Creating With Wire

A while ago I collected some different images of artists work that I wanted to share with the children to expose them to new media and ways of expressing themselves.

Last week we talked about the wire sculptures by Johnas Borman and the children have been creating with wire ever since.

An Ant

A Dragon

A Flower

A Fly

A Dinosaur

A Dragon

In doing this the children have had to exercise a great deal of persistence as the wire did not always do what they wanted it to. Many children revisited their creations over a few days, experimenting with different ways to manipulate the wire and adding to their artworks. 

Structuring Play

At my school, our 5 and 6 year olds are expected to have achieved certain literacy and numeracy benchmarks by the end of the year. I believe that the best way to do this is through small group teaching that is specifically tailored to individual children's learning needs and so for one hour each day we have a structured play time. This allows me to give the appropriate amount of time and attention to my small groups whilst the other children are engaged in independent play.

I started by introducing the children to a range of play icons (on cards) for them to choose from but I soon found that the children who loved construction would always choose to play in our construction area and not try their hand at anything else. I then decided to use this as an opportunity to expose my children to a range of activities that they might not otherwise try.

Now my children work in groups to progress through four activities that are different each day.

Here are some of the things we do during this time...

Puppet Plays

Buddy Reading

Playdough

Writing Centre

Painting

During this time, my teacher aide supervises and assists the children when necessary and some days we have parents come in to play literacy or numeracy focussed games.

After much trial and error (and worrying about how I was going to achieve small group explicit teaching in a child friendly way) I am really happy with how structured playtime is working at the moment.

We spent a few weeks at the beginning of last term getting used to the new routine (during which time I didn't take groups) but the children are now self managing and seem to love trying out different activities.

Here's what I'm loving about our structured playtime...

• The children are engaging in play based activities and aren't doing worksheets (Worksheets don't grow dendrites! as Marcia Tate says)
• They are practicing the important skill of being self managing.
• I am able to take small groups for focussed explicit teaching and am ensuring that children have the opportunity to work at their individual level to achieve their learning goals. 
• As structured playtime only goes for 1 hour each day, the children aren't missing out on developing their interests through play or working on 'projects' which I am free to fully facilitate throughout the rest of the day.

Hi There!

Welcome to my brand spanking, all shiny and new blog where I will endeavour to share and reflect upon my experiences, teaching young children aged 4 to 6 years. I am a passionate believer in the Reggio philosophy of education and have, over the years, incorporated elements of this approach (particularly documentation and project work stemming from the children's interests) into my own teaching practice.

I wholeheartedly believe in the importance of play and engaging children in playful learning experiences that deepen their understanding of their world, build upon their interests and acknowledge that they are powerful people with infinite potential.

This year (after many years teaching in the UK and New Zealand) I have returned to my homeland and I am now teaching a prep class in Queensland, Australia. I aim to strike a happy balance between play and the explicit teaching of  literacy and numeracy skills and I hope that you join me in my journey and share your own experiences and ideas along the way!

Look forward to hearing from you!