choices turn into "I NEED to do THIS"

I NEED to use this camera to take photos of friends.

I am an advocate for lengthy Choice Times every school day for young children.

No matter what curriculum or pedagogy your school follows, there is ideally room in the day for Choices. No matter if perhaps your school has some academic, structured times; or teacher-directed experiences; or specific standards that you are attempting to tie into open-ended authentic learning experiences.

I NEED to use the hole punch - punch - punch.

Ensuring that there is dedicated Choice Time for children everyday is a gift not only for the children, but in turn is a gift to educators who come from a perspective of wanting to partner with children in the learning process.

I NEED to use rubberbands and this GEO board.

During Choice Time, the children direct themselves in or out of the classroom, engaging with peers and materials and teachers. During Choice Time, teachers have the opportunity to listen and observe, photograph, document... and uncover the interests of the students which can help guide your planned experiences or projects for the next day, weeks, and longer. 

I NEED to use this squirt bottle to water this plant.

WE NEED to get some water in our cups.

It is stunning to observe
as childrens choices are motivated by their needs to engage
in a certain way,
with certain energy,
with certain kinds of materials.

WE NEED to roll our friend around the floor!

WE NEED to dig this hole together.

WE ALL NEED to work at the writing table.

WE ALL NEED to listen to Big Pumpkin at the listening center.

Their choices turn into 

"I NEED to do THIS" which is valuable and necessary at that exact moment...

Teachers cannot plan those exact moments - children NEED their own time to follow their own choices.

I NEED to dance to make my kite fly.

I NEED to take a rainbow, tiara-wearing break.

WE ALL NEED to have fantastic parachute fun!

"There is a big difference between having many choices and making a choice." (anon).
I hope your school can offer Time for Choices...
a Time for Choice Making...
a Time for "I NEED to do THIS."

math sightings

diverse materials, deliberate placement, space, lines, rows.

Early childhood math.
Could look like so many things.
So many many things.
Think exploration.
Think diverse materials.
Think open-ended.
Notice hand-eye coordination.
Notice pattern.
Notice geometry.

You can think that math has to look the way YOU understand math...Yet, how wonderful to have math look how CHILDREN understand math.

vertical experiences with small objects: color, shapes, and whimsy.

geometry, half, quarter, pizza slice; solid color & rainbow circles.

small motor, triangles, squares, rubberbands, paper/pencil copy.

partner experience with unusual block puzzle...exploring balance and design.

kapla and wood blocks, dinosaurs: intentional design, purposeful placement.

car line parallel to large block structure; top, cube blocks center spaced within each wood brick.

can you crayon and water color your own shapes and patterns?

creating a circle using cube blocks takes focus and curving and rethinking.

these paper shapes were placed exactly where this child wanted them - size, shape, color.

creating patterns with friends using pegs, dominoes, and colorful bugs.

variety of colors of rubberbands to complete this star design.

using peg boards right-side-up and then up-side-down, pegs supporting a second level of work, bears and dominoes in rows...this kind of work is no accident.

Look for math around your classroom.
You will see it everywhere.
Use the language, interpret the work, scaffold the 'almost there' idea of patterns and math sense.
Provide the materials that allows for the exploration and thinking of numbers, shapes, patterns.
Math sightings occur daily... get your camera ready.

this is a challenge game to identify a friend's pattern and then to REcreate it!

the world of the easel

holding the brush can be tricky yet the exploration continues.

The easel.

It can be such a wonderful place for exploration of color, of tools, of materials, of drips drips drips. 

The easel can be a wonderful space for private work, for friendship painting, for group experiments. 

It can be a new experience to stand up to be an artist, to angle your arm, to hold the brush or tool just how you want it so it gets to the paper without paint landing on your shoe.

It can be a new experience to have your paint available on a palette in one hand while painting with the other hand. It can be a new experience to look down, look up, look forward. 


The easel is a wonderful place to create the world you know or the world you imagine.

Below are examples of many of the above ideas. 

There are a zillion other examples that could have been here - outside paintings, jars of paint, variety of paper surfaces and textiles, squeeze bottles of paint, rolling brushes, scrapers, HANDS in paint, things that sparkle, natural objects, murals being made, easel painting while sitting on a stool...oh, and Music playing or songs being sung while painting.
  
I hope YOUR classroom has so many different ways to investigate and explore the large tool that is the Easel!

stripes of color, mixed colors, and dedication to fill the paper.

purple is all this friend needs to form his lines and shapes.

paint colors, mixing, choices choices choices!

deliberate dots, lines and shapes - individual creations with a friend nearby.

have you ever created a piece of art WITH a friend??

respecting childrens' ideas, comparisons, and understandings of their world.

group painting is an unique experience to share ideas, laughter, tools, colors.

part 1: the beginning strokes of this boy's world...

part 2: the boy on the right, amid his friends at the easel, has his own plan.

part 3: the boy's completed easel painting... who could have known how he would describe his work unless we asked him, listened to him, ensured that his voice would bring his artwork to life. stunning.

The art of the easel.

To offer the large tool for children to experiment in ways that are unlike other classroom experiences is a gift.

When is the last time YOU used an easel?

What would YOU paint, explore, test out, invent?

What would YOUR paint colors have to say?

What would YOU have to say?

the small stuff

complex lego sculpture with pieces, wheels and people.

There are so many different ways to think about Stuff.
Ideally, educators call Stuff using words that offer more respect and specificity - like Manipulatives or Materials or Found Objects or Collections. For the simplicity of this post today, I will say Stuff is what you need to offer - not too much, not too little, pleasantly arranged - in your classroom. When you have the Stuff, then make sure you offer the Time for children to engage, explore, and experiment with Stuff. When observing children working with Stuff, they will change how you think about the Stuff and will help inspire you to offer other high quality Stuff. The classroom will become a more challenging and interesting space to be an explorer of Stuff. 

masterpiece with magna tiles, cones and tubes.

shells and round magnets deliberately arranged in a trail.

domino house with such careful placement of flat, sideways, & upright pieces.

commitment, precision and intentional design within a magnetic tower.

kapla blocks (wow!) with bears atop in colored rows.

The incredible work of children.
When the teacher knows how to go slow enough, yet challenge enough, yet question enough, yet stay quiet enough, yet encourage enough...the incredible work of children will be right in front of you, daily, with startling images and inventions for you to document and photograph and share with your own school community. 
The small Stuff gives birth to a new way of understanding children learning.
Get some Stuff. Give some time.
The children will show you the rest.