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Fathers' Night

by Teressa
(Brisbane, Qld, Australia)

As I often don't get to meet the fathers of my class, this year I introduced a 'Fathers' Night'.

It went for about 1 and a half hours. I originally planned for this to be for Fathers' Day, but we didn't have enough time to organise it, so instead we had it in November.

My Prep/One class were doing the unit - Around the World in 30 days.

During this time we were learning about China, Greece, Mexico, Italy and Australia. We learned either a song or dance for each country and some simple general information eg. famous places, food, clothing, interesting facts, climate etc.

On the night we simulated going on a flight around the world, my teacher aide and I were the air hostesses and the dads were the passengers.

We flew to each country (each country has its own area within the classroom) where the children recalled facts about the country and performed either the song or the dance for that country while food from that country was distributed to the dads.

We finished in Australia where dessert (Pavlova) was served. The night concluded with the dads just playing with their kids (I put out different 'play' equipment - lego, puzzles etc).

One of the dads said it was the highlight of his year and he could not thank me enough for such a great night. Most of the dads stayed more that the hour and a half as they were having so much fun.

It was a great way for the dads to see the classroom and also spend some quality time with their children. The children really enjoyed it, and talked about it for the next few weeks. I will definitely be doing it again!

Another teacher also does a similar thing, but with games. The children learn different games then they have a children versus Fathers, games night.