Think of where a dragon might like to fly to…
As the imagined worlds neared completion, the children noticed that there were now materials and resources around the classroom that they could use to bring the dragon and its environment to life.
Dragon mode – the story comes alive!
As we neared tidy-up time, we asked the teacher what she felt the children had covered from the curriculum. She spread her arms wide and exclaimed “ All of this, look! They have done home language, maths, cutting and painting, sticking, playdough and building, spelling, writing and reading. All with ONE STORY.”
Do mice read?
Children wrote messages to the mouse family and taped them to the walls of the mouse library. The children also went to write stories in the little blank books to add to the library collection and displayed them on the shelves.
Magic! Is anything possible in storyland?
Sive Mbolekwa, PRAESA literacy mentor, reflects on his sessions with Grade R children using the picture book An Extraordinary Egg by Leo Lionni (IQanda elinguMmangaliso). In this story, three frogs discover a…
Giving children choices helps grow healthy democracies
Sive Mbolekwa, PRAESA literacy mentor, reflects on his day in the classroom and the emphasis on obedience over choice that he observes. How will the children whose choices are so curtailed become the active citizens South Africa needs, he wonders…
The seriousness of Storyplay
Writing the children’s own stories as they dictate them is integral to PRAESA’s Storyplay work. We adapt the storytelling and story acting curriculum of Vivian Gussin Paley as we try to create respectful spaces for children to…
Exploring words with Leo Lionni’s Frederick
PRAESA’s Storyplay work in the Ububele Story Schools Project takes place in crèches and grade R classrooms. Reading and writing progress among young children happens when they have regular and meaningful…
Intersecting domain of children’s literacy and literature development
PRAESA director Dr Carole Bloch recently published a column in the Sunday World on the Nal’ibali campaign, aimed at developing multilingual children’s literature: We are all aware that increasing attention has been focused on the development of reading culture and on...
Learnings from young children – little dinosaur
Early childhood specialist NADIA LUBOWSKI co-ordinates PRAESA’s Storyplay initiatives. Here she shares some observations about her baby’s language learning process. One Sunday morning we had a family brunch…