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!
@kfensom, This is so wonderful, and thank you for sharing! What a template for learning at large that you’ve offered. Meeting the students at a place of excitement in their own life experience! It’s hard to imagine a better beginning for learning. And then engaging the student’s creativity and curiousity in designing learning – through creative expresion no less! I can’t wait to watch your action plan develop. I wonder if part of your articulation of your experience can include a template applicable to all educators (and learners) and well beyond the context of a SK class. Oh yeah, “Abracabana” is an unreal name. I’d love to be an audience member!
Hi Graham,
Thanks for the compliments! It’s always a little busy (and sometimes chaotic) when running the program that it’s nice to get some feedback.
Do you mean a template for this particular activity? I’m trying to create a roadmap of the activities we are running this year so that we have a good idea of how next year can work. As direct instruction literacy has been introduced this year in our classroom we are trying to re-think how meaningful writing that matches our Science of Reading program can fit in.