Playful, Purposeful Writing

With so many boys in my class the girls interest in fairies  was bound to be translated into something a little more manly at some stage. When S rushed in from the playground to tell us that she saw two little eyes peeping out from underneath our classroom my kids immediately started hypothesising what it could be.  We brainstormed our ideas and then the children who were interested in doing so drew what they thought could be under our class.

I often ask children to draw their ideas as I find it helps them to verbalise their thoughts more fully and use more descriptive language when communicating their ideas. Recording what they say about their drawings also provides the perfect opportunity for modelling the writing process in a meaningful way.  

Later that day, during playtime, I heard my children chatting excitedly about what could be under the classroom as they peered under. This had really sparked their interest!

Th next day we received a letter from a Gnome called Norman, currently residing underneath our room,  and this provided the catalyst for more spontaneous, purposeful writing...

Letters were exchanged back and forth for quite some time, a number of houses were built for Norman  and the children were engaged in:

Representing their ideas verbally and visually and modelled and independent writing experiences that were meaningful to them.