In the art center or at the easel I can ask: Tell me more about your picture. I noticed you chose these colors, tell me how you decided to pick them? How do they make you feel? What would happen if…? If the painting has people in it, ask who did you paint? What is it you like about that person?

Once I am back in the classroom I am looking forward to continuing to get better at asking questions that promote conversations. One of my favorite times to do this is at lunch time. Usually we start out simple like what they have in their lunches, but as other students join in we begin to have conversations about all sorts of things. Students are making connections, sharing about their families, comparing foods they enjoy or ones that are not their favorites. By asking thoughtful questions and then sitting back to listen I am able to facilitate conversations between peers. It is so much fun!

One area that gets constant use in my classroom is the creative arts area. We have a writing center type desk that up to 4 students can use as well as a four person art easel. Over the past few years I have been trying to make the area more student directed by having materials they can access on their own. I limit the items but it’s a creative space so the messes big sometimes. One thing that is still a challenge is how to make cleaning up easier. It is hard to have the students clean as they go because they often create things to use over in the dramatic play area, so they pop over quickly make their kitty ears and then head back over to play. Last year I had a group that really did not like clean up, no matter how much fun I made it. I even closed areas from time to time because they weren’t participating in clean up the messes. Heading into this year I am thinking about create a couple cleaning caddies with brooms, soap water sprayers and towels to make cleaning up that area more exciting. Also changing the way I make things accessible. Usually what I do it put out very little to start with as I teach how to use the items, then as the year goes on they have access to more and more types of supplies. This year I think I will try a rotation of types of supplies accessible.

@Tiffany Jarvis my students love the home living area too. To increase engagement and more cooperation I like to observe the games the students are playing in that area. I have noticed that even if it is set up as a house or some other place the children in a couple days fall back into a specific imaginary game. If you can somehow observe and figure out what that game is, you can ask the children how you can make that space better for what they are playing. For example I had students last year who played this game where they were a cat family. So we changed home living to a house that cats would live in. The students used supplies from the art area to make signs and foods that the cats would want. It did not look fancy, or perfectly put together but the students were engaged in their play and we didn’t have to constantly come up with new ideas.

Here is an example of how I modified the visual schedule for a student who was having some anxiety about the school day. She was very familiar with our schedule by the time I introduced this “game board” version of our day. She kept it in her cubby and had a Velcro game piece she could move along the board. She loved it and it was so popular that I ended up making copies for the other students.

@Megan Jarrett our day is not as long as yours however I do break up my visual schedule into morning and afternoon. We have carpet meetings each half that are dedicated to taking a closer look at the visual schedule and talk about what exciting things are happening during that part of the day.

I would like to rethink my sensory table area. Right now I have it in an area where it can be easily tucked away when not in use, however it means the students don’t see it as open unless I pull it out or they ask. The difficulty is that my sink is positioned in the main entrance area of the classroom and I want it near the sink so students can easily wash their hands. I will have to spend some time sketching it out to see if I can find a way to keep it out all the time.