ACfE In Action

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.