Storysack Activities with Rationale
Adult guided/ focus activity planning sheet for children’s activity.
| Group age: 4 to 5 years | Lesson length: 30 minutes |
| Area of learning: Speaking | |
| Learning intention: This lesson will focus on speaking where the students will be exposed to different tests that examine their reading and writing skills. To promote listening and attention, by ensuring that learners understand the significance of different aspects of language. | |
| Opportunities for assessment: This activity will create an enabling environment for instructors to monitor individual progress and their ability to understand various aspects that promote their literacy skills. | |
| Resources: Pens, paper, costumes, paint, scissors among other utilities.
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| Experience/activity: Learners will interact with different visuals that will provoke their thought process and encourage them to relate with the theoretical insights taught in class. By using the story sack concept, students will develop a visual attitude towards learning, which will likely enhance their cognitive functions. | |
| Adult input (including language to be introduced, questions to be asked): Instructors might engage the children during the play by being involved in certain roles that depict their influence in the play. Children will understand that the parents have invested in them, an aspect that will promote their confidence levels.
· Some of the questions that adults can ask the children are as shown below. · What will you do with the bear after catching the biggest of them all? · Why are you not scared of crossing the deep cold river? · What will you do if you get stuck in the thick oozy mud? · Are you dressed warmly for the swirling whirling snowstorm that awaits you?
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| Differentiation (how will you adapt this activity to meet EAL children’s needs?): By using the story sack, EAL children will understand the themes of the play and how they can contribute to the different learning activities. Even though native English speakers might have no problem understanding the components of the play, engaging EAL children on the specific aspects of the play will enhance their thought process.
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Adult guided/ focus activity planning sheet for children’s activity.
| Group age: 4 to 5 years | Lesson length: 30 minutes |
| Area of learning: Understanding | |
| Learning intention: To evaluate the ability of learners to comprehend different aspects of information addressed in the paper. | |
| Opportunities for assessment: Examining the children’s attitude in the class activities will require instructors to develop a bond with the learners that enables them to initiate conversations and obtain feedback from the students regarding areas they encounter difficulties during the learning process. | |
| Resources: Writing board, audio-visual equipment, and learning materials. | |
| Experience/activity: The students will be exposed to a learning environment where they can interact with the content taught in class. The instructors will then ask questions after the class sessions to identify the understanding levels of the students. | |
| Adult input (including language to be introduced, questions to be asked): Both instructors and parents have a role to play in the realization of this learning objective. If a child might have reading or writing problems, the instructor should be informed to avoid generalizing that all students have understood the concepts taught in class. | |
| Differentiation (how will you adapt this activity to meet EAL children’s needs?): By offering tailor-made approaches, instructors will enhance the cognitive functions of EAL children through the introduction of specific teaching methods that focus on addressing the issues affecting the learning process. | |
Adult guided/ focus activity planning sheet for children’s activity.
| Group age: 4 to 5 years | Lesson length: 30 minutes |
| Area of learning: Writing | |
| Learning intention: Expose the young learners to an enabling environment where they can grasp reading context and align it with the learning objectives. | |
| Opportunities for assessment: Instructors can review the children’s writing skills and offer insights that correspond to the learning goals. Children will also benefit from the guidance of their instructors and other factors influencing their performance in the classroom. | |
| Resources: paper, pens, pencils, and a white board.
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| Experience/activity: Students will be exposed to writing where the instructor can issue a certain topic and examine their ability to weave ideas into an interesting storyline. In their part, instructors will observe the writing skills of children before recommending ideas that resonate with their beliefs and values. | |
| Adult input (including language to be introduced, questions to be asked): Instructors can narrate a story to the children and require them to write any of the aspects that dominated the narrative.
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| Differentiation (how will you adapt this activity to meet EAL children’s needs?): Since EAL students might not be aware of the recommended writing skills, developing an approach that focuses on the specific needs of the student group will play a significant role in creating a team of individuals who are aware of the future. | |
Story sack Activities with Rationale
One of the earliest learning goals that are explored by instructors during their interactions with children is speaking and communicating with other people in their surroundings. In this case, children express themselves after listening to adults and other aspects of human existence in their immediate environment (Barber, 2018). Considering the ability of children to emulate human behavior, individuals are expected to expose children to an enabling environment where they can connect with other people and understand the best approach towards learning (Louws, van Veen, Meirink, & van Driel, 2017). On many occasions, children develop their perspectives by relating to events taking place in their surroundings and aligning their interests with societal expectations that dictate outcomes in the unforeseeable future.
