Discovery Time

If you walk into our classroom, first thing in the morning, you will see students engaged in a variety of activities at their tables.

We call this "discovery time." The students choose from one of four activities to participate in. The same activities are available all week, unless I feel it is necessary to make a change based on student interest. The students may choose to repeat the same activity for several days or try something different each day. If students arrive late or take a long time to undress, they may have to wait until there is room at the table of their choice.

As a teacher, I put a lot of time and thought into the activities and materials I choose to put out for the students to explore. Some of the things I consider...

• Are there natural materials available (shells, stones, glass beads, sand)?
• Are there a variety of subject areas covered (literacy, numeracy, science, fine motor skills, art)?
• Are the activities open ended? 
• Are the students able to do the activities completely independently?
• Is there enough to keep the students engaged?
• Are all students able to challenge themselves with the activities and materials presented?
• Are the materials displayed in an appealing way?
• Will the activities help students to make connections to things we are learning in the classroom?

You may also wonder about what I am doing during this time.  I use this time to greet and welcome each student, greet any parents who come up to our room, and help students get organized and sign in on our Smart Board.

You might also observe that, during this time, I almost always have my iphone or ipad in my hand. I use these tools to document student learning through photos and videos.

I then use this documentation to inform my teaching. I can take note of what students are interested in, what they already know, skills that are challenging for them, and ideas for future learning.

The students and I also use these photos and videos to share their learning through our blog, twitter, and documentation panels that are posted in our classroom.

Recently, students have also been sharing their discoveries with their classmates using the document camera (it's basically a fancy overhead but projects in colour on our Smart Board).

This is my first year of testing out "discovery time" and so far I am extremely pleased with the results.  Students are constantly surprising me with the things they discover and the ways they choose to show their learning.

Here are just some of the discovery tables the students have explored.