Writing Inspired By Visitors

If you haven't been following the last few posts, our students had become quite intrigued by the thought of visitors visiting their space when they were not at school.  We used this as a learning opportunity, and showed them documentation of our open-house event in hopes that it would make them appreciative of their environment and take pride in their hard work.  After discussing their thoughts and questions, we pretended to "visit" our classroom.  This inspired our students to write, as though they were visitors.

Here are a few examples (however almost the entire class had a paper and clipboard in hand!):

It was so interesting that some of the students wrote their classroom feedback using pretend names like "Ms. Loon," or formalized their own names by adding Mr. and Mrs.  I have to admit, I am so impressed by the sophistication of their thought processes, and the quality of their writing!

Finally, here are some documentation notes from the conversations that followed their writing:

Ms. Babalis: Talk to me about your writing, thinking, and questions regarding your pretend classroom visit.  Share with me what you were wondering about the visitors.:

S.F.: I wonder about how many teachers were in the class!

Ms. Babalis: There were fifty.

S.F.: Fifty? That's too much!

Ms. Babalis: Why?

S.F.: Because how did you do that?  Why did fifty visitors come to our classroom?

M.H.: I wonder why everyone wanted to come and see us.

T.A.: I wonder why they came from a long way!

L.C.: I wonder why they liked my work.

E.M.: I was wondering what they were thinking about!

T.M.: Look at the writing! Some drew very slowly and they did not rush!

J.A.: I like the picture in the sky inquiry table.

Ms. Babalis: Why?

J.A.: Because the kids who painted the pictures turned out to look good.  They are creative with acrylic paint!

M.L.: Your class is very clean and you keep the papers sorted and I like your work.  You are marvellous.  The flowers are beautiful.  Your classroom is beautiful.

J.G.: I like the classroom, because it is clean and it is beautiful.  Everything in the classroom is beautiful.  The sky inquiry is beautiful, because it has skies and sky paintings and the paintings are beautiful. 

So there you have it!  Students as young as four years old can reflect about their work and admire its beauty.