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How can we use music to inspire expression and creativity? Interestingly, we can extend this to a larger question: how can we use any sensory experience to inspire expression and creativity? During my time as a teacher, I have been exposed to ideas for expressing what we experience through different senses. With regards to what we see, we do this all the time. However, we can also set activities that involve students describing, perhaps through words or art, what is perceived by touch or smell. Expressions of sensory experience can be useful for appreciation of the real world, relaxation, and creativity at all ages, even for adults. In fact, I have participated in workshops in which we, as teachers, have undertaken them ourselves. Nevertheless, they can be especially powerful in the early years. We return to music, which is our focus today. Of course, there are multiple ways it can be used. We have the singing, dancing, and playing of instruments that it requires or inspires. Students could also be encouraged to mime or act out words. Its meaning could be used as the basis for artistic creation in many forms. Further, there is the idea of personal adaptation — rhythms or lyrics can be interpreted individually. I recently allowed students to respond to music through drawing. Drawing is something else that can be especially powerful for young children. It can be used to express ideas of all kinds. Indeed, before writing develops, it is a powerful way for them to express their thinking, which we often use to allow them to show their knowledge and reflections. In this activity, it came together with music. I played four songs for my students, chosen to give a variety of different feels. The task was to draw anything they thought or felt when listening to each song. Leading into the activity, I introduced the artist Wassily Kandinsky and the idea of abstract art — that it does not necessarily have to depict real things, but can simply express thoughts and feelings freely. I modeled how this could be done with colour and shapes. I then explained that our task was to draw what we thought or felt as we heard the songs. When we began the activity, a range of responses emerged. Some students focused purely on abstract use of colours, others drew more “real” pictures, some responded to the lyrics, and some took a more diverse approach. What can be taken from this? Well, never forget the importance of allowing many and new methods for young students — and indeed those of all ages — to express themselves. Consider how music and other sensory experiences can inspire expression and creativity, either by directly interpreting and showing the experience — letting others know what it was like — or simply producing freer work under the conditions it creates. Allowing students to draw their response to music can support different approaches. They can directly draw what they hear. They can draw what they think or feel when hearing it. Alternatively, they can simply draw with the music as a background to subconsciously inspire them. This balance between structure — a specific task for guidance and inspiration — and freedom in interpretation and implementation can be applied across multiple areas in teaching where we aim to encourage expression and creativity. It is something to always reflect on. On an interesting note, regarding abstract art: while sometimes we might want to teach our students very specific techniques, in other cases, it may be better to relax our definition of abstract slightly. This activity was introduced as abstract art, but what turned out to be important was that students had the freedom to express their experience as they liked, without needing to draw something very specific or concrete. Perhaps that was abstract enough after all.

How can we engage young students in PE activities in a minimalist way? Ultimately, during early years education of until six years old or so, the focus for students is most certainly still for them to get more used to using their bodies. They want to build up their coordination and ability to move in multiple ways. As for many areas at this age, there should be a focus on play and free exploration. When you have boxes and climbing equipment it is a massive bonus. However, what if no such equipment is available? What’s more, is there anything we can do as teachers to add a small volume of structure? At the kindergarten I work at, we have begun doing weekly PE classes to support students with their physical development. Leading my class’s second one of these today, I followed with a routine I have previously been developing as a warm up, which required no equipment at all. Striving to support students to move their bodies in multiple ways, we started off with some easy running. This gets the heart pumping. Next, we focused on jumping, and star jumps, building up the spring in the legs. This was followed by squats, and then squats into “big jumps”, building up the strength in our legs. We have often also done single leg balancing and hopping, even taking note of appropriate techniques, for example, putting hands on your waist, and focusing on remaining still. As we come back to these activities, it is beautiful to watch students reminding us and each other of the different parts of the skill we need to remember. But do you only need to stay on your legs? We can move our bodies in multiple different ways. Today