My kids are nuts about birthday parties. It doesn’t matter if the birthday party is a real event or a play event, it’s always met with a smile. I am often able to bring tantrums to a halt with the mere suggestion of having a (pretend) birthday party. Tears stop as we gather friends around. There’s the busy scuffle as we sort out the party food. There’s always cake, of course, but not before we all sing the “Happy Birthday” song.

There are as many definitions of play as there are people. I most definitely believe in the importance of free play. However, I also believe that structured play has its’ place.

In this series, writing through structured play, you will find structured play scenarios with various literacy opportunities. Literacy is often confined to reading and writing.

However, literacy includes talking, listening, visual literacies (eg viewing and drawing), and critical thinking.
Structured play gives an excellent opportunity to build on a child’s previous experiences. Today, we’re all about birthday parties. Creating structured play of a birthday party provides opportunities for a number of literacy events. This may include:

• Decisions about the party: lists of we need / plan of layout
• Invitations: letters/emails/phone/video invitations.
• Getting help for the party: letters / emails / phone invitations for help from friends and family.
• Cooking for the party: recipes/information about allergies of guests/shopping lists for food
• Shopping for party supplies: searching for suppliers/shopping lists for supplies

Writing through structured play, e.g. a birthday party, gives children a real purpose for writing and provides a readily understood context for the introduction of new text forms. Scaffolding your child through the literacy events of structured play may include:

• Modelling a text
• Jointly constructing a text
• Working alongside children who are writing independently
• Providing a framework that structured the content and format of the text
• Drafting, editing and re-writing, depending on purpose and audience.

A pretest: N & M (4y.o.) write birthday invitations.They displayed an understanding of some print conventions i.e. writing from left to right; starting from to top of the page and working their way down as well as some letter shapes.

Structured play offers many learning opportunities. Follow a child’s lead. Use discussion to help them question taken for granted ways of thinking. Help them think beyond themselves. Spend time playing with children and getting down to their level, because #playmatters.

The post Writing Through Structured Play: Birthday Party by Pauline appeared first on Lessons Learnt Journal.

 Materials
Balloons of various shapes, colours and patterns
Masking Tape
A wall

Notes from the Trenches

Tie a piece of string/ribbon to the end of the balloon and stick the string/ribbon to the wall using masking tape. This is harder than it sounds, especially when you have to place the balloons close to each other.

I purchased a hand balloon pump thinking it would make light work of inflating all the latex balloons we had ordered. I am glad we did have the pump, as I can’t imagine blowing up all these balloons; but even with the pump, it took us about 2 hours to finish our balloon wall. So, plan for ample time to inflate the balloons and stick them onto the wall.

It’s also worth purchasing good quality masking tape. We used a pretty ordinary one and the balloons kept falling off the wall. Most frustrating to us who set up the wall, but the kids enjoyed it. They looted whatever fell off the wall, (which made packing up easier for us).

 The kids gasped when they first saw the balloon wall. They knew something special was happening. It’s a fun visual way to mark the celebration of a special occassion. It’s also a beautiful backdrop for those special celebration photos. We’ll be creating more balloon walls for future celebrations; and hopefully next time we start constructing the wall at 8pm rather than 1am.

May 2012

The post Parties: Balloon Wall by Pauline appeared first on Lessons Learnt Journal.