Over the November long weekend, three students in our class went to a magic show. They were excited to share and their parents gave some details of the trip when they dropped off. This connection was vital as it gave validation to the students and encouraged them to share at our morning circle. That afternoon students were interested in doing magic tricks which meant pulling water bottles out of witches’ hats.
As this magic show topic seemed to peak interest, we decided to drop castles and move on. The next morning, we had a class brainstorm about what sort of things would we need to make our drama centre into a magic show. The class had really good ideas. We even voted on a name: Abracabanana! That afternoon my co-teacher and I collected supplies and set up the drama centre as a theatre with opportunities for students to add more detail, design candy, tickets, and more.
Earlier that week we had been challenged in our curriculum meeting to explore what text structures we could introduce to our students. We took this opportunity to explore posters and discuss what information a good poster needs. When they play in the drama centre, they can put up their poster!