we did army crawls. Previously, we have done different types of crawls and rolling. These all build up upper body and core strength. As a girl reminded us, “This can make us strong. It can also help us sit on our chair and help with our writing.” The focus throughout was building control over our bodies. Hence, I did focus on clear objectives for what students should be doing for each activity. There will continue to be new exercises and types of movement we can practice in the future. But, we can go further than movement. For the second part of our class today, we continued to practice football skills. Previously we have practiced passing. Here, we practiced the steps, “control”, “aim”, “pass”. In addition to the skill, students were able to practice both English – they are second language speakers – and the idea of following a clear sequence of steps. Working in pairs to practice, it was intriguing to watch as they naturally adjusted how close they were together, based on level of ease or challenge, and adjusted the power and aim. To take this further, we then practiced dribbling. Working together, they would take it in turns to dribble the ball from a first cone, to a second, and then back. Here again, they showed independence. But then what can we take from this? In the early years, students most certainly should have the opportunity to play and exercise freely. Afterall, in doing this, they will exercise and practice skills. We can guide them in a more play-based way. However, there is no reason why this can’t be balanced with some more structured activities. In addition to practicing specific physical skills, these can support develop discipline, focus, and instruction following. The same can be said for practicing the skills from specific sports as students become ready. Here also, perhaps a balance can be given between instruction, and allowing students to then practice the skills freely. Just as it does elsewhere in teaching and learning, this allows students to take autonomy, responsibility and reflection, which can aid their ability to drive self-development.

How can we celebrate Christmas as a time of love, compassion, and sharing for our students, while also making it a meaningful part of their development? This is actually a question that doesn’t stand alone only for Christmas. Should it not always be important to consider how every moment can be made the most meaningful for them? Following an idea from a colleague, this year I organized a ‘Secret Santa’ activity with my class. This was not about buying, however. They chose to make their own gifts. After we outlined the nature of the activity, they excitedly lined up outside the classroom and came in one at a time to choose a name. Luckily, no one chose themselves. Beautifully, there were two pairs of students who had each chosen each other. During the three days leading up to Christmas, they all got to work. Many wonderful things came from this. For one, a boy who has been continually opening up more and more in recent months made five different detailed drawings, each telling a story, for his friend. He continually told me that he wasn’t finished yet and needed to make one more. Here we saw passion, and ongoing initiation and implementation of new ideas—something that will always support a person in their creative work in the future. Second, for two days the room was full of passion, ownership, and responsibility, as every student showed enormous intrinsic motivation to spend time on work involving drawing, clay, and loose parts. Third, a boy followed a progression of steps to create a gift for his friend. He showed great responsibility, wanting to ensure he prepared something appropriate, but not being sure what this could be. While trying to remain subtle, he took the initiative to ask his friend directly what he wanted. This led to undertaking the task of preparing a 3D gift from paper—a small box. Despite difficulties and challenges, he persevered to the end. Planning, conscientiousness, and determination were developed. When we reached the time of sharing itself, I tried an addition to start the process. I reminded students that Christmas, and every day, is about loving everyone. We returned to our popsicle sticks, each with the name of one student on it. We went around the class, and each student chose one popsicle stick. They then said something they loved about the friend they had chosen. Despite the natural conflicts that happen throughout the day, all students embraced this with open arms. We heard many ideas shared: “we often play together,” “we have finished a puzzle together many times,” and “she makes me smile.” Moving to the Secret Santa sharing, students accepted and expressed thanks to their friends. What conclusions can we draw from this? It really shows the impact that full autonomy, ownership, and responsibility can have on motivation and maturity. The students are five and six years old, but age meant little here. Allowing freedom and space for ideas and creativity to be formed and implemented enabled students to fully express themselves and created opportunities for skills to be developed. Love, compassion, respect, appreciation, and gratitude are beautiful human qualities. Their expression, at least, may need to be nurtured. This is something we have been helping the students with over time. Providing clear and purposeful opportunities to practice them can certainly be of huge benefit. Merry Christmas!

