Moe and Donna are playing at Uy'sqwalawun Childcare Centre at Snaw-naw-as

Greetings to all my Friends and Uy sqwyal Moe jumped into my pocket and came with me to watch his Uy'sqwalawun friends sing and drum for the raising of Noel Brown's pole at the Nanaimo Aboriginal Centre. Moe wants me to write to you and tell you all about the things  we do together every Wednesday morning at Snaw-naw-as.  I will send you pictures and tell you all about the fun we have at our Moe Circle Time.   After our circle, Moe and I like to  sing, play, work, and read together with as many of the children as we can.  Here is an example of some of the activities we have done in October and November, 2017. All of Moe's ELLFs (Early Language/Literacy Facilitators)  all across Canada are welcome to use these  activities. In friendship, Donna, aka The Book Lady ACTIVITY TEMPLATE for "Moe the Mouse" Circle and Small Groups

Learning intentions Children need many experiences, exposures and hands on activities to reach true mastery of important vocabulary concepts. Today’s learning intention will explore the concept “in” and “out”, listed under the “Where” category.

Topic or theme Moe the Mouse likes to go “IN” and “OUT” of his house. Other animal friends also like to go “in” and “out” of the big cedar tree. The concept of full and empty can be explored using this activity.

Materials and resources Moe, owl, chipmunk, raccoon from kit. Add woodpecker, and squirrel if available. Text: In Went Mouse by D. Klockars Materials: cardboard container that looks like a tree trunk. Resources: knowledge of signs for in, out, full, and empty. (or all gone)

Before/during/after learning activities Moe Circle is used to introduce the concepts IN and OUT. We sing our Moe Song to encourage Moe to come out of his house. He is shy at first, but when we sign “out” and whisper,” Moe, Moe will you come out?”  He understands, and he comes out. We clap and thank him for coming out of his house (lelum) and tell him that we have brought him a new mouse house for him to look at. Moe goes in and Moe goes out of his new house that is a tree trunk.  He tells the kids that they should sing to Owl. Chipmunk, Squirrel, Raccoon and Woodpecker. He thinks they will like the house too.  We sing the song “Where is Raccoon?  Where is Raccoon? Here I am, Here I am. May we hear your sound? Etc. (this song is to the tune of “Where is Thumbkin”).  Once the animals are all out we read the In Went Mouse Book together and the kids play out the idea that the new Mouse House get FULL! So full Moe goes OUT!

What happened when I tried this – a story about the activity We were happy that Moe’s friends liked our new house.  The kids were able to sign in and out. They were eager to play with the house and enjoyed telling the animals to go in and then come out. We wondered if the trees outside had holes in them for the animals. We decided to check this out at play time.

Cultural notes We now like connecting to our trees outside during our walk.  We look for holes that might be evidence of homes for the animals. We imagined the animals thanking (hych’qa) the trees for providing a nice house for a mouse. Hul’quiminum word for house is “lelum”. We are ready to include this word in our Moe the Mouse song we use to open the circle.

Educators’ reflections Using the signs helped even the youngest and early language users to participate. Small group work was fun and interactive using the props of a tree trunk and puppets. Early literacy outcomes, included: Looking at the cover and guessing what the story might be about. Used phrase: You are a storyteller! Reflect and Expand all utterances so that our young language learners are encouraged and supported. A Story Basket was created and left in story telling centre for kids to act out and role play reading the story to each other and or to other animals. Follow up activities: painting the cardboard box to look like a tree, and or adding cedar branches to decorate, making a poster of pictures of animals and their captions that live in trees.  Focus on the last page of the story. (This is a text feature.) Kids search for animal pictures to cut up and attach to a painter’s stick. Then kids say Raccoon is the tree. Raccoon is out. In or Out columns can be made for animals that do NOT live in trees. Vs. animals that DO live in trees. Other texts: A House for a Mouse

Contributed by: Donna Klockars