We recently incorporated small group work/activities into our weekly schedule. Every week the children in each small group have an opportunity to explore with materials and work on an activity independently or collaboratively in the classroom. These activities and materials range from open-ended to structured. Our small groups were created with the intention to invite the children to have a shared experience in an intimate setting and to foster social interaction, cooperation, and creativity as well as to hone in on specific academic skills such as, letter and number recognition.
Small groups are safe harbors for children as they acquire dispositions to confidently express themselves, to participate in the joys, to investigate and to represent what they notice in the world beyond school. Small group work enables children to observe and learn from each other, as well as become socially engaged while working with Open-ended materials.
“In any environment, both the degree of inventiveness and creativity, and the possibility of discovery, are directly proportional to the number and kind of variables in it.”
– Simon Nicholson
During one of our small group sessions, the children had an opportunity to revisit our “Loose Parts” collection, which is composed of found natural articles and real materials – tiles, stones, bottle caps, wine corks and wines. These items were presented in an open-ended manner offering the children an invitation to construct and deconstruct, engage, experiment and create to their desire.
These open-ended materials offered the children multiple possibilities, allowing them to move, manipulate, control, and change their creations while they play. They combined, redesigned, lined up, took apart, and put the loose parts back together in countless ways.
In observing the children working with these materials, I witnessed their ability to engage with materials in a meaningful way, as well as their willingness to explore and express their ideas in a representation with confidence. To any onlooker or observer, these might just be children playing with random materials. However, there is more going on. They exhibit their ability to focus and concentrate, and be creative while working with these open-ended materials.
As evidenced in the children’s representation, they demonstrate an ability to represent their ideas with purpose. The basic forms suggest images that stand for ideas; a visual representation of something of interest or importance. They have created meaning behind their representation and named the subject they have represented in an attempt to convey this meaning to those observing their work and to engage with their peers.
I wonder what other classroom materials the children will use to convey their ideas as well as engage their peers?
Will they use blocks or manipulatives to express their ideas? Will they be willing to share their creation with all their classmates during meetings?
After seeing the children’s imaginative creation with these loose parts, I’m excited to introduce more open-ended materials to the classroom!
