Following on from my first article – I look in more depth at the activities that were taking place in the classroom and how these were structured and achievements recorded.
Our day started calmly and quietly as the children came into class – in fact the whole time I was with Sharon and Carols class the children were well behaved, quiet and actively engaged in every single aspect of the day.
Sharon and Carol had set out the activities before school started with a general focus of Road Safety – these included
- Teacher led activity
- T.A supported activities
- Discovery activities
- Imagination and play areas
I firstly decided to sit with a small group that was being led by Carol. This was an ordering and information exercise where the children had to cut out instructional pictures regarding crossing the road. After discussion these were placed in the correct order and then glued onto the sheet. So quite a few skills here including practical, speaking and listening and of course the ordering and final pupil assessment…”did it make sense?”
For those of you more versed in Reception environments; you will recognise that practical skills practiced here are just as much a challenge as the academic and certainly at times there was some creative cutting and “jaunty” positioning for the pieces!
Meanwhile another group of children was involved in creating a large road map. This was floor based and was indeed LARGE. The road had been drawn onto the paper and the children in the group were enthusiastically completing the vehicles, crossings, traffic lights and of course pedestrians. Buildings were drawn at the side of the road and the ongoing conversations revolved around road safety, places to cross, speed of different vehicles and the green cross code – looking and listening.
I have to say as I sat and watched this activity that it really was a comprehensive and useful way to approach the subject. The children were totally absorbed in their drawing but were also happy to chat and explain their thinking behind everything they were doing. Any interventions by the T.A were of direct relevance to the topic and guided the thoughts of the children along the correct paths. Certainly an activity worth doing and its simple structure masked the array of benefits for all the children.
In other parts of the classroom were activities that the children could select – these were academic / reasoning based and the children were expected to complete 6 activities of this type in a week. The activities were placed out each day by the staff and were teacher supported / led and lasted approximately 15-20 minutes.
The above shows a couple of the activities used – I have included these as examples of what was being done at this time.
However, (and please bear in mind that this was new to me) I was intrigued to see how Sharon and Carol kept a track on the completion of the activities and so I asked about a couple of things I had seen.
The first was the pots of coloured lolly sticks that were on the desks of each activity. If you look back at the last picture you will see a cup with Red lolly sticks in it. When each child completes that activity they take a lolly stick with their name on it and it is placed in their own glittery rainbow pouch.
Each week the 6 different coloured sticks make up a rainbow for each child – nice idea – I like that! The children were quite conversant in the process and happy to speak about it and tell me how it works!
Whilst all this was going on inside the classroom there were of course children busy in the outside space. The activities had been placed around the area and although play based, did of course, focus on a variety of skills.
Tapestry software:
I reported earlier speaking to Sharon about record keeping and the Early years curriculum. Now I am not an expert in this by any means but one of the things I did notice straight away was the absence of “post it” notes!
Apparently computer software has now taken over….after looking at various software programmes it was decided that the Tapestry package suited things best at this particular school. (In true TV and radio speak – “other software options are available!”)
The software contains all the aspects of the EY programme and maps the developmental progress of each child according to their age. Ipad based, it can be completed by both Teaching staff and T.A’s whilst access to children’s progress is also available to Parents.
I was impressed by the fact that Parents can also contribute photographs and comment on activities that their children have been doing at home and so add to the evolving overview of the child’s achievements and capability.
Activities in class can be added by staff with accompanying comments and reports highlighting areas that need to be completed or investigated also easily produced. This enables planning to be directly targeted to the needs of either individuals or groups of children.
At the end of the term / year all the records can then be uploaded onto the school systems prior to National submission.
All in all it appeared to me to be a well structured, easily used and time saving piece of software which has got to be a plus in any busy Reception classroom!
So there we have it – my report on time spent in a Reception classroom.
Again my thanks to Sharon and Carol for taking the time to share their day with me. I left with more of an insight into the “mysterious inner workings” of Early Years and certainly an appreciation of what a great job Reception staff are doing.
Keep up the good work!
Charles