So often I see teachers/providers try to cram a lot of learning into “Circle Time”. Circle time gets too long, children become disengaged… sound familiar?? Sometimes we forget about the profound learning moments that happen during the other times of the day – free play, outdoor play, etc.
Rather than seeing circle time as the main “time for teaching”, how can you make the other, non-group times into equally important teaching times.
If a few children are sitting in the block area building, what are key, open ended questions that you can ask to learn more about how they think? What learning can happen for them here? What can you learn about their emerging skills? How can you integrate what you might have done in a group time into this smaller group?
If you were to sit with a child working with a matching game, how can you begin a conversation that expands on the experience? That relates the learning of the matching game to other elements in their life?
The CLASS assessment looks to all moments as quality teaching times.
These opportunities to connect with small groups of children or 1:1 with a child are golden teaching moments. Perhaps you can shorten your circle time to just the amount that engages the entire group successfully and move some of your teaching times to these more individual opportunities.
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