Text Analysis
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt is a picture book developed by Michael Rosen with the help of Helen Oxenbury, who illustrated the different scenes, making it appealing to children (Sims & Tausere Tiko, 2016). The 1989 picture book has grown to become one of the most useful learning resources that enable children to comprehend certain aspects that determine their focus on language development (Song & Lee, 2019). When using this picture book to expose children to an enabling environment where they can understand the concept of language and literacy development, instructors will be required to use different story sacks such as drawings (Liston & Hennessy, 2018). Besides, the instructor can introduce a scaffolding activity to model the skill, give clues, and ask questions while the children are participating in the action, after which adult support is withdrawn (Appel, 2019). In this case, the scaffolding activity may range from asking children to describe the color of mud to that of grass and how they can cross the deep cold river.
Story sacks will enable the learners to visualize and develop a mental picture of the events taking place in the picture book (Filipi, 2017). These illustrations play a significant role in enhancing the cognitive functions of the students and their ability to comprehend the different activities taking place in the picture book (Arend & Sunnen, 2017). Some of the resources that can be used in this learning activity include pens, paper, costumes, scissors, paint, among others.
Rationale
Early Learning Goals for Communication and Language Development
Speaking
When using We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, instructors are expected to develop innovative teaching methods that focus on communication and language development. Some of the learning activities under this learning goal will range from public speaking to presentation to evaluate the ability of children to express themselves (Yıldırım & Akamca, 2017).
Understanding
Importantly, measuring the understanding levels of students enable instructors to identify certain children who have problems comprehending various insights taught in class. Analyzing the students encountering problems and evaluating their approaches in resolving the issues encourages individuals to discover their potential (Tisza et al., 2019). Likewise, evaluating the understanding levels of students enables instructors to make informed decisions about the teaching techniques they can use in the classroom (Waite, 2017).
Writing
Writing is an essential activity that children should understand during their interactions with the instructor in the learning environment. Notably, comprehending the techniques that can be adopted at any given time raises an issue that should be resolved by the instructor to ensure that the young learners can express themselves effectively through writing.
Scaffolding Activity for EAL Children
Introducing scaffolding activities in learning plays a significant role in exposing children to an enabling environment where they can discover their potential. Understanding the changing needs of individuals requires instructors to create favorable conditions where children can participate in role-playing activities that stimulate their interests by challenging their thought processes and other events in their surroundings (Wasik & Jacobi-Vessels, 2017). In this case, the instructor can preview the text with the children and then discuss the main vocabulary before exposing learners to a session where they read out loud to their peers (Zimmermann, Moser, Lee, Gerhardstein, & Barr, 2017). By breaking up the learning activities into smaller and intense properties, instructors can evaluate the ability of learners to comprehend specific topics that are crucial in their early childhood development (Chen & Law, 2016).
Literacy Learning Through Story Sack Activities
A Deep Cold River
Since it is impossible to draw and illustrate abstract elements such as temperature, the instructor is supposed to embrace creativity, which enables the children to connect with various aspects taking place in their surroundings. For instance, drawing a mountain and then including a river at its feet is enough to allow the children to create mental pictures about the cold temperature associated with the stream (Busch, Willard, & Legare, 2018). Understanding the issues that take place in the contemporary learning environment exposes instructors to a perfect environment where they can shape the perspectives of individuals towards the learning process.
A Big Dark Forest
When using the text, We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, a big dark forest is an essential element that enhances the thought process of the children into understanding the different thematic concerns addressed by the book. In this case, the instructor can draw a thicket and compel the children to paint the illustration to understand the role of the aspect in the entire text. From this realization, drawing a big dark forest and using it as a story sack will have an immense impact on the thought process of the children regarding the issues raised in the picture book (Johnson, 2017).
Long Wavy Grass
Grass is common to the children, but illustrating the wavy aspect of the vegetation used in the picture book might be challenging. In the process of incorporating these unique aspects that differentiate the identity of the primary objects highlighted in the book, instructors might pursue a specific ideology that focuses on the changing needs of individuals (Wood, Petkovski, De Pasquale, Gottardo, Evans, & Savage, 2016). Considering the fact that the learners might be unable to put their thoughts on paper, the story sack will define their perspectives and promote a talking point where individuals understand their attitudes towards the learning process.
Conclusion
On many occasions, children develop their perspectives by relating to events taking place in their surroundings and aligning their interests with societal expectations that dictate outcomes in the unforeseeable future. Instructors should focus on the different needs of students and expose them to an enabling environment where they can monitor their progress (Mermelshtine, 2017). From this observation, ensuring the students can write, communicate effectively, and understand the topics addressed in class influences the learning outcomes that can be achieved in the classroom. The use of story sack activities and scaffolding programs are informed by the need to expose both EAL and native learners to a broad scope of information where they can develop their literacy skills and language proficiency.
