animal storytelling with grades 1 and 2 at Diefenbaker

On Friday, I visited Margaret Choinski's grades 1 and 2 class at Diefenbaker to hear and see the stories the students have been working on. This class is part of our district's QTL project looking at playful storytelling and oral literacy.

The class had read the book Sharing Our World: Animals of the Native Northwest Coast by Garfinkel Publications during which they learned about the importance of different animals in local Aboriginal culture. Each student chose an animal that was important to them and this was a character in their group stories.

The students went outside and collected various materials to create their settings. They wanted to be able to create forests, beaches and tree top settings.

Margaret gathered paper box lids for the students to create their settings in. This gave the students a defined space and also made the settings portable and able to be "saved".

The students then created their settings - one of their favourite parts of the project. They thought carefully about the types of habitats their animals would live in.

The class chose the themes of friendship, family and helping others for their stories. Margaret provided some guiding prompts on a chart to help the students frame their stories and keep them focused (I am, We live in the, One Day...). The students practice their stories orally many times before sharing them and having them Margaret record them on the iPad. During my visit, several of the groups presented their stories to me. You could tell they knew their stories were well, were proud of their work and had fun moving the animals around in the setting as they told their stories.

At the end of my time in the class, Margaret connected her iPad to the projector and shared a few of the groups' recorded stories. The students loved seeing and hearing their stories on the big screen!

A short animoto with parts of the stories:


The students were so proud of their stories and told me they thought the best part of the project was creating their settings and presenting their stories.
~Janice

playful storytelling: an introduction to QTL

Richmond is one of six districts to have been selected to take part in this year's iteration of BC's Quality Teaching and Learning Project (QTL). Representatives from the six districts meet throughout the year to share their projects and learn together. We also have meetings for the teachers involved at the district level. The proposal we submitted was several pages long but in brief the project looks at the role of playful storytelling in the early primary classroom, using natural materials and animal toys and stories. The main areas of focus are on oral literacy and on teaching through the First Peoples Principles of Learning. Kits were provided to each school team and each school has its own focus, such a personal stories or stories about self, environmental awareness, place-based learning and Aboriginal cultural awareness.  In Richmond we have four schools involved: Blair, Blundell, Diefenbaker and Kidd. Marie Thom (Early Learning Teacher Consultant) and I help to facilitate the project.

Our first district meeting was at the end of November and school teams shared what they were doing at their schools and teams also received some new materials to add to their kits.

Marie and I spend time at the schools, capturing and collecting data for the project and documenting the schools' experiences. Last week, I visited both Diefenbaker and Kidd.

At Diefenbaker, Michelle Hikida hosts the project work in the library. Last week, teachers Linda Radford and Kelly Hinks brought their K/1 and K classes to the library. A story from the kit, Just a Walk by Jordan Wheeler, was read and then the students were asked to choose an animal character and think about what adventures it would have when it went on a walk. Different materials were set up on the tables in the library and the students were very engaged with the materials and their stories.

We video and audio recorded some of the students' stories and the students also enjoyed sharing their stories with their classmates.

And a short little animoto video of some of the playful storytelling experiences with the K and K/1 classes at Diefenbaker:



At Kidd, I did an introduction to the kit with Penny Nakamoto's grades 2 and 3 class and Laura Birarda's grades K and 1 class. Each class was then given time to explore the materials and books in the kit, beginning their storytelling experience.

This project has so many connections across curriculum areas and engages students in many of the core principles of the new BC Transforming Learning curriculum frameworks.

 ~Janice