Whole Class Teaching

When I first started teaching children 3-4 years old, I mostly did whole class teaching. I knew better but it's funny how, in times of stress or faced with a new challenge, we regress - we go back to the old ways. That's what I did. 

The plan in the picture shows what I would do with the class over the course of the week. The parents wanted to know that we weren't just playing. One of the parents had complained that she saw her daughter playing in the classroom which is what she could have been doing at home (that's a blog post for another time).

Whole class teaching was hard! Even with 2 assistants and 21 kids. The kids needed help with the lid of the glue, or to get the stick cotton wool off their fingers. 

For cooking, I split the class into 2 groups. Half would stay in the classroom with the assistants while the other half went to the kitchen with me. But 10 kids is a lot to cook with.

Since then I've grouped the class into four groups of 5 or 6 in each group. It's a lot easier to manage, it's a lot more personalized and it's a lot more engaging for the children. Working with small groups means I can focus on developing each child's ideas, allowing room for individual experimentation. The product-type craft activities have been replaced with more process art type activities. 

Whole class teaching time is kept to around ten minutes. I am then able to work with small groups, getting to know the children on an individual basis. It is difficult to give each child the attention they need when teaching to the whole class.