Teaching is hard. This statement really cannot be understated. There are so many attributes that could make a great teacher. You need to be able to simulate reality, in a sense, in order to plan lessons and activities. You need to be able to interact effectively with many types of people. You need to step into different roles—a manager, a direct instructor, a facilitator, and many more. You need to be able to manage situations, often on the spot. You need to remain calm and patient at all times. You need knowledge of content and of how people learn. You need to be able to assess others’ needs and act on them. Last week, I was talking to a close colleague at my grade level. We noted together how our students, our class, are almost like our family. While sometimes this can create challenges due to a lack of novelty for all, it also creates deep security and trust. Relationships are what I value most in education. With some of my students, I have spent so much time that I genuinely feel we can read each other’s minds. As we have discussions or classes, they seem to read me so well that they know what I am thinking, what I want from them, almost before I have said it. In addition, I find myself smiling more and more as I see myself in them. I see my mannerisms copied, the exact words and phrases I use, and the general way I interact with others. It is much easier for us to interact with someone, to understand them, and to learn from them when we trust them, know them closely, and like them. What’s more, students—especially young children—really do learn through modelling and copying, and they will be far more relaxed and have far more space to do that with someone they are close to. So in teaching, for these reasons, never forget the importance of relationships—of building time and trust with students. Then mutual support and understanding are more likely to develop. Intrinsic motivation and inspiration are more likely to grow. Then everything else becomes much easier.

I still remember learning to read in my early primary school years. Once we became more confident, we would have some time each day to read the book we were choosing from the school library, or alternatively, one we had brought from home. Around the age of eight or nine, I did really find reading, and would become fully engrossed in the stories I was reading. However, before that, I still recall very clearly, a period in which I was going through the process of reading the words and sentences. I did actually have the ability to do so. However, I was taking in very little of what I was reading, and in some ways, was making very little effort to. Reflecting on this, along with my own study and research in my teaching, I have developed an appreciation of the importance of comprehension even from the very beginning. As such, over the last year, as I have begun to explore the use of systematic phonics to blend and read words with class, now five and six years old from the very beginning. As we read our first short phrases, for example, “run up a hill”, “the hot sun”, and “pup in the mud”, I have combined it with short comprehension questions, for example, “where does the boy run?”, and even deeper thinking questions, for example, “why does the pup want to jump in the mug?”. Along with reading comprehension, these have provided the opportunity for English speaking practice – my students are ELLs, as well as discussion and everything that comes from this. Now we have begun to work through readers. We began looking at these as a whole class, but now, I have been doing one to one sessions with all students each week, in order to support individual progress. We are using the Fitzroy Readers, which are progressive. The ultimate goal at this stage is simply to provide initial confidence, ready for primary school, which the students will start next year. My goal is not to provide too much pressure – as I have already communicated to parents, anything this year is fantastic. (Exactly when children should begin to learn to read is an interesting topic to explore, perhaps for another time, but age aside, I want to support students on their own personalized learning pathway and ensure a focus on intrinsic motivation, self-drive and curiosity.) I have been left with deciding how progress can be guided. I didn’t want anything too in depth so as to feel overwhelming, but still something of a guidance. Going back to our starting thoughts, I was sure to include ‘Comprehension’ here, and did so alongside ‘Accuracy’ and ‘Fluency’. I defined accuracy as being able to blend and read the words correctly, fluency as being able to read the full sentences naturally and without hesitation, and comprehension as a general understanding of the words and sentences – I will ask comprehension questions about the pictures and sentences as we read. These categories, I have been able to communicate to both parents and students, without it sounding like too much. Once we feel we are confident in all three areas, we tick off a reader. I could have made it more specific, with specific comprehension questions to answer for comprehension and boxes to tick for individual words – accuracy – and