NZ Teacher

Shells and cups were the provocation at the literacy (or science) center this week.  One group were interested in drawing the shells and cutting them out.  One child drew a lot of crabs (or small lines) on his paper and covered them over with the cups and shells. He decided he needed some bigger covers.  " I have an idea," I said and went to the home center and found a pot and lid. He asked if he could go and get another one, which he did. Independence, decision making, fine motor skills, communication, invention, discovery to list a few of the skills being explored from such a simple provocation.

The shells were on the table for the children to explore. Most of the children put the shell to their ear to find out if they could 'hear the ocean'. The sense of smell was explored. A couple of the children wanted to take a shell home with them. Why not?  The value of 'found objects' is that they can be easily replaced and they're free. 

A group of children used the magnetic blocks to make a dinosaur house.  They wanted to "keep it". This big plate was in our home center. The children helped remake the dino house onto the plate. We then displayed it on the small table in the corner of the classroom where, previously, the dino rocket had been.  See  dino-rocket . 

I announced to my team that I'm not very good with bulletin boards because they are "a foreign concept".  I've been away from New Zealand for more than ten years so I wondered if it was still true.  I googled "Bulletin board New Zealand" and found pictures that were from American schools.  We don't do bulletin boards in New Zealand.  Why not? Our walls are for the children's work.  When asked if I was going to "do your bulletin board" (the one outside my classroom) my reply was, "I thought I'd just leave up what's there." What there was a piece of art done by a group of children at the end of the school year, mostly to use up the old paints.  One of the new children asked about the piece of art during his school visit. "What's that?"  I replied, "It's a painting. Some children did it with brushes and combs." It's true, they had used combs on the paint. He added, "And the...

Big and small dinosaurs were put into the classroom as an invitation, after a group had chanted, "Dino Rocket, Dino Rocket." The children colored the bottom of boxes to make a 'home' for the dinosaurs. A big red dinosaur was too big for any of the boxes in the room. "I wonder what we could use for the big dinosaur," I said looking around (I wondered if I should bring some bigger cardboard boxes into the room). A. spotted a wicker basket sitting on the table. It was the basket we'd used to store the big dinosaurs in. A.went and got the basket. He  gave it to B. who was the child with the big dinosaur. B. started to color the bottom of the wicker basket, just like they group of children had been coloring the bottom of the cardboard boxes. I didn't need to ask him to stop because the wicker basket was one I'd found on the side of the road, put out as garbage. I'd taken it (and 2 others) home, washed them in the bath and left them ou...

"Dino Rocket, Dino Rocket," I heard a group of children chant. They had made a rocket using magnetic blocks and they wanted to keep it. I helped them put it onto the (Handwriting Without Tears) blue mat, put it on the small table and leave it out on display. The Dino Rocket stayed there over night. The next day it was broken. It has been built again. And the group of children at thinking about building it right onto the small table. A flexible classroom environment means that furniture can be moved around and used by the children for what they need.

Most children will happily choose something that interests them from the activities on offer in the classroom. One boy, on his second day at school, said, "I'm bored."  He'd previously said that the song '1,2,3,4,5 Once I Caught a Fish Alive' was for babies so I am aware I need to provide some challenges for him. I invited him to take a seat at the table. I put a piece of paper in front of him.  He asked, "What do I draw?" I looked out the window, at the car park, and answered, "You Dad's car."  "How do I draw a car?" he asked. "I don't know," I said and walked away. A couple of minutes later he came to me with his picture. "Ow, interesting car," I said. "It's not a car. It's a submarine. Two small submarines. And two big submarines." He then moved on to play with a group of children who had the dinosaurs at a table. I wonder if he'll be bored again in the ...