NZ Teacher

It looked interesting from the beginning.  Legs and arms and a head were added. Cylinders for the eyes was a fabulous touch. Mat Man like you've never seen him before. There's always an opportunity to access these blocks for when the inspiration takes hold. 

When there are plants growing in the room there's a chance that they'll be knocked over and make a mess. It happened.  It gave one of the children a worthwhile motor development opportunity. The brush and shovel was given to him. "Shovel? It's not a shovel," said one of the children.

There were only 7  music instruments (a hand drum, a wooden xylophone, a triangle, castanets, cymbals and a shaker) so one of the children picked up two of the metal pots that were in the Home Center to use.  Innovation, sense of community, problem solving. The  children then followed the leader who had the triangle while a familiar  song "The Ants Go Marching" was played.

We used blocks that are designed to be used on a light table. They were made of brittle plastic that, when they fell down, made a loud noise on the Formica table.  So we used a table cloth to soften the fall. After the small group of children had played with the blocks they sorted them into different types. This led them to create more 3-D creations, putting blocks together in color groups or types.

The bulletin boards in my classroom no longer have the same work done by individual children. Instead it had different work done by individual children. It shows the value of the individual. It shows that each child has different strengths and interests.  It shows a child's thinking through their recordings of what they have said about different topics. It included photos with captions and drawings with captions. There are pictures without captions. And there are recordings of children's thoughts without pictures. 

The leader of the group had the triangle and the others followed.  The song "The Ants Go Marching" is familiar to the class. It was played so that there was a beat to march to. One of the children blocked the line and negotiations had to happen. Communication, leadership, music, and a sense of community all in this child initiated music experience.

Building the tallest tower is always appealing. This time we had borrowed the magnetic blocks from the classroom next door.  The tower was so tall that stools and chairs were needed to stand on to add blocks to the top of the tower. There was talk about the different highs of the chairs.  Mathematical language, communication, cooperation, physical development.