NEWSLETTER FOR PARENTS AND TEACHERS – DECEMBER 2013
Dear Educators and Parents in FART PÅ SPROGET day cares
FART PÅ SPROGET has now been running for just over a month and it's time for the second newsletter.
We visited a day care to see how FART PÅ SPROGET is being put into practice. Are the children actively
participating? And what is the teachers’ opinion of FART PÅ SPROGET?
The FART PÅ SPROGET programme is being implemented in eight municipalities across the country. The
participating day cares fall into three different groups: day cares where the FART PÅ SPROGET programme
is being implemented with small groups of children, those where it is being implemented with large groups
of children and those where the educators are using their own activities instead of the programme. A
control group has also been included to allow us to measure the effects of the different types of
intervention contained within the FART PÅ SPROGET programme. On this occasion we visited a day care
where FART PÅ SPROGET is being implemented with small groups of children.
Report from Dalgården day care in Gentofte
It is Thursday morning in Dalgården day care and it’s time for FART PÅ SPROGET. Six of the bigger
children are sitting around a table expectantly, eager to get started. Jeanette, an educator, takes out the
red suitcase containing today’s activities and the children all follow what she’s doing with great interest.
”Do you remember what we always start with?” she asks before
she opens the case.
”Yes, the FART PÅ SPROGET song,” reply all the children
excitedly. They begin to sing the song and one boy shows his
enthusiasm by tapping along to the music on the table.
”Can you open the case today?” Jeanette turns to one of the
boys who proceeds to open the case carefully. She asks him
what is inside it today.
”Pictures and letters,” he replies and he takes the cards, which have either a word or a picture on them, out
of the case.
"Today, we are going to talk about words and pictures and things that sound the same. What do you think
that is? "
“Rhyming words,” several of the children reply.
”That’s right, and today we’re going to play pairs.” Jeanette explains what pairs is all about and puts the
cards on the table, face down. She explains that she has been pleasantly surprised about the progress of
the programme although they had a bit of an unfortunate start. She thinks the programme is easy to use
and is steadily becoming part of their everyday lives.
Pairs
”Do you want to go first?” Jeanette asks one of the girls. The girl nods as she turns over a card.
“A shoe.” She turns over another but there’s a word on it so she has not found a pair. So it is the next girl’s
turn. She turns over two pictures.
“A fairy and a farm.” She has made a pair so she gets to have a second turn. The other children watch with
curiosity from the sidelines.
The game continues along these lines until all the cards have been turned over. As they go along, the
children describe what they see on the cards. They all want to participate but wait nicely for the others to
finish. At the end they all count their pairs to see who has won. Jeanette explains that she thinks the game
works well with groups of six children. It gives you a good insight into how the children are performing, and
she can see that they are progressing in spite of the fact that they have not done this for a long time.
"Shall we have another game?" Jeanette asks the children, who immediately answer yes. They start
another game, and while they are playing along Jeanette asks them questions about words, pictures and
rhymes.
“Can anyone tell me where you see words?” Several of the children put up their hands and seem eager to
give the answer. One of the boys is chosen.
“On books and inside books.”
“Yes, that’s right. We also talked about the cover and the title of a book," says Jeanette. She asks where
else words can be found, if they look around the room. The children look around the room, full of curiosity.
"On posters. It says 'Lego'," one of the boys replies, pointing at a poster.
They continue with the game, in the same way as before. One boy turns over a picture of a shoe and all the
children look at it together.
”I wish I had got a shoe, because then I would have had a cow and a shoe,” one of the girls says.
“What can you tell me about these words?” Jeanette asks the girl.
“They rhyme.”*
The game is finished and they count up their pairs to see who’s won. Jeanette explains that the children are
showing a great deal of interest in the activities and they like to participate. Over the course of the week
the children often ask when they’ll be taking part in FART PÅ SPROGET again and their parents say they
mention it at home too.
(*These words rhyme in Danish)
The pairs game with rhyming words
”Now we’ll play a new game. We have to put all the cards
with words on them in a pile, and all the cards with pictures
on them in another. We’re only going to use the picture
cards as we’re going to talk about rhyme.” Jeanette lays all
the picture cards out face up.
“Can you name any two pictures that rhyme?”
“Shoe and cow,”* says one of the girls, pointing at the
pictures. A second girl also manages to name two rhyming
pictures.
“Fairy and spoon.”*
Jeanette helps the rest of the children to make a start by saying aloud all the words on the pictures. They
then find the remaining pictures that rhyme with those.
"Now we have to play a game of pairs where we only use the pictures. Finding two pictures that rhyme
counts as a pair.” One of the boys is allowed to start.
"A sheep," he replies. Jeanette asks him what rhymes with sheep.
"It's farm."* He turns over a new card, but it doesn’t rhyme.
A different boy is allowed to turn over a card. "String." Jeanette asks once again what this word rhymes
with.
"Word and table."*
"And Thor,"* replies another boy.
"Yes, that's right. He was in our room, too," replies Jeanette.
The game goes on until all the children have turned over a card and there are no cards left on the table.
They play the game one more time. Jeanette says she thinks the activities work really well, especially the
rhyming games. The children really like it when there is a bit of competition in the games, and in this way
they are challenged. At the same time starting and ending with a song works really well.
They finish up by singing the FART PÅ SPROGET song twice. The children run out as soon as they are
allowed to. However, there is no doubt that they have been very focused on the activities and have learned
something today. Jeanette says that it has become so much a part of everyday life and that they are likely
to adopt the activities for themselves in the future; maybe just one day a week instead.
It is clear from the report that the children’s involvement in FART PÅ SPROGET is significant. The children
find it fun and like to be challenged. The teacher is positive about the project and thinks it is constantly
improving. In the next newsletter you will be able to read a report from a day care where FART PÅ
SPROGET is carried out with a larger group of children and several educators.
(*These words rhyme in Danish)