My Preps (5&6 year olds) are in their final week of Term 3. It’s wonderful to be their first school teacher, and I’m enjoying their enthusiasm for learning combined with their sense of fun. They love to dance, sing and create, and Friday afternoon is their special time when I’m the DJ and they, including their parents supply the weekly music. They’re an active and industrious group of young learners.
The random examples of independent Recount writing contained in this post displays their understanding of the Recount structure. I’m using the PM Writing Big Book exemplars and structure to scaffold writing development.
Extending my Prep’s writing is a focus and relates to our current inquiry. The children realise that their journal is a record of their personal history. They understand that detail in their journal will provide a better record of their experiences when they read their journal in future years.
I’ve included pictures of our WALT – ‘we are learning to’ and WILF – ‘what I’m looking for’ our success criteria. These are wiped and changed for different tasks. I’m very pleased with my Prep’s writing development, particularly their use and interest in punctuation and detail.
Cheers Nina
Nina Davis: Teaching & Learning in Australia 
Hi,
They are characters Walter and Wilfred. Walter tells us what we are learning and Wifred tells us what she’s looking for. We’ve made shared stories about Walter and Wilfred and they are used in the Junior classes. The children are now helping WILF-red compose what she’s looking for, setting their own learning goals and we’ll be creating simple rubrics and checklists at the beginning of next term.
I find the children are really focussed on ‘success criteria’ when they have a clear understanding of what they are learning. We also use the same pictures across the units. It’s a great question and I hope this helps.
Cheers Nina
We are introducing the WALT and WILF concepts next term. I am quite excited to be doing this as it will assist the children with goal setting. I am wondering how you first introduced the concepts to your children. Any tips and ideas would be greatly appreciated.