We decided this week to introduce a simple provocation to the children in PS1, with the goal of continuing to reveal just how prevalent letters (of the alphabet) truly are in our world. A week or so back a child asked me if we could have a dress-up (costume/fancy dress) day in school, I took the idea to the group and asked if they would like to come to school one day next week, not in regular clothing, but in something different. I gave three possible options, based on interests we have noticed in class and previous successful dress-up days:
Since the votes were even, we decided not to select only one, but to allow children to choose on the day. Now that we knew which outfits were going to be worn, I explained that we needed to ask permission from Ms. Robyn, our Assistant Principal, in order to dress up. I projected onto the screen while together we constructed the email seen below. The children were excited to spot letters they recognised from their own names and the names of their friends as I typed. We were able to again make the connection that letters form words, which in turn can be read by others. Afterwards, each child drew a picture of themselves in the outfit they hope to wear next week. We waited excitedly to see if Ms. Robyn would reply and give us permission. The next day, we immediately checked the email, and found a response. Hooray! She said yes (see below). This was exciting news, and when Ms. Robyn walked by the Early Learning Centre playground later that day, several children ran to her excitedly to let her know that they had read her email and that they were going to dress up next week. So now we knew what each child wanted to wear on dress-up day, and we had permission from Ms Robyn. The next important step would be to let parents at home know, so that they could help in the preparation of the special clothing. The children were invited to write a letter to their parents. Some wanted to use emergent writing to have a go themselves, others preferred to dictate the letter to me, so I could do the actual writing. Each child then signed their name before putting the letter, along with the picture drawn the previous day, in an envelope which we then addressed to parents. The children were very excited to take their letters and pictures home to share. Dress up day is next Wednesday, 26th February, and we look forward to seeing a variety of superheroes, animals and pyjamas on this day! Next week will be our final week of focus on our first line of inquiry, Letters in our world. After this, we will begin to consider the second line of inquiry, The value of letters. During this part of the inquiry, we will think about how letters are of use to us, and perhaps what the consequences might be if we didn't have letters, or what happens when the letters are incorrect. Stay tuned! International Mother (Home) Languages DayToday we celebrated this day by considering the variety of languages spoken just in our own class community. Our thanks go to Isla's father for coming in to read a book in his native Scots to a group of children, and also to Enrico's mother for reading to the other half of the class in her own native language, Spanish. The children very much enjoyed hearing a story read by our special visitors! Afterwards, we spent time looking at the books written in home languages that the children had brought from home especially for the day. We talked about which languages were spoken in our homes. In our group today we had eight languages represented by the children alone. We are truly very fortunate to be part of such a genuinely international setting.
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