Re-think

I was reading an text book from uni days for some ideas (turns out I use a lot of my text books in my teaching!) and came across this fact;

Children learn best and are most comfortable in small groups "with one more member than

they have had birthdays - in other words four children per group for 3 year olds and five

children per group for 4 year olds"

Young Children's Behaviour by Louise Porter, p. 148

How often would you see that kind of group in early childhood settings? All 'group' times I've witnessed are normally 10 or more children. Yet when I gather a few children spontaneously I find it naturally becomes about 4 children.

Should we be rethinking what we see as group time? Should we be rethinking how we create group experiences throughout the day?