How do you feel about worksheets? Love them? Hate them? Use them sparingly?
I would say I’ve never been greatly in favour of worksheets. I’m not saying I never used them, but I used them sparingly. If I could do something as well or better without using a worksheet I would. There were a few reasons for this:
- I valued children’s own work and didn’t feel the need to “pretty” up their books with the work of others.
- I always looked for ways to progress children’s learning as opposed to keeping them busy.
- I liked to reduce our paper usage.
Available on the internet and in bookstores are oodles of collections of worksheets; worksheets for anything you can imagine. You can spend hours trawling through websites looking for a sheet to support learning or practice a specific concept. Some of that time could be better spent considering other opportunities you could provide children for learning or practice, or even doing something pleasant for yourself for a change. Now there’s a thought.
When you think you may want a worksheet, or come across a worksheet that you may want to use, stop and evaluate its potential benefit:
Continue reading: readilearn: What place do worksheets have in your early childhood classroom?
Norah Colvin 
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