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Students learning together in the classroom at St John's Primary School Riverstone Students learning together in the classroom at St John's Primary School Riverstone

Using play to develop oral literacy

20 Jun 2018

StJohnsLiteracyPlay01

St John’s Primary Riverstone, Early Stage One (Kindergarten) teachers are utilising imaginative play as a way to engage their students in oral literacy.

With talk being the foundation for thought and understanding in reading and writing, students are participating in puppet play and fancy dress to develop their talking, listening and cooperative skills.

“We know that ‘reading and writing floats on a sea of talk’,” teacher Charlene Saliba said. “We have been doing some professional learning to engage our students and develop their skills in this area moving from imagining, to inner speech, to inner speaking, to speech.”

 

StJohnsLiteracyPlay02

“Students use the puppets to create a story with their group and then share it with an audience,” she said. “They also love using the Chatterpix app on the iPads to take photos and record their voices, pretending they are the characters in the photo.”

Ms Saliba said that is a whole school focus in the development of oral literacy at St John’s where we have created a specific learning intent and success criteria based on curriculum outcomes to ensure students understand and are aware of the skills they are developing through play.

General Learning and Teaching

Written By

St John's Primary School Riverstone

St John's Primary School Riverstone
www.stjohnsriverstone.catholic.edu.au

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    30 Oct 2025

    From Facebook
    A reminder that it is crazy sock day tomorrow! A donation is required for Catholic Mission - you can donate here. https://www.socktober.org.au/fundraisers/StJohnsPrimarySchoolRiverstone
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    30 Oct 2025

    From Facebook
    We wish our wonderful staff a Happy World Teacher's Day! We are so lucky to have such a dedicated team who teach, support and inspire our students every day! 😍

Latest News More news

746041150857862_1386237530171551-1

30 Oct 2025

From Facebook

A reminder that it is crazy sock day tomorrow! A donation is required for Catholic Mission - you can donate here. https://www.socktober.org.au/fundraisers/StJohnsPrimarySchoolRiverstone

746041150857862_1386098923518745-1

30 Oct 2025

From Facebook

We wish our wonderful staff a Happy World Teacher's Day! We are so lucky to have such a dedicated team who teach, support and inspire our students every day! 😍

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Stage three are up and enjoying breakfast before their second day of activities!

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Dinner followed by the start of games night! Some tired faces after a big day. We’re sure we will sleep tight tonight. 😴 🤞 We’ll share more updates tomorrow.

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These faces say it all! We love swimming! 🥰

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17 Oct 2025

From Facebook

Year 2 have had so much fun at swimming this week! The students of St John’s have worked so hard this week- we are sure there are lots of tired eyes! Looking forward to the fun we will have next week!

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