Posted on: 28th February 2019
Bringing Vocabulary to Life!
Developing children’s vocabulary is such an exciting and important part of our learning in Early Years as we love opportunities to explore new vocabulary in exciting ways. During a whole-class Guided Reading session, the children in Reception read a story called “Sarah’s Tap Shoes,” with many children being uncertain as to what ‘tap shoes’ really were. We talked about tap dancing and watched Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers perform an amazing routine on YouTube. The children found it really interesting that the clip was in black and white and they came up with some excellent words to describe the routine including ‘elegant,’ ‘sweeping’ and ‘full of rhythm.’ We then discussed which surfaces tap shoes would and would not make a noise on, with some really great predicting.
When Miss Bagnall was in the staff room, discussing this lovely learning with the other teachers, Miss Salter and Miss Perry remembered that there were children in both of their classes who were excellent tap dancers and could show us the real thing! Sure enough, the next day, two of our Key Stage Two pupils came to visit Pre-School and Reception with their tap shoes and did some INCREDIBLE tap dancing for us. The children were absolutely entranced and it was really great to see the vocabulary from our book really brought to life.
Thank you girls for sharing your amazing talent with us!