Storytelling - Recount

I did not receive professional development about transferring the storytelling process over from a familiar story to a recount about a child's experience. I decided that after the holidays I would use the same process to help the children write their story in-depthly and in a good sequence.

I adopted the hear map step and then write:
Hear: children shared their stories with more that one buddy.
Map: Children had to draw a story map of their holiday with at least 5 pictures. This was a challenge for some as the children had to rely on their own memory, I could not model their stories for them.
Step: Children stepped out their stories. Again this was a challenge as every child had their own story they could not do it in buddies.
Write: Children had to write 2 ideas per picture.

My findings: the children's sequencing of their ideas was better as they followed their map for recall of their experience. The language was not as in depth as the other stories. The children found some parts of this process a bit more challenging as they could not work with their peers.

Kupu O Te Wiki

The teacher at the school who is in charge of the cultural committee runs 'kupu o te wiki,' the Maori word of the week. I have recently begun helping her to distribute these to the other teachers to help prompt the use of te reo Maori in classrooms.

Last term we focused on the weather. This was great as this related to our inquiry for the term. Each morning I went over each one and the children had to choose the one that matched our weather for the day.

One thing that blew me away was that one of my children begun to use this knowledge in his writing. He used the Maori words to describe the weather in his story. It was so exciting to see!

Storytelling - Maui and the Sun

Maui and the Sun For this story I found resources harder to find but there were some interesting ones I used.  ·         Deepening: Instead of stepping Room 7 acted out this story in groups. They loved acting out the story and this helped them to remember it for later.  Completed a picture dictionary. This was useful to help develop the understanding of the Maori language incorporated in the story.  ·         Story sequencing: Putting images in order. Discussed the movie 'Moana' and compared the character Maui from the movie with the one in the book.  Read other Maori legends with the character Maui in it to further explore this character.  ·         Imitation: Retold the story in writing. ·         Invention: Wrote the sun was dangerous and how to protect yourself from it. Story picture sequencing: My findings: The children found acting out this story a lot of fun. I found for 6/7 year olds acting out the story was easier to grasp that stepping out the story.  Once again the retell of the story was very well written even with my reluctant writers. as they knew the story well and they had multiple resources to help them remember the story, they were not as reliant on me or my modelling to help them remember the story.