Talented nearly 4 year old...!

Today I encouraged groups of children to draw a portrait of themselves and write their name. We do it every year to see where they are in their development and to give us an indication of their progression by the time they leave us at the end of the year. I got the usual range -  a child scribbling, a series of unconnected lines and dots, a face with arms and legs coming off it and much inbetween….until this one child presented me with a picture that blew me away. In my 9 years of teaching, I have never seen such attention to detail. The child is 4 in a few weeks yet the three figures she drew had different facial expressions, one was facing sidewards and they all had fingers, hair, clothes, etc!!! WOW! She then proceeded to write 4 sentences underneath…..

Has anyone else seen this in a child so young? I am also left wondering how best to meet her needs. Our play-based classroom will definitely offer challenges in many areas and activities are usually open ended which will ensure they are naturally appropriate for her. I want to stimulate her reading and writing but am not sure if I should 'teach' her the way we would for our older children when they learn to read or whether I can alter our environment to help her naturally progress through her self-chosen play....any suggestions/ideas welcomed!

New school year, new class layout :-D

Sorry for the long break in posting - the first week back at school was great but very busy!!! I have worked really hard on trying to make my classroom more colour neutral (no more primary colours adorning the walls!) with lots of interesting areas to explore and am really pleased with how much calmer the class feels.

 The light/colour exploration corner. I have access to a fab concierge who helped me to put up this curtain for the OHP to reflect onto. I used an old IKEA shower curtain that we had lying around and stapled it to a length of wood, which was then hung from the ceiling.

I found an old mirror (acrylic) in the basement which I placed behind the light box - the children love watching what they are doing whilst they are playing and the reflections of the colours are beautiful.

 Our nature area - we are encouraging the children to bring in natural objects they find during their weekend to add to this area. I love the mats which my colleague found at a charity shop for very little money :-)

 I couldn't get away from the primary colours in the furniture but I am pleased with what we have been able to do with the area - it used to be enclosed but we have opened it out and taken away the boundaries which seems to be working really well. It has encouraged the children to share their play with children in other areas. I love sitting chatting to a child in the book corner and being offered an 'ice-cream' or slice of 'cake' that they have just baked.

Writing corner/mark making area - my fab assistant sewed the pocket at the back to hold all the felt tips in their colours. So far, so good! Lids back on pens and back in the right places!

After being inspired by several blog posts I have read recently, I decided to have a go at making my own sensory bags using Ziplock bags and gaffa tape. The blue one is just regular poster paint. The middle one was originally squishy with shaving foam and lentils...but...the next day we came in to find a rock hard square!! Logically I guess, all the shaving foam got soaked up by the lentils - sadly it was the day before the children came back but I might repeat it again to see their reaction the following day!! The left one is hand gel, a little water and loads of glitter :-)

 Blocks area and natural materials - pine cones, shells, sticks, corks etc

Mirror and stones/seed pods

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!

Holidays :-)

Will be quiet on here for a few weeks! Will post when I get back :-)

Waldorf style playscapes

These amazing wool/felt playscapes have been made for my class by Cheryl from Soft n Woolly (http://www.etsy.com/shop/softnwoolly) - I received them this week and am so excited to find bits and pieces to go with them to create inspiring small worlds for my new class to explore in September. I asked her to create four different ones - river, beach, roads and woodlands and think they are all gorgeous. My absolute favourite is the last one - the detail is stunning and I can just imagine little fairies hiding in the caves! I cannot wait for little hands to play with them! Thank you Cheryl :-)