NZ Teacher

That's a lot of strips. I looks like more than 5 to me. Can I count them to find out how many there are? I'd like the children in my class to feel that we are learning together. I don't want to spend time asking them questions that sound like I am assessing them.  Questions like:  How many?  Show me one more?  Can you hold up 3 fingers?  The question "Can you hold up 3 fingers for me?" is one that makes me cringe. Why would a child want to do that? Would they want to do that to please the teacher (for me). It's not showing that we are learning together.  There are questions we can ask which are more collaborative. Instead of: Can you count the apples? I prefer to ask something like: Do we have enough apples for everyone? (in a group of 5 or 6). I think there are 5 triangles. Am I right? Let's find out. I think you've got more than me? Let's see if we can make the train tracks go all the way to the door. I wonder if we'll hav...

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.