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!

Puzzling Artifacts

Yesterday I tried out something new in the quest to one day get podcasting up and running with my class. As part of our "The Way We Were" unit of work, I wanted my students to explore artifacts and make predictions of their use and functions from their observations. I wanted to see how this would work as a discussion forum recorded in Audacity.

These are the artifacts that I used. All kindly lent to me by Kym - another Year 1 teacher:

I covered the items before the class came back in from their recess break. When they came in I told them what we were going to do and divided them into panels of four. We ran one panel at a time with the rest of the class listening on as an audience.

My initial plan was that I would introduce the task on the recording and then hand the microphone over to the panel to do the talking. But as I found, this was a bit too high of an expectation given that this was the first time we had done the activity. I found that the panels needed more guidance as they talked through their ideas. I encouraged their thinking a little once they mentioned something relevant. I said things like "I like how Fred mentioned fire. Let's work a little more on that idea..."

I was impressed by how well the students did at working through their ideas. As you can see, not all of the artifacts are easy to identify! My next task is to edit the audio - as there were some silences while the children thought about things, and there were some reminders from me for the rest of the class to behave appropriately!

Now that I have a better idea of my role in the forum/panel, I would love to have another go and see where it takes us. Today one boy brought in an old iron - the sort you need to put in the fire to heat. I encouraged the class to share their ideas about what it could be, using the same technique. Maybe next week we will have another go at the same task, coming from a more experienced position.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on what these artifacts are. Leave me a comment with your ideas...