Free choice time is a time during the day when children are given the opportunity to provide direction to their own learning. In a child centered classroom, children are given many opportunities to make decisions. During free choice, students select a center to work at. The centers are set up to support cognitive, motor and/or social emotional development. I have the following free choice centers in my room: math buckets, puzzles, writing, art, listening, library, legos, and sesnory table. With the exception of the writing center, each center has a limit to the number of children allowed in that center.
I schedule free choice time at the beginning of the day to facilitate what Selma Wasserman in Serious Players in the Primary Classroom calls "breathing out". Breathing out allows children to "exhale" any of the burdeons they may have brought with them to school. It allows students to move from "home life" to "school life" and provides them with the transition necessary to begin a very productive day of learning. |
