With a dance step – thanks to Jan Brzechwa's poem ‘Tańcowała igła z nitką’ (The Needle Danced with the Thread) – pupils set off to learn another vowel: I as in igła (needle). The Saturday lessons in November 2024 combined reading, song, movement and art.
The children listened to the poem and a song, and looked at the dancing needle and reel of thread on an illustrated board. They then searched for the newly learnt sound in letter jumbles and in words: at the beginning, in the middle and at the end. They also worked with the letter on the interactive whiteboard and on worksheets.
Exercises like these teach careful listening. The letter i also plays a special role in Polish: as well as representing a vowel, before another vowel it signals the softening of the preceding consonant, as in the words ‘siano’ or ‘niebo’.
In keeping with class tradition, there was dancing too. This time the pupils turned into twirling threads, and some of them jumped right up to the ceiling. Needle, Thread and Mr Button also appeared in the art project: the children threaded colourful wool through buttons and used it to create bright compositions on paper.
It was a very busy Saturday. Combining a poem, a song and movement helps children growing up with two languages to remember new letters and words. More photos from the lessons can be seen in the gallery.
