At Miss Eardley's Poem - a stimulus for a play based lesson on 'Oot to play'

The children listened to the poem again and again the two children who had picked up on ‘the big mess’ and the ‘throwing pies at the police’ picked up on the same two points. There was not much more understanding of the poem other than individual words or phrases ‘snotters’ ‘chuckin it doon’ were interpreted with some help and context given. We talked about going 'oot tae play' and what roles children wanted (mither/maw, faither/da, weans, wee babby). When lining up to go out to play, we incorporated some more language. You’ll no need a jaiket – as the weather is …? Waiting on the children response- ‘roastin’ . 

We have a dirt patch which a lot of children have been rolling in this past week. The dirt is dry and they have ended up covered in dry-mud dust. Before going outside we reminded children ‘Mind no in the muck, its dried oot, we don’t want your claes caekit, we don’t want you to be mockit comin in tae class. The children understood this well and some repeated the words and laughed with one saying ‘me no dirty’ showing an understanding of the language. Outside – children ran to the playhouse, adults prompted speech and words. I was a little disappointed that I had to remind them repeatedly of the Scots, I suppose my expectations were maybe a little too high. Conversation was natural and when opportunity arose words would be prompted. Example: one child opening and closing the small window. Every time I peered in, I said, ‘open wee windae’, and when they slid it closed. I said, ‘shut or close wee windae’. This became a game. The next time I said open wee…. and they said window. I said, ‘in Scots?’ – they said ‘windae’. The same happened when they took the play into playing ‘Polis’ some pretended to be dogs. I asked, ‘what are you now?’. The pupil said I am the police dog. I said, ‘and in Scots what are you?’ The immediate response a ‘polis dug’.  Other occasions where I asked certain pupils there was no response. The children asked for the scooters and ride-on cars to be brough out. I asked, ‘what the Scots word for car?’ I was met with 'coor', I said aye well caur or motor. The child proceeded with ‘In ma wee rid motor I can gang for miles’. Referencing Sandy Thomas Ross poem. He then continued with a random version. I was impressed that parts/elements had stuck with them, as that was our Burns poem in January 2024!  

Other vocabulary prompted by adults: washin windaes,

Spontaneous vocabulary: ‘that hingy’, ‘crabbit’ ‘bellies’ ‘daft’, ‘get oot the hoose’ ‘wee’

Assessment was picture cards and asking for Scots words. However, as some natural responses were given, I asked what those words meant. Verbal children were able to give meanings. What amazed me most was that two children in particular were able to translate short sentences into English. Next steps are to continue to incorporate Scots in our daily play sessions and celebrate its use, emphasising and repeating vocabulary to embed language.