each sentence – fluency. In fact, in the monthly supportive evaluations we are having at my school for the concurrent phonics program, we do have specific words and sentences to read, and comprehension questions to answer. I may well later also adapt it slightly. However, this keeps the form simpler and allows me to exercise broader professional judegment, and actually think about the overall picture and notice patterns and the possible reasons for them, for example, challenges, with the different sound in the word “a” from the short a sound in words such as “cat”, and challenges regarding “on” and the “an” in “and”. I have space on the form to make brief notes, which I have been using. What can we take away then? Well, always remember the importance of comprehension in reading instruction, even from the very beginning. Always reflect on the level of specificity and detail which you could use in supporting early reading development, and perhaps also, other skills. As always, support students on their own learning pathways as far as the context allows. Fitzroy Programs Pty Ltd. (n.d.). Fitzroy Readers. Retrieved [October 30,  2025], from https://www.fitzroyreaders.com/

As teachers, how should we select students to answer during class? Well, the short answer is most likely that it depends on the situation. “Hands up” is a well-known custom around the world. It’s certainly something I remember from my own school days. When I later began my first long-term teacher training course, it was perhaps unexpected to hear so much criticism of this method for selection. The disadvantages are indeed real. It can allow students to choose whether or not to participate, and it may result in the same few students speaking all the time. To say that it is never appropriate, however, might be going too far. If we are having a very open discussion, for example, it may be best to allow students to share thoughts and ideas naturally, as they arise. As adults, we might do the same in a meeting. It may also be similar when we are discussing a complex question or problem together. In both cases, students may need time and space to think, listen to others, and observe — which could work best for them in that situation and should be respected. Certainly, if used appropriately and at the right times, and balanced with other techniques, “hands up” can have its merits. Perhaps more on that another day. I have certainly used “hands up” with my class many times over the last two years we have been together. I have also regularly used popsicle sticks — that is, drawing a stick with a student’s name on it from a cup. The excitement and suspense work well, although sometimes the process of selecting a name can slow the pace down. Still, it’s a technique worth using at times. Aware that I was perhaps relying a little too much on those two methods, I have recently returned my focus to cold calling — selecting students myself to answer, regardless of whether their hands are raised. This method is well recognized and has several merits. It can be effective for managing participation and even differentiation, while allowing the teacher to control the pace. Even so, it can bring challenges if not implemented carefully. There needs to be a culture of error, support, and care. We don’t want fear, nor do we want students to feel so uncomfortable that they are not in the best state of mind to think and learn. As this represented a slight change from what had been happening previously, it required some routine building — for example, reminding students to keep their hands down and to allow classmates time to think, even when they are very excited to share. My students are still only five and six years old. Through this process, we have seen growth and development, particularly in patience and self-regulation. These are the first great positives. We are also seeing further beautiful and heartwarming outcomes. All students have been active during whole-group time, and as I’ve allowed them to support each other with ideas or examples — generally still through cold calling — it has been wonderful to see the cooperation and listening that have emerged. The contributions, especially from those who might otherwise be more passive but are now being gently encouraged to participate more actively, have been notable. For example, one boy, during a discussion about how different countries and cultures vary, shared that “the homes and houses are different,” a point we hadn’t had before. Another girl, when discussing the IB Learner Profiles and the importance of striving to be “Knowledgeable,” offered, “An apple tree will need water to grow,” as an example of something she knows. This was unrelated to anything we had discussed recently — and, bearing in mind the students’ ages and that English is their second language, it was a wonderful example of thinking and expression. Finally, when discussing the “Caring” IB Learner Profile, a boy shared that it is important “because it will make other people very happy.” Other techniques can, of course, be appropriate in different contexts and balanced alongside cold calling — but never forget the warmth and beauty it can bring.

