ACfE In Action

Today was interesting! I spent the morning getting the children to tell me about what they have enjoyed learning, what they have learned and what else they would like to find out about. I recorded this so I could play it back and therefore be clearly involved in the conversation and not furiously taking notes.It was obvious that children really benefit and appreciate being out and about on trips. These are really valuable educational experiences. We should do our best to find ways round expense, parent helpers and risk assessment to get children out more! They love it!What they learned - summary This is where my evidence on the trips comment above came from. Even though Katie and I made every effort to ensure active learning within the classroom, which was personalised and involved choice, almost all the children reported back that the things they learned most about or enjoyed was during our visits. Luckily then they have a few more to go on after Oct hols that could not be arranged for before - a beach visit with an East Lothian ranger and a tour of Seton Collegiate Church.

This morning Primary 4W performed their shadow puppet plays to the nursery children.To begin with they put the finishing touches to their puppets,collected scripts and headed to the music room.They were all very excited about performing.They had obviously been rehearsing since last week and were keen to show off their skills.

They decided to put down cushions for the nursery to sit on.The screen was set up and the first group prepared to perform.It was fantastic to see each group perform with confidence and enjoyment.Team work was evident in that they helped each other with lines,sorted their positions behind the screen and listened carefully as each of them spoke. The audience laughed and clapped!(And sat beautifully too!)

After the children got back to the class they were asked to evaluate their performances using ‘2 stars and a wish’ ( self assessment) .The results were amazing.Having expected lots of vague comments such as ‘It was good’ or ‘I did well’ there were 38 specific ’stars’ (we were very expressive, spoke clearly,our puppets were really clear,our timing was great,Shaun tried his best). The 15 specific wishes related to how they could improve next time(speak louder, we could have learned our lines better,I wish I had said mermaid instead of dolphin)

They definitely had given their comments some thought.We should never underestimate children’s capacity to think and learn for themselves.The children displayed enthusiasm, creativity and confidence. The children took ownership of this project and proved they could carry it off- a truly enterprising project from beginning to end! Tomorrow we evaluate the whole project so it will be interesting to see what the children have to say.