Forest Room: Around the table

 

In our classroom we have written a question and posted it on the wall:  "How do we support relationships?"    Since the question is staring at us every day, it is easy to mull it over as we work with the children.

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One thing we have noticed is that this group enjoys working together, particularly around our art/snack table.  We cover the table with paper and the children work with oil pastels, tape and paint. They relish time making salt dough or playing with modeling clay. There seems to be very little ownership over particular parts of paper used for group work.  Children usually share modeling clay with ease. This is not always the case in other areas of the classroom. I wonder why that is?

We hang  the paper creations up in the classroom and delight in the way the children have collaborated.

This is a community table, used for many purposes.  Is the common element of a shared table an avenue for relationship building?

Preparing the table for snack