NZ Teacher

The children always have access to paper of different colors. There are felt tip pens for them to use - different colors as well as thick and thin ones. The scissors are on hard. There are envelopes on the top of the paper trays as well. These resources lead to self-directed learning. The children choose to cut, draw, write messages and sometimes put them into envelopes.

In the middle of the classroom is a shelf. The wooden blocks were on another shelf at the side of the room and weren't being used. When they were moved to the middle of the room, and displayed on the shelf, they were more visible and accessible for the children. Dinosaur enclosures were made. Social skills, spatial skills, creativity and design.

Most of the resources we have available to use in the classroom have multiple colors. Taking out a couple of the colors (such as red and orange), or limiting the resource to a couple of colors, has many advantages and makes the resource more attractive. Limiting the choice of colors on offer to the children limits the number of resources that could be dumped and gives an appearance of pattern. The products the children make are more visually appealing than if they were multi-colored.

E. has enjoyed making Mat Man (from the resource Handwriting Without Tears). He has also enjoyed the book, "No David" written by David Shannon. He was making Mat Man then decided to make David. "He needs teeth," he said as he looked at the book, at the picture of David with his sharp teeth. We used stones. Sharp stones. Like the sharp teeth David has. Many uses for stone.

When one of the children started to use a wooden dice, which made lots of noise as it was rolled onto the table, I replaced it with one of a set of 5 foam dice I had in the cupboard.  I took the 5 foam dice out of the cupboard and put them into a tub, making them available for the children to play with. The 5 dice have been explored as a cube, recognizing the number of dots, numbers more and less, same & different. 

A group of children were told to get 5 Lego blocks and make something with them. 5 wasn't enough. They all wanted one or two more. Some of the children drew a model of what they'd made. Concept of number, space, creating something new.

A paper with the words "No Breaking" was needed when a group of children made the tallest tower so far this year. The paper was attached to the tower using the magnetic blocks. We had borrowed extra blocks from the classroom next door which enabled the group to make the tallest tower. Lots of measurement language: taller, bigger, more. And an expression of desire, "We need the 'No Breaking' sign."