LATEST STORIES
There’s a Troll Under Our Bridge!
Today was a beautiful, sunny, blue-sky, Christchurch Winter’s day, and our Mako and Montessori classes were outside enjoying the sunshine with their teachers. A group of children were enjoying the bridge when Kaiako Mari reminded the children of the Billy Goat’s Gruff story. Next, Mari decided to be the troll under the bridge and invited the children to be the goats trying to cross the bridge. Mari reminded the ‘goats’ of their lines in the play and helped the children to say their words so they could safely cross the bridge without getting eaten by the troll!
While the Mako class often acts out their favourites stories as plays in their classroom, this impromptu play-acting was something special – reminding us of the value of literature for young children and how with a vivid, child’s imagination we can incorporate our favourite stories and characters into our playtimes. It is encouraging for teachers to see how much children remember of these classic stories outside of the classroom too.
As many goats cross Mari’s bridge, the game started to evolve, and soon the children were playing ‘rock, paper, scissors’ with Mari to see if they could cross her bridge safely! So lovely to see our learners understanding how to play this simple game, and able to accept graciously and happily the winning and losing and waiting for another turn.
It's moments like these when we see our hard work in the classroom and planning room come to fruition in the everyday play of our happy learners.