When it comes to literacy in the classroom, I like to create an environment that encourages writing. I want my children to light up when they hear “Open mirror, today we will focus on our writing… close mirror”. One way of accomplishing this is by changing up the way I approach my lessons. I find that in doing this it keeps my  lesson fresh and my class engaged in the task at hand, despite the fact that they had completed the introduction to this task only one or two days ago.

Introducing “I can write a List”, Lesson Two.

Writing lists can be a hit or miss with your little ones. Fortunately for me, my class seems to enjoy them. The only bump we hit in Lesson One, was that after they had written three or four items on their list, they became a bit stuck and began to loose interest. Luckily, I work with an amazing and very supportive team, and after having spoken with them over lunch, I was delighted to find this amazing lesson idea left on my desk.  Genius! So simple yet soooo effective.

After an hour or so of printing and laminating, say hello to my little friend.

The laminated trolley that features a laminate pocket and matching game.

(insert smiley emoji with love heart eyes)

This hands on activity brought our lesson alive.

The children absolutely loved searching their shopping trollies to find a variety of goodies. You would be surprised at how excited they became, so much so, they  began imitating the shopping experience, and wanted to start straight away.

With their new found energy for writing lists, my wonderful First Class boys and girls produced amazing work and thoroughly enjoyed this writing task. Here is a step by step view of how the lesson unfolded.

Step 1: First, I asked the children to match the images to their corresponding labels and choose which ones they wanted on their list.

Step 2: Next, the children had to apply their previous knowledge of writing a list and ensure they followed the correct structure to their work. I had a rubric available for differentiation.

Step 3: Finally, once the children had completed their lists, I had them look over their work before passing it to their neighbour. Their neighbour had to tell them two likes and a wish. Two things they liked about their work, be it handwriting, spellings, they remembered their fullstops etc, and a wish. A wish could be to take care of spellings, capital letters and title.

Overall this lesson was extremely successful, and will most definitely be my ‘go to’ activity for a hands on experience in the classroom. I am also planning on incorporating the shopping trolley into a math lesson for measures; money.

I hope you found this post helpful 🙂

Happy Teaching

Múinteoir Amy