NZ Teacher

This group was presented with an apple and a pear. We had to wash our hands before eating them. A. said, "We have to wash the apple." I told him I'd already washed it. He replied, "But there's no water on it." I told him it was dry, then realized I should let him go and wash it, the same way we washed our hands. So he did. B. had an apple in his hand and said, "I need a manifying glass." He went and got the magnifying glass to look at the apple and he shared it with the other children at the table so they could look too. C. is new to speaking English. I cut the apple into pieces for him and counted 1,2,3,4. I realized that I should learn the Polish numbers to help connect with him. I asked: Do you like apples? Do you like pears? Do you like falling down the stairs? Do you like white? Do you like pink? Do you like falling down the sink? Would you like to do that. "No, you'd get hurt?" said D. B. talked about the app...

"We don't teach phonics but they learn letters and their sounds."  That's what I heard myself say when a parent asked if we teach phonics.  I pointed to the name labels on the tables and told her that we're always talking about letters and their sounds, like the sounds in their names.  I pointed to the alphabet puzzles and the magnetic letters which had been incorporated into the home center play. On display is the recipe book, A-Z of recipes, that we will make over the year. It is through their play that the children begin to connect letters to the sounds they make.  We don't teach phonics but they learn letters and their sounds through play. We don't teach phonics when the environment, or the third teacher, does it so beautifully.

During registration day today, one of the girls in my class came in with her older sister. They went straight to the OHP and began to experiment with the 3D transparent shapes.  The older sister turned to me as said, "She must be thinking, what's that?"  That is exactly what I want the children to be doing when they come into the classroom.  To be interested, to ask questions, to discover. 

Towards the end of the school year I took an easel and chart paper into the classroom. It wasn't for me to use.  The classroom belongs to the children and (almost) everything that can be seen is for the children to use.  That includes the easel and chart paper. The artist in the room spent hours at the easel drawing her creations.

"OK everyone. It's time to stop playing." "We're not playing. We're making." When we listen to the children we hear the truth.  The truth is that play is important.  It's through play that children make, create, communicate, problem solve, and so much more.  We just need to listen to the children and we hear the truth about play.

How do we stop someone touching what we've made?  We can make a stop sign.  I modeled how to make one and then some of the children made their own. Stop is such a great word. Great phonics. Great purpose. Great meaning.

Last year I introduced ceramic dishes into the home center - some  old plates,cups and bowls. One day a bowl fell off the shelf and broke.  Someone said, "You broke it."  "I  didn't break it, it dropped," said the kid who was playing with the bowl. And from that we learn that there is no point in blaming someone for breaking something.  Things break. Usually when they're dropped.