How does your class solve the problem of only three people at a station?

www.timelessteacherstuff.com

• Discussing strategies with and alongside the children
• Some children are learning powerful negotiation strategies to get what they want rather than just screaming and demanding
• we talk about how its important to wait our turn
• No children are allowed to stand at the board and wait for a space
• Lots of checking in done by the students
• Only putting out equipment for three people has been helpful 

While this strategy might sound annoying it provides a place for observation of children's behaviours when they don't get their own way, don't understand turn taking, develop naturally a way to negotiate in a powerful way. Great as a writing motivator!!

What is an investigating book?

With a plea to reduce the amount of paper our children were using when practicing their learning I sifted through their extra stationary and handed out a line exercise book. We named it the investigating book

The children could use this book for any learning they liked.

The rules;

1. Can't use crayons, vivid's or felts that will go through paper
2. Must be respectful at all times
3. Must be used to explore, practice or design. 
4. Can't go home 0 just in case we forget to bring it back the next day causing stress for all parties
5. Teachers never mark them!

The children used it for designing their constructions, practicing their handwriting, learning their math goals, drawing and labelling diagrams, The ideas were endless. Some of their best work was done in this book. 

The fact that teachers never marked these books is what made them so powerful. The children could explore and take risks without being judged. 

We used a book that was not too large and had lines to support neatness and handwriting skill development. 

Construction - Learning???

 

sourced from pinterest

Mmmmmmm! What could you possibly learn with this??? 

 form 

structure

strength in design

shapes

social communities

collaborative design 

oral language

story writing

Mmmmmm!

Labels in the Garden

What a cool way to get them writing and practicing their spelling. Labels are a huge part of our environment. Exploring how to do them in a fun and purposeful way has to be a good thing! Which one to start with!

Where am I?

Positional language development.
Tell the story from the perspective of one of the animals.
What will happen next?
Record it for your blog.

Character development

found image on pinterest

What a great way to integrate speech bubbles character description and deeper features for writing.

Faces

http://dabblesandbabbles.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Blank-Faces-original.pdf

Guess who game
Who dunnit

Develop that descriptive language for describing a character.
Link to enriching vocab for emotions and facial expressions.

Interest Board

Bottle top art Imagine the oral language you can develop with this board displayed in your room. Rodger Schultz has his own website for more information to link to real life artist. http://rodgerschultz.blogspot.co.nz/p/faq.html

Bottle Top Bugs

Bottle top art - awesome fine motor skills. Could link well into retell, creative story telling, and developing oral language skills. Each bug has its own personality. Extend the children to think about the needs of their bug - house, sleeping bag, transport.

Try making cakes instead of bugs.

http://pinterest.com/hilarywhite3/bottle-tops-plastic/

Soap Clouds

WOW! Awesome science at work here. I'd love to see the kids faces when you do this one! I love how there is no waste either. Awesome website. Check out full description and ideas at this link...
http://www.mypinterestreality.com/2012/08/ivory-soap-clouds.html

Shape Monsters

WOW Art, Maths, Language development, the list goes on. They look awesome too!
http://www.houseofbabypiranha.com/2010/09/shape-monsters.html

Sand art

Cornmeal on a black table surface. Great for writing numbers, words, picture planning, and experimenting with different tools for different patterns, textures and shapes

Making retell fun!

The Big Book 'We're Going on a Bear Hunt' is a great ignitor for sequencing, and mapping skills.

Providing children with the rough outline of a map the children love to retell the story using pictures and symbols. At sharing time it is valuable retell practise.  Many children creating their own stories, especially pirate treasure maps. On children drew a map with directions on how to get to his grandparents place from his home.

Sparklebox Visuals

Some more great ideas 

Pinterest