As you may have guessed I am a huge fan of Julia Donaldson, I even used her work on childrens books as one of my assignments during my M.Ed. So it’s no surprise that I use her book The Smartest Giant in Town as an introduction to The Clothes Shop.
The Clothes Shop is a great topic that links directly with Gaeilge and Éadaí. In socio-dramatic area I had the clothes shop, again donations from parents helped to fill the clothes shop. You will also need a cash register, phone, and the usual clipboard. I bought a hanging rail in Home Store and More for costumes for socio-dramatic but it also works as the clothes shop for this topic.
Small world and construction will involve building the clothes shop and recreating the story.
In sand I had pictures of winter clothes and summer clothes and the children had to find them and sort them.
For Art, it is the perfect time to cover fabric and fibre. Using hessian and felt the children can make new clothes for the giant.
To link with Music, there is a song about the Smartest Giant in Town. It is in the Room on the Broom and Other Songs book and CD which is available on amazon.co.uk.
The clothes shop is another great example of how Aistear can be linked across the Curriculum. Check out my Aistear plan and parents newsletter for this topic on my Mash.ie store.
Aistear Múinteoir 