Bulletin Board

Mat Man has been very popular in my class of 3 to 5 year olds. The kids enjoyed putting him together so much they wanted to do it as a group. When we did it on the floor not everyone could see at once. It hit me that if he would stick to my white board everyone would be able to participate more freely. I didn't want to use the wood pieces though, so I made replicas of the wood pieces on cardboard and the mat out of thinner blue foam. I put magnets on all the pieces and now hand out pieces to the entire class and we put it together as a class with the song. The kids like to race to see if they can get the appropriate pieces on the board as the song names them.

This also made a great informal assessment. Today each of my kids took a turn taking all of the pieces off of the board and putting Mat Man together on their own. I then took a picture of each kid with their own Mat Man. I am going to create a class book with each page stating "Mat Man loves (child's Name)" The kids love the books with their own pictures in them.

— Trina Schindler