My Aistear Journey: The Clothes Shop

In November, while studying a thematic unit based around 'Clothes', our Aistear activities centred around the clothes shop and I have to say, this was by far one of my class' favourite topics so far! 

During this unit, we played in the following play areas: 

1. Roleplay: The Clothes Shop

Layout and Resources: When setting up the clothes shop in my roleplay area I printed off and stuck up various clothes shop display signs (opening times, posters stating prices and items on sale, etc.). I left some blank price tags in a bowl for the shop assistant to use. I set up a till area with a cash register, play money and paper for receipts. I had a portable clothes rack at home which I set up at a lower height for the children and added some hangers to this to hang the dress up clothes on. I turned my play kitchen backwards to section off an area which I labelled as the changing room. I also added a tin foil mirror to the wall in this 'room' along with a chair for putting their dress up clothes on. Finally, I put labels on my shelves for anything that needed to be folded for display. 

Language Opportunities: While playing in the clothes shop, the customers discussed things they would like to buy and why they needed these items, asked for help if they needed it, told the shop assistant that they were 'just looking' if they didn't need any help, asked for a smaller or bigger size (small, medium or large) and asked for a discount from the sales assistant. The shop assistant's job was to welcome the customer, to help them find what they were looking for, to recommend items to them, to sort, hang and fold the clothes and to check out their customers.

2. Small World: The Clothes Shop

Layout and Resources: In the Small World basket the children had small world people and 'Barbie' clothes to dress them in/display in their shop. I also included some pieces of small play furniture I had bought in Lidl (shelves, wardrobe, table and chairs).
Language Opportunities: The scenarios played out in the Small World clothes shop were similar to those acted out in the roleplay area.

3. Construction: Building a Shopping Centre

Layout and Resources: The children used Lego, Duplo and blocks to build a shopping centre. I had printed off some images of shopping centres to give them some ideas. 

Language Opportunities: There were a lot of opportunities here for discussions about shopping centres they had been to, what shops/eating facilities they had in them, how many shops would be in a shopping centre, how they needed to include tills, aisles and a car park, etc.

 

4. Art: Dressing Paper Dolls

Layout and Resources: I gave the children some paper dolls and had them cut out, colour and stick on clothes onto the dolls.

Language Opportunities: This activity gave us the chance to discuss various types of clothing, why they chose certain clothing for their doll (job, age, weather, etc.) as well as various body parts. 

5. Water: Washing Clothes

Layout and Resources: Using the two sectioned sand table in my room, I filled one side with water and attached a string clothes line to the other. Then I gave them some pegs and doll's clothes to wash. 

Language Opportunities: During this activity the children washed the clothes, wrung out the water and hung them out to dry. 

If you are interested in more lessons based around the topic of clothes, check out this post for ideas in a variety of subject areas.

Teaching Word Families to Infants: 'i' Families

Following last week's post on how I teach various word families to my Senior Infant class, this week I am posting some resources to help you to teach word families that contain the letter 'i' as a medial sound (-in, -ill, -ip, -ig).

Note:These links contain PowerPoints I have made for teaching these word families which you can download and use for educational purposes. Others will bring you to stories you can find elsewhere online.

Word Families:

• -in: The Twin (Dropbox PowerPoint file that can be downloaded to your computer)
• -ip: Pip's Sore Hip (Dropbox PowerPoint file that can be downloaded to your computer)
• -ill: Bill Feels Ill (A YouTube link)
• -ig: Tig the Pig (Dropbox interactive PowerPoint file that can be downloaded to your computer)

If you happened to miss last week's post, you can find it here, along with all the resources you will need to teach word families containing 'a' as a medial sound.

Teaching Word Families to Infants: 'a' Words

Each week my Senior Infant class study a different word family. I teach these word families in the following ways:

1. On a Thursday I introduce the word family we will be focusing on over the next week. We then read a story which features a variety of these words on the interactive board (see end of post).

2. After we have read and reread the story, I have the children use their mini-whiteboards to draw a picture of each word which appears on the PowerPoint. We then compare their drawings with the revealed image.

3. I show them a picture of a word from the word family and they must try to write the word on their mini-whiteboards.

4. I print off the stories (print the PowerPoint slides to feature multiple slides on one sheet) and then send them home with the children the following week to read at home. Throughout the week we also practice reading the words in school.

5. One of the literacy centres they will complete the following week will include an activity based on this word family.

6. On a Friday we have an informal spelling test of words from this word family and some others we have covered previously, to check their learning.

Over the coming weeks, I will be posting the PowerPoint resources I use with my class during the year to teach these word families. Some of these links will include PowerPoints I have made for these word families which you can download and use and others will bring you to stories you can find elsewhere online. I hope you find these useful!

Word families featuring 'a' vowel;
The Cat on the Mat (Dropbox PowerPoint file that can be downloaded to your computer)
The Gingerbread Man (Dropbox PowerPoint file that can be downloaded to your computer)
Hap Can See (Link to PDF file that can be downloaded)
Shhh (Link to PDF file that can be downloaded)