Literacy aprons

I thought I would do a blog about literacy aprons! Now a big note…. A sewer I am not! My mother was a wonderful seamstress and many a time I would have a new dress for church and, if we were running late, she would sew me into it.When we returned home I would wriggle out from the dress and she would finish sewing the dress … BECAUSE I HAD TO WEAR IT THAT DAY!!!! So I am hoping that the neat camera I borrowed from my son, to take the photos for this blog, hides my sewing issues!
I have to say I love the idea of literacy aprons, which have been around for a while. I believe it is a great tool you can use to enhance children’s language learning. I used them on my practicums at schools while I was a student. They were very well received by the children, parents and other staff (especially my colleague who was assessing me!!!)
When I was in University we found a kind lady who made around 80 aprons for the students and we happily purchased them and used them in a variety of ways. I thought I would add a website with some clever apron designs and I can truly say I did not design any part of them and give all praise to people who can sew!!! This website has a variety of different aprons http://tipnut.com/56-free-apron-patterns-you-can-make/
Here is the literacy apron that we purchased from our kind friend at University…

I decided to use this one for promoting children’s understanding of various letters we were covering in the classroom. The class I was in was a Kindergarten class and we were looking at the letters s.a.p.i.n. I put a large and small foam letter ‘s’ in the pocket at the top and then filled each pocket with some interesting objects that all started with the letter ‘s’.



I would show the children the letter in the top pocket and we would say the name of the letter and the sound the letter made. We would use our magic finger to write the letter in the air. Then I would ask the children to guess the items in my pockets. I would give them clues of course! Then we would play Charlie over the ocean. The children loved the activity and asked to do it over and over!
I usually buy small swatches of material from Spotlight as they are often the perfect size for an apron. The pockets on this apron came from a pillowcase I found in a store in Birkenhead Point in Sydney. I added some African puppets for finger plays or stories.


This apron is a ‘work in progress’. I made the pocket house to keep the finger puppets in and I use the top pocket for the main character. I have written a rather lame story to go with the puppets! I won’t include the story! It is great when you make up stories children really don’t mind and they are ever so forgiving!


I was looking at the aprons and I was thinking it might be a good idea to make a few children’s sized aprons.

I sometimes have put a small book with puppets in the pocket for children to retell stories.
Just recently I decided to cut and laminate pictures of children from catalogues (thus helping save the environment just a little!) The photos give children the opportunity to create stories for themselves!

I will be back with some more aprons and ideas………….
So I am back!
Here is another apron I made for children to use. I thought I would use a bag to put it in, with a book and finger puppets.



I am off to try and find the pattern for the pocket house to add to this blog! Trust me I had a lot of help from my sewing teacher in the making of this project!!!
Have fun!!!