Mack was playing in the sandpit when he found a tipper truck and a toy excavator, he begun making brrm noises using the excavator to put sand into the tipper truck. He then drove the tipper truck across the sandpit and tipped off the sand. 

He said, ‘little wellow truck’ as he held the tipper in his hand and pointed at a bigger tipper and said ‘big wellow truck’.
Mack continued filling the truck and tipping the sand into the one spot causing a pile up of sand.

Observation 2

Brileigh was playing in the sandpit counting the shovels of sand as she shovelled the sand using her right hand into a yellow bucket while her left hand held the bucket steady, she was counting each shovel of sand as she placed it into the bucket 'One, two, Three, Five, Six'.  Once the bucket got full, she said ‘Pat, Pat, Pat’.

She then said ‘yellow’ as she pointed at the bucket and held up the shovel she was holding and said ‘Boo’

Observation 3

Cooper was in the sandpit grabbing handfuls of sand, looking at them and rubbing the sand between his fingers he didnt have much expression on his face. An educator approached him and showed him a plastic sieve and demonstrated what happens when you put sand in it. He copied the educators’ actions, putting his hands under the sieve to catch the sand, this time placing it in the bucket with a little smirk on his face. 

The children were able to use the sand as part of their imaginative play, Mack was exploring the sand by digging it up and placing it into the tipper truck, Children transfer and adapt what they have learned from one context to another. (Department of Education and Training, 2009 page 39 ). Mack and Brileigh were able to extend on their cognitive development by using language to explain the colours that were involved in their play, Mack also used describing words such as ‘big & small’  This refers back to the second stage of Piaget’s theory the Preoperational Stage of Cognitive Development,  one of the developmental stages the child develops is Toddlers and young children acquire the ability to internally represent the world through language and mental imagery.

All three children through these observations used the sand to support their fine motor development by gripping items such as sieves, buckets, trucks and shovels. They extended on their hand eye coordination by putting the sand into buckets or into the tipper truck. Cooper was able to explore the different textures of the sand through rubbing the sand in his hands before and after putting it through the sieve supporting his sensory development.

In Reggio Emilia theory he mentions that the environment plays a very important role into a child’s development that he defined the environment the 3rd teacher.  Each child used the sand differently as part of their play but all using it to support their learning. According to Vygotsky theory ‘Children learn best not when they are isolated, but when they interact with others, particularly more knowledgeable others who can provide the guidance and encouragement to master new skills’ Meaning that children learn best through play.

Through these observations I can see that all 3 children were learning through play. 

Mooney, CG 2013, Theories of childhood: an introduction to Dewey, Montessori, Erikson, Piaget, and Vygotsky, 2^nd ed, Redleaf Press, Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States, Visited on 17 October 2022

Simply psychology, Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development, https://www.simplypsychology.org/piaget.html, Visited on 20 October 2022