The learning and teaching of writing is a big milestone in education and language development. As with many skills, from my own experience growing up and observations as a teacher, there will not be a one-size-fits-all approach. We may well all have our own learning journey. We may well all develop at our own rate. We consider here the early stages of writing letters, words and short phrases. This is a stage at which students can and will, through play and self-initiated activities, practice writing. Curiosity is, without a doubt, a great and beautiful motivator. Nonetheless, there may come a time when we want to provide more formal and structured support. In my class of five- to six-year-olds at the moment, we are providing opportunities for free writing through our inquiry-based activities. Inspired by one another, and a literacy corner with many words available to read and copy, students have been taking this practice further themselves. A growing number of students are able to form letters with increased independence and confidence. However, we did begin the routine this academic year of writing practice every morning on arrival. We have been using writing books with a few pages for each letter, first tracing and then writing. The full effectiveness and necessity of this is not the topic here. At the very least though, it does provide security and a reference for accurate writing of letters, while they are still having the opportunity to see that there can be more openness to letter formation. We did find, however, that while we had introduced the routine to students, focus on following the procedure accurately with regards to the size, shape and spacing of the letters was proving challenging. Wanting to focus on meaning, we began at the beginning and had an open discussion on why we were to have the routine of practicing writing in the morning and the processes to follow for it. We did get very clear ideas, for example, “it will help me to write properly”, “it will help me to focus” and “when I go to big school, I will need to write.” We slowed down again and went back to the start. We looked at the letter Aa. I photocopied the page from the book the students are using. We looked at it and analysed it together. The uppercase ‘A’ should be two spaces high and take up the top two spaces. The lowercase ‘a’ should be one space and in the middle space. We homed in on the size and spacing. We noted the gap between each pair of uppercase letters also. Students set to work on this page for a second time. They were able to do so with control. I actually prepared a self-assessment with each of the five criteria – size and position of each letter, and then space between the letters. We went through this slowly together. Both answering for each category, students did take the time to look over all their writing. Interestingly, although this was completely a self-assessment, without fail, all students had ticked the same boxes I may have done. We noted again that we should pay attention to all five areas when writing. The outcome. Well, we did the self-assessment a day after the writing. Even in the time between, a girl specifically highlighted how she was following our criteria when practicing a different letter. This has happened again in the day since the self-assessment. Actually, I observed today all students paying greater attention. There has also been an increase in self-initiated writing practice over the last two days, although that may well just be a coincidence. What can we learn from this, however? Well, ways to guide writing development can continue to be reflected upon. A balance between open and project- or play-based early practice and more structured coaching to support could well have benefits, with intrinsic motivation, drive and curiosity nurtured throughout. Early years can be an appropriate time to start self-assessment, with scaffolds and supports as necessary. Indeed, it can be an opportunity to ensure agency and autonomy over writing development—something which can continue. Finally, at all times we need to focus on the why. Never be afraid to slow down or even take some steps back and discuss and address any issues or challenges directly with students.

Time was running out. Other groups were almost finished and ready to present to the class.Following some differences in ideas and preferences, the mood was a little low. Some of the enthusiasm that had been present at the table five minutes earlier had gone.It was at this moment that one of the girls in the group, who had possibly not stepped into a leadership-type role in such an activity before, stepped in and said, “We need to keep going. We don’t have long left. If we don’t, we might never finish. We can’t continue with our day.” It was a mathematics exploration lesson in my class of 5–6-year-olds. It was planned and delivered by one of my co-teachers. I am very humbled to have been able to watch and learn from it.The focus was on the mathematical skill of classifying and sorting. However, my colleague had found ways to make it much more than that. During the class discussion and introduction, she showed the students pictures of lots of different monsters and encouraged them to suggest names based on their appearance and characteristics. Here, creativity and English language were stretched – we are in China, and all the students are ESL learners.As a class, we worked together to categorize them in several different ways – colour, number of eyes, and spotty versus stripy. Here, there was also an opportunity to be exposed to new English language – spotty and stripy were new words – and sentence structures. After the practice examples as a class, the task was set: in your assigned groups, take two sheets of pictures of pairs of socks. Decide on a way to categorize them. Draw what the categories are as