We're ever so slightly excited that Letterland's Classroom of Month Award is back for October (that was a lie - we're SUPER excited).
This month, we're delighted to announce that our winner is... Little Star Learning Centre from Lubuklinggau, Indonesia!
This language learning centre have been using Letterland for 13 years, and we're constantly impressed by the enthusiasm and creativity with which they teach. Head over to their Instagram, @littlestar_learningcentre, to check out what they get up to!
'What I love the most is, honestly, the stories. The stories from A - Z until advanced help my students a lot. They can understand how to read and spell much easier and we can create fun learning activities and do role play for digraph and trigraph stories, which helps students understand the concept of the changing sounds. My students love the characters. The characters motivate them to learn happily and to listen to what the teacher said!'
- Inda Ariestiya, Head Teacher at Little Star Learning Centre
Recently, our Director of Training, Lesley White, visited the Little Star Learning Centre and was astounded by how welcoming all the students and teachers were, and the enthusiasm with which they teach and learn Letterland. All children were involved in putting on Letterland performances, while wearing some brilliant costumes!
Little Star also told us a sweet story that we just had to share:
'It was 2 years ago and it was the first time [a student] had learned Letterland. We learned about Clever Cat for two lessons, and in the second lesson I told my students that next time we're going to meet another friend, not Clever Cat anymore. The next day, his mom told me that her son was crying at home and he said that he's very sad to say goodbye to Clever Cat, as he loves Clever Cat and he wants to meet her again. Wow, I thought, this means Letterland really makes the children really engage with the lesson. Now, this boy is 5 years old and he already can read very well!'
- Inda Ariestiya, Head Teacher at Little Star Learning Centre
One of the best things about Letterland's Classroom of the Month Award is the opportunity to share ideas! Check out what the Little Star Learning Centre had to say.
'We hold our Letterland Day almost like a market day, so we asked the students and teachers to make crafts or food and drink related to the characters'
This includes:
Every classroom having their own Letterlander themed stand e.g. Sammy Snake's Sandwich Station or Talking Tess' Tea Stand.
This can be expanded to include activities such as Bouncy Ben's bowling or Firefighter Fred's face painting!
Students prepare for the Letterland Day in advance, by painting Eddy Elephant's boiled eggs, decorating Dippy Duck's donuts etc.
Before the market opens, students put on performances where the younger children sing and dance to the Letterland Action Songs, and the older student do role-play and live reading.
Students 'buy' coupons for the market beforehand, so they can buy things from the stands. Each coupon has the letter shape on it and students can then picture code the coupons. At the market, students must go up to the correct stand with their coupons and say, for example, 'I have Sammy Snake and I would like to buy a sandwich'.
We absolutely LOVE this idea. What a brilliant way of teaching children about letter shapes and alliteration while having loads of fun!
A huge thank you to Little Star Learning Centre for all the great work they've been doing - it's brilliant to see the great progress that all your students make!
Think you could be our next Classroom of the Month? Pop us an email to marketing@letterland.com or get in touch via Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.