Fieldwork Experience

Turtle Rock Community Park

1 Sunnyhill Drive, Irvine, CA 92603
Serves: Elementary school (kindergarten-sixth grade)
The Program is run at an Irvine community park building (Turtle Rock Community
Park). This building is a place for local residents of the area to connect, and offers
community convenience by offering such things as exercise classes to their schedule. But,
this building mainly serves as the Afterschool Program for three local elementary schools
(Turtle Rock, Bonita Canyon, and Vista Verde), Monday-Friday from 2-6pm, and non-school
days, 7:30am-6pm.
The program uses many rooms in the building, including a multi-purpose room, a
larger craft room, and a smaller room. The program also takes advantage of their small
outdoor play area, which includes areas for basketball, handball, jump rope, playing with
large blocks, etc. There is also a kitchen on site. The older students (fourth-sixth grade)
mainly use the larger craft room, while the younger students (kindergarten-third grade)
mainly use the smaller room.
Students
Demographics:
o Race/Ethnicity: Caucasian (~30 students), African American (~2 students),
Asian (~15), Middle Eastern (~5 students), Other (~the rest)
o Ages: approximately 5-13
o SES: Most students come from middle-class, working families
Numbers: On a daily basis, on average, approximately 25-55 students are served.
General Observation of Student Needs:
o More discipline from the staff regarding their behavior
Some students got away with bad behavior, and were only scolded
once with no follow-up
These students need stricter discipline from the staff
o More stimulation (such as more challenging activities)
Some students seemed bored at times simply because of the lack of
challenging tasks
These students need to be challenged mentally to continue to
learn and excel
Staff

Demographics:
o Race/Ethnicity: Caucasian (~8 staff members), African American (~2 staff
members), Asian (~1 staff member), Other (~the rest)
o Ages: unknown, assume to be between 18-35 years
o SES: unknown, assume to be of middle class

Numbers: On average, there are about 8 staff members on site working with the
students each day
General Observations:
o Strengths: seemed to be able to connect well with the students and form
close relationships; displayed interest and enthusiasm while connecting with
each student; staff communicated well with each other
o Needs: Staff needs to be firm and implement behavior plan in a more
consistent manner (reprimands were very inconsistent), follow through with
their statements (such as telling the students to be quiet and focus on
homework during homework time, and actually enforcing this statement
upon the students who are misbehaving)

Daily Schedule
2-2:30pm: Inside Free Play
o Students arrive to the program at different times
o Students are in the larger craft room playing board games, card games,
drawing, playing with toys, etc.
2:30-3pm: Outside Free Play
o Students are able to continue drawing or crafting, or they have the option of
playing handball, basketball, jump rope, tag, or play with building blocks
3-3:30pm: Reading
o The students are split up into two groups (kindergarten-third grade and
fourth-sixth grade) and go to separate rooms (the larger craft room for the
older grades and the smaller room for the younger grades)
o One staff member reads a book to each group (they usually have one chapter
book that they continue reading each day until it is complete, then move on
to the next one)
3:30-4:30pm: Homework
o Students stay in their separated classrooms and work on homework
o When students are done with homework, they have to read a book quietly
until the end of the homework hour
o The staff tries their best to keep the rooms quiet during homework time
4:30-5:15pm: Passive or Active Activity
o Passive activity: an art project or craft
Usually takes place in the larger craft room
o Active activity: a physical game, such as dodge ball
Takes place in the large multi-purpose room
5:15-5:45pm: Inside Free Play
o Once again, students are in the larger craft room playing board games, card
games, drawing, playing with toys, etc.
5:45-6pm: Clean up
o Students clean up the larger craft room (they put away their board games,
cards, crafts, etc.) and wait to be picked up before 6pm

Resources/References
http://www.cityofirvine.org/cityhall/cs/commparks/cparks/cparks_turtle.asp
http://www.cityofirvine.org/cityhall/cs/commparks/after_school_programs.asp