Transcript

Teacher: The purpose of the Learning Luggage is to engage the children and parents in meaningful literacy activities and oral language at home, and the Learning Luggage is skill and age appropriate for our little ones. And each Learning Luggage backpack has some books for the parents to read to their children, so theyre read aloud books. There are some books that the children can read at their own instructional level, and there is an instruction book, which talks about the activities and the books in the Learning Luggage. And I designed it for some of our parents, who, English is a second language, so there are written instructions and there are also picture instructions, which the children can follow as well.  

And in this particular Learning Luggage on plants, we have The Tiny Seed, by Eric Carle, The Eggshell Garden, and we have a file folder game about what plants need. The children, with their parents together, place the parts of the plant in the appropriate spot. Theres Velcro there to hold it, and what plants need, the sun, the water, the soil, and the air. So they get a chance to talk about what plants need, and engage in oral conversation. And theres also an activity, this one is Clouds and Rainbows and the children have to match the beginning sound of the pictures. So phonological awareness comes in to it as well. This is just one Learning Luggage Ive made several on different themes. There's Learning Luggage's about dinosaurs, gingerbread men, nursery rhymes, and rhyme time. And there is the one for every child in the classroom and they are rotated and every week, a child takes home a different Learning Luggage.
 
My students and their parents look forward to Wednesdays, when the Learning Luggage goes home. The children have to bring it back on the Monday, so it gives them a long period of time to revisit the books and the activities. And the response from the children has been wonderful, and also from the parents.

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