Learning+Stories


 * Tamariki as Tuakana and Teachers — Whaea Pipa's Alphabet/Blends Game**

Each day we focus on letter recognition for 10 minutes. The children buddy up with a partner who complements them by knowing the names of the letters that they may not know, so together they know all the letters. They practice naming the letters by making two piles, #1. "I know" and #2. "I need to practice." They practice and then retest and practice again…

The children have been really enjoying this activity for a number of reasons. They get to be the leader, they can see progress in themselves and in their buddy, they get a chance to choose and create their own games using the letters for practice and extension. One of the extension activities was taught by Whaea Pipa (my mum) to one group of children, who have then taught the game to others. There are two levels of difficulty 1. Whaea Pipa's Alphabet game 2. Whaea Pipa's Blends game.

Storm and Zariah were buddies, first Storm showed Zariah Whaea Pipa's Alphabet game, and Zariah was really quick to pick it up. After they had played this for a while Storm decided to teach the Blends game. To help Zariah be successful as finding words starting with the particular s blend he had landed on, Storm would give one word beginning with that blend as an example. Zariah would then come up two of her own words beginning with that blend too. Zariah felt clever and excited by her success. What a great teacher Storm was as she made sure her student was having fun and that she could do it will just a little bit of support. Tau kē kōrua.

Bruno taught Taiko and Kayleb the game too. They had lots of fun doing this and were happy to stay on the 1st stage. Bruno's group took longer to play as there was more of them. Bruno knew there was no hurry to move on and gave them enough time to practice to get confident. Wananei koutou mā.

It's awesome to see the whole class busy and engaged and able to take on leadership roles. He mihi nui hoki ki kā tamariki i ako te kēmu, it's essential to allow others to be the leader, while learning a new skill. I think this means the children are able to manage themselves to meet their needs as learner. Hōtō koutou mā, Akomaka 10.