Materials

When we put out new materials at learning centres, we pay attention to how we display them. We think about the materials as provocations for learning. We observe how the children interact with the materials. How do they return them? How do they use them? Is there enough to sustain learning? What do we need to change or add?

Here are some snap shots of 3 learning centres from December 2013. The dramatic play centre. The loose parts table. The big blocks centre.

Big Blocks

Loose Parts

Dramatic Play

When I started...

Here are a few snap-shots of the learning space I have for Kindergarten. This is what it looked like on the first day the teachers were let into the building the summer of 2013.

It is a full-day program with 26 kindergarten students.

We get a lot of natural light. We are on the second floor with floor to ceiling windows. The colour scheme of the entire school is very neutral.

Complexity at Learning Centres

This week, I started a new process with my classroom. I told the children, that we would be having a specific time each morning in the week where they would chose a center. The difference was that once they chose that learning centre, they were to remain there for the 20 - 30 mins that I put on our class timer. (Again this emerged from a conversation I had with another Kindergarten teacher at the Documentation as Relationship conference). I was worried that both myself and the ECE I work with would spend our time policing the children. Was I ever surprised! They were entirely capable of maintaining their engagement at the centres. 

What was really made clear to me was this....

for sustained learning, there must be layers of complexity at the learning centres

Now I have heard of this concept many times when reading and listening to other educators speak. BUT, I understood it finally by watching our children interact with the centres. I noticed that one centre (the mirror area) did not have enough to deepen the experience. So I responded by moving the centre next to the light table. The next day, not a problem with sustained learning. I noticed that we made sure at each learning area there were writing tools and books. (I thought there was literacy imbedded throughout each centre, but suddenly, we could pinpoint what TYPE of literacy was needed at the different learning areas).

Our snack is free-flow and happens at a table near the classroom sink. I told the children, that if they needed a break from their learning, they could always have a drink or eat something at the snack table before returning to their learning area of choice.

I also noticed that this limited children interrupting each others learning through play. Both myself and the ECE I work with were interrupted less during this time. Our next step, will be to work with small groups at learning areas for documentation purposes or to work with individual children on classroom inquiries.

Stephanie.

Relationships

This year I attended the conference Documentation as Relationships, hosted by the Ontario Reggio Association and held at the Bishop Stachan Private School. It was a remarkable time! What I took away were many thoughts. The one most forefront in my mind is how I forget to document the relationship between student and teacher. When I grab my i-pad or camera, I'm documenting a relationship that is child to child, or child to material. I rarely document the moments of interactions between the teachers and child. Yet, it is that involvement as facilitator in children's meaning-making that is of great value to the child.

Stephanie.