This year, the writing table is one of the most popular centres in our classroom. I often hear from visitors to our class that teachers are having a hard time getting their kids to visit the writing table. My answer? BIG paper! The biggest paper you can find! In my experience, children are inspired by the prospect of a giant canvas. In my class this week, we added large paper (18×24) to the writing table. We are learning about teamwork and working together this month as part of our board’s character education program, so we discussed with the class that having large paper would provide an excellent opportunity for them to work with a partner (or two) to create a drawing or story. I was so pleased to see the children working together to choose a theme/topic and discuss the elements they wanted to include. Children easily shared materials and workspace, and were just as proud of the way they collaborated as they were with their finished products.

If you haven’t given large paper a go, I encourage you to give it a try!