Writing

Writing is a fun way to get children to share their learning, ideas and to help them to encourage others to learn a new skill.

Recently in writing I have been taking children on walks around the school to help with their motivation.  This week we walked around looking and exploring autumn leaves.  We also walked around the school talking about native plants, exploring the parts of a plant, the purpose of a plant and looking at the differences between the plants.

During one of these lessons the children started exploring what was under their feet; sand, mud, worms, grass and how it felt.  Cultural awareness came into play as I tried to encourage a boy to take off his socks.  I was quickly told that in China they had to wear shoes everywhere.  Once the children started to relax, they quickly enjoyed the sensations and what they felt.  They started to explore all the wildlife around them.

During the inclass part of the session, the children excitedly ran up to inform me that a pukeko was wandering past the windows.  This caused great delight as the pukeko has been missing from the grounds in the past few years. 

Today they ran and found me and told me that they saw the pukeko today, walking past their door.  Their teacher videoed it so that could write about it.

A few weeks ago, I took a class into the gully.  We were checking on our tracking tunnels and exploring what we could see, hear, smell and feel.  The children wrote the most brilliant pieces of writing when they got back to class.  One boy was so excited about what he was writing he followed me around the class wanting to share his work.  He then shared it with his mum that afternoon.

It was a huge delight to share this classes writing with the Enviroschools Co-ordinator.  She was most impressed with their efforts and the variety of ways they wrote.  Their work will be on display for all to see soon.


It is great to see the children getting out and exploring the natural environment as a motivation for writing.  I love seeing them share what they can see and feel and using writing to encourage others to get out and explore the world.