Dolls House Gets Made into a Jail

They wanted to use the wooden strips to stick to the house. We had some sticky dots which the children were able to use to attach the wooden strips to make the dolls house into a jail.

It became a collaborative project and something we, the teachers, had not envisioned.

The joy of letting the children lead is seeing what they decide to do at any given moment.

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Tape Man

Some of the children put blue tape over their mouth. Usually I would have said something like, "Take the tape off your mouth. It's not for putting on your mouth." Instead I thought of Tape Man (with some pride, being from New Zealand). I thought of creativity. I thought of art. So we sat together for whole group time, some with tape on their mouth. I said, "I've got something to show you." When they first say him one of them said, "It's scary." I reassured them that it's not too scary and that he's being funny. So they started to laugh. Pretty soon there was no more tape on mouths (not that I minded if there was, it's just hard to laugh). Thank you Tape Man for reminding us that creativity begins with exploration in play.

Changing Spaces

The blocks were in tubs on the shelf in the center of the room. It was time for a change, so the blocks were put onto the shelf by the OHP, providing a more enclosed space for the children to build with the blocks. One of the children spent time building a structure. After he has finished, he was able to leave it there for a while, and later in the day he was able to put the blocks back on the shelf where he had found them. Changing spaces creates new opportunities.

Art Table

It's always there. It's always available. It's a popular part of the classroom. The art table is kept stocked with pens, scissors, glue sticks, sticky table, stapler and of course...tons of paper. Paper of different sizes, shapes and color. We add anything else we find that might be interesting for a child to use for an art project. When a child has finished their project they decide what they would like to do with it - take it home, display it on the wall, or give it to me, the teacher. There is always something going on at the art table. Something new, something creative, something interesting.

NZ Teacher

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