The story of; story writing time, the kindy class and scary Mrs. Smith...

MY PERSONAL LITERACIES NARRATIVE:

For me, these kindergarten story books function as a key, unlocking the door behind which my childhood memories exist (haha, how corny! there's gonna be more of this...sorry). Viewing these dusty old relics of my childhood transports my mind back to the time and place in which they were created. Mrs Smith's K1 (kindy & year 1) classroom...

I had originally spent my first week of school in Miss Murray's all kindy class. It was so much fun, and Miss Murray had to have owned the biggest warmest smile in the entire school. One day myself and five or so other classmates were selected to move to Mrs Smith's class to join the big year ones, for reasons I did not know. Had I done something wrong? Was Miss Murray kicking me out? 
In the eyes of the wee little ginger that I was Mrs Smith was an ancient and terrifying character. She did not smile like Miss Murray. I never accidentally called her 'Mum', like I did other teachers, to much embarrassment throughout my infant years. 

As I remember almost every day in Mrs Smith's classroom would begin with the whole class sitting on the floor, chanting the numbers 1 to 100 as the teacher's rule traversed a number chart. I might be wrong but this is what I remember. Initially my own chanting would diminish around the number 12, while others confidently continued in a confirmation of their counting prowess. After the exhaustive and boring counting exercise students were directed to join group tables and get out their story books. Children spent some time creating stories on the pages of their books. Year ones were allowed to use lead pencil and would often fill their page with more words then my kindy mates and I. Reflecting back as an adult, I realise Mrs Smith wasn't scary or nasty in any way that I had once perceived. She was just wrinkly and tired. 

Yeah, she was pretty cool actually. During story writing time we were allowed to construct a story about anything we liked, just as long as it filled most the page. Mrs Smith always expected students to attempt to include writing in their stories. Only zig-zags were accepted in place of words we were trying to spell but couldn't spell completely (or at all). If we made a mistake in our writing it was to belong in brackets and never be scribbled out. Under no circumstances were students to write in yellow pencil!! 
After a reasonable attempt, If students were tired of writing they were encouraged to illustrate parts of their story. I do remember really struggling to write alot of the words I could say at that age. So I was relieved that my drawings (and zig-zags) were accepted as parts of the story. As students worked on their stories Mrs Smith would cruise through the room, monitoring behaviour and assisting those students who struggled with aspects of the task. I was one of those students. Quite often I remember Mrs Smith setting aside a couple of minutes to sit down next to me and discuss my story while the class continued writing and drawing. She was always impressed by my pictures. From her reactions I rarely felt that I was doing as well with my writing. I guess I wasn't. Mrs Smith would look at the page and ask me to tell her what it was about. As she came to understand the narrative she would fill in the missing letters above the often numerous zig-zags that filled the page. I would sit and watch as my teacher carefully and slowly demonstrated the correct technique and spelling for each word. With her help my stories were complete! 

Though I may have not realized it at the time, the common occurrence of writing, drawing and talking out stories for Mrs Smith would serve as a key foundational experience in my literacies development...