Grandparents and Grandfriends Day

Today we had Grandparents and Grandfriends Day. About a month ago we sent out invitations to grandparents inviting them to come to our class from 10am - 12pm with the intention of sharing what life was like when they were children. We didn't get many replies, so we were uncertain as to how the day would pan out.

Prior to the arrival of the Grandparents, I explained the structure of the session to my students. I reminded students of the sorts of questions they could ask and the sort of topics that we wanted to find out more about. Some of the children who did not have guests coming had brought in photos to talk about instead - so they shared their stories with the class. Then I got the kids to sign their names on the back of certificates Kym (another Year 1 teacher) had made to give to our guests.

When our guests arrived, I showed them a bit of a Smart Board presentation (thanks again to Kym) and then the children introduced their guests to the class and asked them three key questions:

• What is your name?



• When were you born? and



• What was your school like?

Once everyone had been introduced we divided into smaller groups. In these groups students asked questions and listened to more detailed stories. Some guests even brought photos and artifacts with them. After about 5 minutes, the students rotated to a new grandparent/grandfriend and asked some more questions. This continued until everyone had had a chance to speak to all the guests.

As we still had a few minutes before we were due to have our picnic in the school's native garden, we sang a few songs for the grandparents - good oldies like "On the Good Ship Lollipop" and "The Teddy Bear's Picnic".

We thanked our guests for all their help and gave them their certificate. Then we headed out for our picnic. The picnic was lovely and it was a nice way to conclude the time with our guests.

As the kids had learnt so much during their chats, I didn't want to lose this valuable information. So when we came back in after lunch, the kids wrote down what they learnt in their Integrated Studies Books. I was amazed by how focused they were. They worked silently without me saying a word! As they finished off, I got them to jot down on a post-it note what they liked or didn't like about Grandparents Day. It was great to see their feedback. They were all very positive about the experience. Some of the comments were:

"I did like it, but I wanted to get more old people. But it was the best."

"I think it was good because it was a lot of time with them."

"I liked it because it was a bit like chatting - a conversation."

"I liked it all."

"I liked it because we were in groups and I was with my best friend and her granny first."


The class then paired up with each other and read the notes that they had made about what they learnt. Once they finished with that partner they found a new partner and so on, until I could see they were becoming unsettled. I think they enjoy sharing their work with each other like this.


Because everyone had worked so hard, we had a bit of a treat in the afternoon. We went out into the playground and did some skipping and hopscotch - both games from the past. For the last 15 minutes of the day we read a story called "Grandpa's Surprise" by Rosalind Beardshaw.

What a busy day!!

Feedback from Grandparents was positive - they enjoyed the experienced and had fun reflecting on their memories from their early days. We teachers also loved the day. It makes the learning so much more meaningful. The challenge now is to get the whole school to participate next year!

The Way We Were - Update

Today was the first day back to school for this term. Two weeks of vacation allowed us to relax a bit and I was impressed with how "ready to learn" the kids were today. We jumped straight back to work with students doing some really impressive writing.

We will be having our "Grandparents and Grandfriends Day" on Wednesday, so today we thought a little more about Grannies. We read "Our Granny" written by Margaret Wild and illustrated by Julie Vivas. We discussed our own grannies as we read each page. Then students drew a picture of their granny and wrote a few sentences to describe their granny using 'is', 'has' and 'does' as guide words. Like I said earlier, there was some really impressive writing. One little girl even attempted a number-bulleted list of how her granny helps people!

I finally found a way to share lesson plans etc using Google Docs, so click here for an overview of our program:

Overview of The Way We Were

And if you missed my earlier blog with details, click here:

The Way We Were

The Way We Were

This week my grade began a unit of work called “The Way We Were” focusing on what life was like when the students’ grandparents were children. I am very excited about this unit of work and have been searching out useful resources.

YouTube has some segments and trailers from movies and television programs of this era: Shirley Temple, Little Rascals, Popeye, Bambi, Singing In The Rain, Lone Ranger, The Wizard of Oz...

I found a local seniors computer club that we will communicate with via email. I contacted the convenor, and they passed my details onto relevant people within the organisation. At least 6 people have replied, so we will have a couple of people for each class. We will brainstorm questions as a class, write the email, and then send it off. I'm hoping we will then be able to scan in student work and send it to say thank you. We're also getting word out to the kids' grandparents to see if any of them would like to communicate with us via mail, email or fax.

The principal has agreed to prepare and present “A Day in the Life of Me as a Child”. I think this will be great! And another teacher has offered to bring along a little suitcase of goodies she has kept from her childhood.

We are going to create a “Time Machine” in the classroom where we will store and label artifacts that we can find. (We have a lockable storeroom we will use for this in order to keep the items safe.) One of the teachers grew up in a house that is about to be heritage listed, and so has many items to share and ponder. I'm going to check out what I can find at my parents' place this weekend.

Early next term we will have a “Grandparents and Grandfriends Day” where students will get to ask their Grandperson about their childhood. We will do some singing and activities together in the morning and then share a picnic together.

Another day we will simulate a school day of the past. We will research, plan and timetable it with the students so that everyone knows what to expect. I've heard of other teachers doing this (and finding it exhausting!).

My desire for this unit of work is that it will be driven by the memoirs and stories of students’ grandparents and the email communication from the Seniors Club. I feel this would be much more valuable to the children than if I just do a bunch of research and spoon feed it to my class. I'll let you know how things progress.

UPDATE: Click here to see an overview of our program: Overview of The Way We Were Feel free to use it to help direct your own program on personal histories, and feel free to contact me for further details.