Kindergarten kids from St Patrick’s Primary School in Port Kembla have teamed up with university students, parents and teachers to create a special photo and story book.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The kindy kids documented their favourite activities at school, taking photos with iPads and typing up their supplementary stories.
The final result was unveiled at a book launch at the school yesterday morning.
A partnership between the primary school and University of Wollongong meant 10 second year Dean’s Scholars students from the Faculty of Education participated in the program.
Education student at UOW, Erin McMahon, 21, said the experience allowed her to put theory into practice.
‘‘I was working with two students and it was great to see how they learn and put their thoughts together,’’ she said.
‘‘They came out of their shell by the end. It was absolutely gorgeous to see them so excited. By the end we were sitting on the iPads together.’’
Zack, 5, said his favourite activity was reading books about penguins and the whole project was a lot of fun.
‘‘My favourite penguin book is The Naked Penguin with the black penguin,’’ he said.
‘‘I liked doing it with my mum, I love it so much. I like doing lots of activities...playing on the iPads, and listening, and basketball, and soccer.
‘‘I do like school because I get to play with my friends a lot.’’
Zack’s mum, Karen Pulo, said she enjoyed being a part of the project.
‘‘It was good to see them so excited and enthusiastic,’’ she said.
‘‘They put a lot of thought into it all. Zack is quite creative, he enjoys the social side of things and the interaction with other children.’’
The toughest part of the project was typing up the stories with the children because it was ‘‘time consuming and we had to keep them on track’’, she said.
Kindy teacher Amy Sammut said the process and product was about ‘‘the creation of their own text, beautifully presented’’.
The most popular school activities among the children were sports and literacy activities, she said. ‘‘The children were able to be creative in the decoration of their products, in the text, what they wrote about the activity, and they also typed up their text.’’
Ms Sammut said the best part was the collaboration between parents, university students, teachers and children.
‘‘That buzz of learning in the classroom, you can’t measure that, it’s just beautiful,’’ she said.