From data to more fun in play: tips from ambassador Griet

You probably recognise it: you have a beautifully set up home corner, but hardly anyone seems to play there. Or you wonder whether that one quiet child seeks out enough variety during the choice moment. Measuring is knowing, but in a busy preschool classroom you have no time for complicated statistics. You simply want to see what your children need to grow.

Ambassador Griet Slaets, a preschool teacher at the Sint-Lambertusschool in Muizen (Belgium), shows that data doesn't have to be boring, but is actually the key to more fun in play and deeper engagement.

Why data is your best friend in the classroom

Data may sound cold or technical, but in preschool education it simply means: objective observation. We often rely on our gut feeling, but that feeling can be coloured by the hustle of the day.

In Griet's class, with more than 14 learning corners, it is impossible to see everything at once with the naked eye.

"Data helps me to really understand children's interests and adapt what I offer accordingly."

When you use data for stronger preschool education, you get an honest picture of:

• Popularity: which corners are chosen most and which are skipped?
• Interests: what do individual children spend their time on? Which children always choose the same safe activity?
• Social interaction: who plays with whom, and how long does that interaction last?
• Engagement: how long does engagement in a particular corner really last?
• Reflection: how do children respond to the activities through their feedback?

By using those insights, you shift the focus from administration to interaction. You see more quickly where support is needed, so every child gets the education they deserve.

How to get started with digital insights

Griet shares a few ways to start working with insights tomorrow:

• Use a digital choice board: let children choose independently on a tablet with their own personal symbols. That not only encourages their curiosity and freedom of choice, but also immediately provides valuable data on their choice patterns.
• Follow up on time use: don't just look at what they choose, but also at the average duration of an activity. Do they only stay somewhere for 12 minutes while you counted on 40? Then it's time to look at what you offer.
• Look out for "time thieves": do you have children who spend 40 minutes in the building corner, but actually spend 30 of them arguing over blocks? Data on time use helps you spot that.
• Vary your offer based on choice patterns: do you see that the puzzle corner is hardly ever chosen? Instead of removing the corner, you can adapt what you offer to the interests of the children who often play near that corner.
• Focus on the 'invisible' child: use your digital lists to check who you haven't observed closely yet that week. That way you prevent the loudest children from claiming all the attention.
• Analyse the sociogram: look at the data from the last 30 days to see who often plays together. That is valuable for parent-teacher meetings and for dividing classes for the first year of primary school.

Classroom example: from "quiet corner" to favourite spot

The situation

Through her dashboard, Griet saw that the light box and the book corner had relatively short playing times or were less popular. The data showed that children lost interest after 14 to 20 minutes on average.

The action

Griet decided to take action based on those insights:

• Book corner: she added QR codes with videos, figures from the story, search cards and a 'spinner' with search pictures to increase interaction.
• Light box: she expanded the offer from drawing activities only to building with transparent materials and tasks at three levels of difficulty.

The result

Engagement rose, because what was on offer now matched better what the children needed to deepen their play.

How Smart Symbols gives you an extra pair of eyes

Keeping track of all those patterns by hand is an impossible task. That's why Griet uses the features of Smart Symbols as an "extra pair of eyes" that do that work for her:

• Agenda and planning: manage activities and, where needed, limit them for specific children.
• Digital choice board: children choose their own activity, and the system automatically records the patterns.
• Emotion board: during the soft start in the morning, children click on feeling monsters. That way Griet can immediately have a chat about their well-being.

• Feedback function: after an activity, children add their own photos or feedback, which immediately gives insight into their experience.
• Real-time insights: with one click you see a pupil's social interactions and favourite corners.
• Digital observations: no more post-its getting lost; you note your observations straight in the app, linked to your goals.
• Reflection board: use data to start group conversations about what children learned and how they felt during an activity.

Conclusion

For Griet, using data for stronger preschool education is about an environment in which every child is seen. By relying on digital insights, she can keep improving the way she teaches and spend more time on what really matters: guiding her children. It's not about numbers, but about more fun in play. By knowing what really happens in your classroom, small changes can have a big impact on your children's development.

Ready to unleash that 'superpower' too? Discover how the digital choice board of Smart Symbols gives you an extra pair of eyes and brings more calm to your classroom organisation.

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