings. A is pretending with her figure. J: You’re a crazy person, Anna. You’re a crazy person! You don’t have anything on you! (J is noticing that she has taken all the play-doh off her figure and is just using the empty tub to play with.) A: I don’t care! A. drops figure to side, goes back to playing with lumps of dough on table. A to J: I made another slide! J: Oh, good slide! J and A make small pieces of dough into little figures and send them down play-doh slides. The slide breaks. Both: Oh, no! J: It’s okay! It still works! It can still slide. A: Yeah, it’s okay It can work. J: Where does this slide even lead to? A: It lead to a different slide! I’m going to rip mine up so I can start again. She reaches for Play-doh. J: Do I need hair? A: Yeah, he needs hair. J: No, I don’t! A: You silly! Yeah you do! J: Oh, no! A worm just plunged into my eye! A: I will help you! Take worm away!A picks up scissors again. A: I’m gonna give mine a haircut! J: I wanna give mine a haircut! A: NOOOOOO! J takes scissors away. A: Ok! She tries to take scissors out of J’s hands. J. grabs them back. A:I NEED THEM! A. puts her face in her hands for a minute and stares at her brother. Then she picks up more play-doh and says, “I will make a hat instead.” She makes a hat shape and puts it on top of her Play-doh “grandma’s “ hair.
Stop recording: 8:50