headings on the piece of paper. Then cut, sort, and stick your socks. Now, this group of five I was observing was initially very excited. Between them, they collected the resources and began talking with life and energy.However, soon challenges began to emerge. Three of them were very keen to be responsible for drawing the category titles. Although close friends, they felt very strongly about this, and some negative emotions began to stir. From the side at this point – one of the few times I involved myself – I reminded them that this was a conflict they would need to work to resolve. One of the girls worked to calm herself. The girl who would soon step in when someone was most needed relaxed herself and changed her tone of voice and language. “I am really sorry. I know you want to also, but I really want to draw this time. Is it OK? Next time, you can.” Seeing that the other two really were unhappy, she smiled and said, “OK. It is OK. You can do it. I can cut.” While this had been going on, another of the boys – not someone who might have taken the lead in a different situation – had stepped in and worked to manage the entire situation. “Two people cut, two people stick, one person draws.”Seeing that her two friends were still having challenges confirming who would draw, the girl then said, “You can talk about it. Or maybe you can play ‘rock, paper, scissors’.”The boy who had been taking the lead, still feeling tension, said, “It’s OK. You both draw. We cut,” he said, pointing at himself and the girl. “You can stick,” he said, pointing at the boy. They seemed more assured now. The boy who was now drawing reminded the group that they needed a rule. Little leadership was being taken here initially. The idea of colour was suggested, but many colours were present across all the socks, and no obvious path to follow emerged. The girl who had said she was happy not to draw eventually suggested that they could sort them so that the socks with patterns or small pictures were in one group, and those that were plain were in the other group. Up swept new tension, as others said they were not happy with this suggestion but needed time to think. Now tiredness was setting in. We hadn’t reached a decision. What could be done?It was at this moment that one of the girls in the group, who had possibly not stepped into a leadership-type role in such an activity before, stepped in and said, “We need to keep going. We don’t have long left. If we don’t, we might never finish. We can’t continue with our day.” Taking the prompting, the boy who had been taking the lead sprang into action, taking one of the sheets of paper with the socks himself and giving the other one to the girl. They began to cut. Immediately upon receiving them, the final member of the group applied the glue.The two who were down to draw had been continuing to sit a little begrudgingly. However, soon after their friends got to work, the girl picked up the pen and drew the picture of socks with pictures on one side of the paper as the category heading, and the boy drew the one for plain socks. Everyone got involved, helping each other with all parts of the process – cutting, sticking, and arranging. There was even some challenge when they realized the drawings for the category headings were very big and took up a lot of space. However, through some quick problem-solving, they realized that if the orientation of the cutouts was changed or they overlapped a little, this was not an issue. We got there! It’s important to stress also, as a teacher, that all I did was step in a small number of times to remind the group of what they needed to be doing or to ask an open or guiding question.I made a point of having a feedback session with the group afterward, with individual praise – “staying calm,” “suggesting solutions and ideas,” “being patient and staying calm,” “eventually staying focused on progress and getting the work done,”

The first sentence in the title of this post could suggest the advocacy of a big focus on academics during the early years. This is not what this is about, however, as we shall soon see. As a teacher, I am from a play-based background. My current class are now in the final year of kindergarten here in China, which is for 5–6-year-olds. I have been with them since they were 3, so this is now our third year together. The opportunity to practice maths has always come up naturally as part of our daily activities and in different contexts. We use it to solve real-world problems—but that’s a story for another day. What’s important here is that I’ve always used transition times to practice short, fun maths questions—a practice the students have also been keen to lead. We’ve practiced counting and simple addition, then moved to subtraction and multiplication, developing techniques together, for example, counting objects or fingers to help us. In addition, we’ve included real-life word problems, which have been an effective way to practice English listening and comprehension, especially with my students being English language learners. Recently, we’ve explored arithmetic with bigger numbers. Yesterday, a few of the students asked if we could try a new type of question. On the spot, I thought of an idea and asked one of them, “Do you want to do some algebra?” He asked what algebra was. I told him I’d show him an example. I asked, “If x + 5 = 7, what is x?”He initially replied that he didn’t know. I told him not to worry, but to listen again and think about it. After a little thinking time, he exclaimed, “It is 2!” We tried more similar examples, and each time—with a little thought—he was quick to follow what was happening. I’ve explored this with other students since then as well. They’ve approached the problem in the same open-minded way, also finding success. The most support I’ve given has been to repeat the question