Planning Clipboards… what does that mean, anyway?

Planning clipboards from Wednesday, January 4th

Happy New Year!  Our class has been back together for two days now and has so excited to see familiar faces and get back in the swing of things. A recent addition that we have added in the New Year is the use of planning clipboards.  What does that mean?  Well, each morning, at meeting time, we previously ended our time with a discussion of the different areas of the room that we were each planning on working in.  The clipboards take this discussion to the next level.  We use the clipboards as a visual representation of our thoughts.  We first discuss and think… hmm, what would I like to do?  Then, we use the clipboards as a place to draw, write, and sketch a plan of something we would like to work on in the classroom either today or sometime in the future.  Although this is a new concept to the children, they seem to be getting the hang of it and enjoying the creative process of the designing a visual representation of their thoughts and ideas.  As this process continues we will see their plans get more and more complex over time as they choose to represent them in different ways  as their ideas become more focused and detailed.  This will be an exciting process to watch unfold!