In a two-teacher, Year 2/3 team at Te Kura O Wharenui in Christchurch, Ashleigh Kerin (team leader) and Monique Lee found an innovative idea for starting off their year. The whole school had a learning theme focus on ‘Journeys and Aspirations’ and Ashleigh and Monique wanted to draw on the expertise and experiences of their students and families with this topic. Within their group of 40 students, over 70% speak a language other than English at home and many had personal experiences to draw on and contribute. They wanted multiple opportunities and interactive ways that students could connect to the topic to explore ‘who we are, where we come from, and the special people and places in our lives.’
One task they designed was a class ‘I spy’ poster. Students spent time chatting with families about the symbols and images that represented aspects of their family origin and journey. Images included flags, animals, buildings, food, birds and other icons and were created independently and at home. They also connected the Ngāi Tūāhuriri journey they were studying in school. Nearly 100 images were collated together in their class ‘I spy with my little eye’ poster. Students were able to talk confidently about their images and their friends’ images through speaking and listening to each other and practice specific English sentence models – Can you spy the …? I can spy the… A magnifying glass was used to highlight and focus attention. Students gravitate to the poster before and after school and many parents have been pulled in to play ‘I spy’. Ashleigh reports that by sharing the images and stories they valued, the students all got to know more about each other and felt very proud of what they could contribute.
