Getting ready for September - Back to school!

It's the holidays and you are enjoying walking along a shopping street or through a mall, relaxing and making the most of being out and about during the day...then something catches your eye and you see the perfect item....for an area of your classroom or that you know the children will just love... Know the feeling?! It's the time of the year where I actually have the most time to really reflect and so is often when I am able to come up with some of my more creative ideas and I would not swap it for the world. Today I was in a cute kitchen/garden store with lots of natural wooden products and came across this little stash - am very pleased! The gorgeous toadstools (cork stoppers for wine!) are just right to go with the waldorf playmats I blogged about a few weeks back. I am especially pleased with the scoops to complement our pincers that we already have - great for promoting fine motor skills in a playful way :-) And the best bit was that they didn't cost the bank :-D Will follow up with another post showing them in use once school is underway!

Eric Carle Studio - Limiting choices to promote creativity

Eric Carle Studio - Challenges!

I love the idea of limiting choices at times to promote risk taking and creative problem solving. This could be putting out collage materials but no scissors, limiting the choice of colours, no pencils, etc. Sometimes our settings are all about offering a wide choice and allowing the child to choose freely but it is equally as important to offer times when choices are limited so that cooperation, team-work, problem solving and risk taking can begin to occur. Thank you to the Art Studio at The Eric Carle Museum for their inspiring work!!!

Am back :-)

Had a wonderful long holiday abroad and now starting to think about school again before starting back in September. Went shopping in the local 'cheap' shop this afternoon and have found lots of lovely little bits to make an Autumn inspired play set...watch this space!