Teach me I remember... Involve me I learn

How easy is it to walk into the classroom and stand up at the whiteboard, explain a concept, assign a writing task and move on? 

If I told you that pancakes are made from eggs, milk and flour would you recall the ingredients later that week, month or year? But if I told you I was making pancakes and asked you to predict what I would need, if I showed you the ingredients, if you held the ingredients, if you helped me make the pancakes, would you remember? 

As teachers in the classroom we need to involve the children with hands on learning, get them actively discovering and creating their own learning. 

Today the children worked together to create a Class Mountain landscape on A2 paper in groups, stimulated with guided imagery. As opposed to prescribing a mountain for the children to visit in their imaginations, I wanted the children to invent this mountain themselves. The children then went on to create still images and mimes for the activities of this site, writing and illustrating character sketches in English. This is but a glimpse of the endless possibilities in the classroom, with simple modifications to the activities serving to motivate the children to engage all the while realising the learning objectives. 

Although the time and preparation for these tasks may seem cumbersome and lengthy, I assure you as soon as you turn those creative googles on, your mind will become a resource where teaching to any book will be a chore, and a boring one at that!