I am currently trying to work out the best way to take this forward now that the school is closing for the next few weeks. For the past few weeks, the children have been busy working together to come up with a plan to keep the different areas of the school litter free and have enjoyed recycling boxes and up cycling them for different games and activities within the classroom. I am seeing that this gives them a sense of both ownership of learning and creativity. Children have also enjoyed creating their own games and we made Little Boxes of Love as our Christmas gifts to take home which were made from recycled cardboard. This has changed how I am approaching this project, as on reflection, this was not child led. I had a clear set of aims going into this project. Although not formal, I also had a very specific list of Learning Objectives that I wanted the children to go through and I was guiding the lessons on a very particular way.
I have since spoken with the CDO who is based in school and our wonderful dialogue introduced me to new concepts within play based learning that my class of Primary 3s may be more familiar with and she has given me an observation sheet, which makes it easier for me to scan the room and look at all of the children.
My next steps are clear, I must ask more open ended questions using language such as using “I wonder” in place of “why?”and give children more freedom to explore topics in a less prescriptive way.