slowly, emphasizing its meaning. One of the girls asked, “But what is x?” I replied, “That’s what you need to tell me. Take your time. Think about it.” She did—and she worked it out. The activity has been met with curiosity and excitement, serving to exercise and celebrate thinking. One of the boys even began creating his own scenarios later, saying, “x is 5 and y is 10. What is x + y?” (I had asked some questions earlier using letters other than x.) It’s important to note that all of this was done as relaxed, playful activities, following the students’ own curiosity—not as a “class,” for example. Asking such questions to students of this age—and seeing them tackle them independently—can, of course, make you smile as a teacher. Algebra is something we often associate with an older age group. On reflection, though, questions like the ones I asked are actually well within the range of the mathematical thinking and number sense the students have at this stage. I had a natural feeling at the time that this was something they could try—and it was. What can we take away, then? Well, the age is not actually overly important. (Within reason.) Age is very much just a number. Students should develop at their own pace and in their own way. Challenges should always be within their zone of proximal development. With maths, we first want to focus on the real world and how techniques and skills are used there—contextualization, contextualization. But before diving into explanations or teaching techniques, we should ensure students have space to think and understand. Give them the information they need, then allow time to explore the problem themselves. This helps them gain a feel for what they’re doing and supports the growth of independent thinking and problem-solving. Looking at maths as a whole, it’s a broad subject—but its different parts, like numbers and algebra, are often directly related. We can highlight these connections to help students see the bigger picture and develop deeper understanding. For something like algebra, it has real purpose that connects naturally to numbers in the real world, and it’s number skills we can use as tools within it. It’s certainly worth introducing such ideas alongside foundational number skills—especially when interest and curiosity lead the way.

As teachers, dismissing students is very much a part of our daily routine. If we are class or homeroom teachers (as opposed to subject teachers), we might do it many times with the same group, even in one day. There really isn’t a correct way to do it. Often, it will depend on the time, the context, and the preferences of everyone involved. In some cases, it will be best to send everyone off at the same time, after clear instructions, if required. Especially if the situation is a timely transition, this might be best. Alternatively, it may be more appropriate to send students off in small groups. Where we can, for a dismissal from a class or group activity, it can be beneficial to make it both student-centered and focused on practicing skills. Allowing a student to lead the dismissal of their friends gives responsibility and reinforces routine. It can also provide an opportunity to practice polite language, or, in an ESL context, language itself. We could even turn the process of being dismissed into a game or role-play scenario, making it memorable while still practicing the skills of following a procedure, albeit a different one. Students can also have a very active task too — think a type of exit ticket. Since I first began working in the early years, two years ago, I have implemented an activity of stating criteria for being dismissed. It started out being about clothes. For example, “If you are wearing blue socks, you can go.” I expanded it slightly from there to include likes; for example, “If you like dinosaurs, you can go.” Usage has continued to diversify, and most recently I have included all types of criteria. “If you have two siblings, you can go…” “If you have a younger sister, you can go…” “If you have travelled to Japan, you can go…” “If you have a pet turtle, you can go…” “If your socks and shoes are the same colour, you can go.” Much of this relates to letters and the written forms of names, as students are in the early stages of reading and writing. For example, “If you have seven letters in your name, you can go.” “If the first letter of your name is an L, you can go.” “If the fourth letter of your name is a y, you can go.” Today, when I came to the last person, I even stopped and asked him, “Tell me anything you want to share about yourself,” allowing him to choose a category and to practice speaking. Indeed, speaking practice can be combined with all of the above if students then have to make their own sentence related to the criteria for which they are being dismissed as they go. This activity is especially useful, relevant, and effective in the early years, and particularly for ESL learners. However, there is no reason why it couldn’t be extended to different contexts, given the listening requirements. It would be most beneficial for students to be stretched in their zone of proximal development. However, even if less mental load is needed in comprehension, it could still be more varied than simply saying names. In all contexts, there could then be the opportunity for students to lead this routine. What can we take away then? Well, on the one hand, an activity like this is worth listening out for as an approach we could try. More deeply, remember dismissals can occur and be run in a variety of different ways; fit them to the context, never forgetting that they could be opportunities to practice new skills. More deeply still, remember to value and treasure every moment with your students; every transition; every part of your class or day. They can often happen in so many different ways.