Going to Materials
One day recently, 4-year old Eliza was busy with an array of materials. Her teacher paused to observe her just in time to catch her…
Tag: materials
I can help
How might the process of creating, imagining, or inventing support the children’s sense of purpose and belonging in a community? This is one of the…
What kind of community do you want to be in?
Many schools spend the first six weeks of school building community in order to establish a foundation that will support learning through the rest of…
Materials as Metaphors
My recent post, Say What You Mean, began as this post — but I got so tangled up in thinking about the relationship between knowledge…
How might cardboard foster connections?
In the start of the school year, it is my practice to offer experiences that might build relationships between children and materials in order to build…
Our 100 Days Plan
With January’s fickle weather, it felt like we were never going to settle back into our regular school and home routines. After the winter break, in the…
Children will tell you what they want. If you listen, they might show you what they need
In my last blog post, I reflected on Opal’s 3’s experience of getting their writer’s notebooks, a process which I hoped would help them see themselves…
The Possibilities of Loose Parts
When you enter the classrooms of Opal School you will be met with familiar materials that you might expect to see in a lot of Early…
Pressing the Reset Button
As teachers we are continuously reflecting upon promoting healthy and productive classroom cultures. In designing experiences for children, we consider what we know about optimal…
Partner Explore: Connecting with Materials, Ideas and Each Other
Recently, as the children have been getting more familiar with the routines and setting of school, they are becoming more comfortable with one another, too. As a…