A Week -Long Activities in Language Arts

A. Introduction

Since most children have relevant experience with different types of clothing and most of them have their own closet at home, I decided to have this relevant experience as my topic for my whole week activities with them.

As we went along with our discussion and sharing of ideas, one of the children commented that she has her separate closet from her brother as her mother explained that she is a girl and her brother is a boy. I used that moment to motivate them to discriminate boy’s things and clothing from girls. I also then decided to let my children do two books, one for boys and one for girls.

To guide them to express their ideas into written and artistic forms, I asked them to bring pictures of things and clothing found in the closet. To make the activity more meaningful for them, I guided them in writing, selecting and pasting pictures that are related to their shared ideas about the closet. For me, when a child does anything with interest and enthusiasm is already an artistic expression.

This series of activity though simple and irrelevant to adults, is a worthwhile one for children. The fact that the children exhibited excitement and enjoyed the whole process is a learning experience in itself. The feeling of self worth they achieved made these activities a lifelong achievement for them. The notion that what they shared and talked can be expressed in written and artistic forms will inculcate in them a great desire to be future adults who are readers and writers who love the world around them.