So......after an amazing PD a couple of months ago, I was determined to bring some more language experience into my classroom. A thought that has consumed me since this PD is one that suggests we expect children's language to develop throughout their first year of school, yet the model of the Early Years is that of independent, focused and quiet work.......if we don't allow our children to use the language, how are they going to develop it? 
As it was nearing the end of Autumn and we were discussing the letter 'L' in our classroom, we spent the morning singing and reading about, looking at and creating with leaves! A quick search in YouTube inevitably returns some fantastic fun songs to introduce the topic with. We read a picture book about leaves and then talked about different types of leaves, why the change colour and drop off the trees in Autumn. Following that we went for a walk outside where we found so many different types of leaves! The kids loved finding 'evergreen' and 'deciduos' trees and collected many leaves along the way.
Some keen eyes even found some leaves that made their way into permanent status! Obviously it was a windy day when the concrete was laid in this part of the school! The kids were fascinated by the impressions that the leaves made in the concrete....I was impressed by the kids keen eyes!
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| Lots of leaves...leaves lots of mess! |
Following that we came back inside and created some amazing pictures with our leaves! The kids were happily chatting away about trees and leaves. This lead perfectly into our writing and the results were amazing....the kids produced some of the best writing they had all year. Writing about something that is familiar and something they have 'done' is so much easier for them. Hmmmm....now to ponder what langage experience fun can we have this term??
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| I was so impressed...this was an attempt to create an Australian Flag! |
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| So clever! |
