Bamboo Room - Oral Language & Developmental Play 

The room follows the Early Years Literacy model of whole - small group - whole approach.

As well as teachers,  our Education Support staff  accompany their class to the Bamboo room and work with the small groups alongside the teacher. Adults in the program actively play with the children, promoting relevant conversation, reinforcing concepts and asking questions to illicit responses from the children. As often as possible the children are challenged to extend their replies to questions from the teacher/aide. 

Many children with little English will provide one word answers or a limited response. Our goal is to extend their ability to provide a more descriptive and detailed response.

As the adult plays with the children they also model language, instructing & drawing responses & language from the students  through the directed activity/game. The bamboo room can be set up with  a variety of activity corners or activity spaces. The activity centres are rotated frequently. The teacher /aides model how things operate at the activity eg: “here we are at the hairdressers. Who knows what the hairdresser does? What things might we ask the hairdresser to do?  What does their shop look like? What things are in their shop? Who knows what this thing is called (scissors) what does the dresser do with scissors? Who would like to be the hairdresser? Who would like to be the customer? The games & interactions should come from the directed play opportunities. 
Older children can be used in the Bamboo room to model language and play with the younger children. These children can be selected in consultation with the classroom teachers. Most of these older children will also benefit from language development opportunities even though they are older.

Where possible the Bamboo room program reflect aspects of classroom programs eg: a songs,  poems, stories linked to the classroom themes, nursery rhymes and chants.

Shared story time - If time allows the teacher should read a small shared story to the children and engage them in conversation about the text, visual cues and provide opportunities for oral comprehension and discussion of the story concepts etc.

Oral Language development is crucial for all children.  Through the Bamboo Room Oral language program students will:

·         Experience directed play activities to promote their oral language development

·         Experience a variety of activities which reflect real life experiences

·         Develop their intellectual, imaginative, social and expressive potential

The Bamboo room has been developed to promote oral language development through directed play. The strategy was developed as a result of the work of a team of teachers who were awarded Teacher Professional Leave.