Intentional Teaching: Transition from Open Play to Focused Exploration in the Building Area
What is open play?
It's that time of day when educators give their children uninterrupted time to explore throughout the classroom. This is a good thing. There should always be time for this. AND you should be intentional about it.
For example,
Teacher A opens her block area
during choice time. A small group of children use the area to build roads and
play cars. They lay unit blocks end to end for their roads and make a bridge to
go over the quicksand. The boys especially enjoy crashing their cars into one
another. Later that week, the teacher borrows a play rug printed with roads,
signs, and buildings, and lays it down in the block area. The next morning, the
boys return to their block area to enjoy “zooming” their cars around the rug’s
roads. The boys place blocks on different parts of the rug to represent a gas
station, their school, and a grocery store.
This is great. The teacher has things out that stimulate the children's interest, but what she's not keying in on is the potential for reflection, dialogue, and developing ideas about some interesting and critical physical science concepts that are presenting themselves.
Look at Teacher B:
The teacher builds on the children's interests and has a clear set of science concepts to guide the children's work with the blocks. She's encouraging deeper thinking without interfering in their own process of questioning and exploration.
So how do you know who is ready for focused exploration?
- The child is spending their choice time in the building area
- They have become deliberate in how they build their structures
- They choose to build regularly
Need some ideas for materials to add to your building area?
sandbags, rice, rope light, battery operated candles, ribbon, fabric, wall molding, marbles, unit blocks, cardboard blocks (for building high), tree rounds, wooden floor samples, paint chip samples, cardboard tubes, baskets (make for easy clean up), PVC pipes.
No comments:
Post a Comment