My Mini Lesson Plan - A 2D shapes Game!

Monday 25th November

I firstly helped a child in the morning with her recognition of real versus nonsense words and also her writing practice. She did some brilliant work!

In phonics the children did the usual sounds but also the new sound of 'ew' such as 'flew' and 'grew' The children were also working on 'irl' such as in 'girl' 'twirl' etc. I worked with a boy 'G' in phonics helping him to stay focused on the task.

Today I got the chance to do my mini lesson plan - I was working with 8 children who played a 2D shapes game that I created. The learning objectives were that the children could spot the odd shape out in a pattern of shapes, that they could secondly chose a shape that had a certain number of sides and tell me some properties about it, and finally could they make a basic symmetrical pattern using some 2D shapes of their choice? It was turned into a game by throwing the dice to determine finding a shape with that many sides e.g. 6 = hexagon, 3 = triangle 1(curve) = a circle etc. The children had fun and the mini game is on TES connect. Something which I could have done better is to have less children the optimum is 6 (so Mrs D tells me) 8 is a lot for a small group activity. Also as I look at the instructions that I've put on tes-connect I think that the game is a little complicated as it has three parts to it. These are definitely points to work on!

In the afternoon I helped some children with making reindeer antlers which are going on some handmade craft bags designed by the children for the Christmas Fayre! The children found cutting the antlers out a little tricky however they were very creative! Mrs J from the other Y1 class came in and saw me cutting out some reindeer ears and told me off (only a little :-)) as the children need to do this themselves - I certainly see where she is coming from, but there weren't enough ears to antlers ratio, but it didn't matter, and so I must remember to allow the children to be independent at all times, and not be too quick to jump in to help!

I asked Mrs D if there is anything I can improve on whilst helping in the class, and I also asked her what I do well. So the thing that I can improve on is helping children in the morning, particularly where the parents don't stay with their child to do the first writing activity, so look out for the children who don't have their parents there to help. The thing that I do really well apparently is working 1-to-1 with children. The reason why I wanted feedback from Mrs D was because I had feedback from the other class teacher in 1J in the form of the observation feedback comments, so it's nice to know what I am doing right and wrong in both classes. Both teachers are very helpful with feedback and you can approach them about anything which is great.

Finally one of the new teachers that will be taking over 1D in the next coming weeks came in to visit which was lovely to meet up with her! There will be two teachers in 1D sharing the first and second half of the week.

Here are some pictures of the mini lesson - the shapes game.

 

Observation Time!

Wednesday 20th November 2013

Firstly as usual I helped the children with recognising real versus non-real words and I set up and ICT game on the laptop which was also along the same lines - a phonics game of real words go into the green dragon and non-real words go into the red dragon. Whilst a child completes this game on the laptop I hear another child read when they have finished the children swap over and complete the other task.

In phonics I helped a child with the 'ar' sound and writing words with this sound in e.g. car, star, harsh, part etc.

I also completed a money game with the children where they gave out pretend money to each other and had the other person count how much money they had. I made it harder by adding more money and more complex coins, such as 20p's for example.

In the afternoon I met with Angela for my observation, it was lovely to see her and I think the observation went okay, also I received some good feedback on how to improve my interaction with the children which will help me to further develop better strategies for assisting learning in the classroom.

I helped some children get changed for P.E. and then I set up the ICT game of red versus green dragon - for real versus non real words (phase 3) and pick a picture - matching words to a picture (phase 2) games for children that were age/stage appropriate to their needs. Whilst one child was on the laptop I heard another child read and then swapped them over after they had completed the first task.

The children have also been looking at connective (first, then, next, finally etc) words and how to use these in a sentence. They have also been looking at information such as instructions and what these are and what they tell us, e.g. 'what we need' and 'what to do' when following instructions for a recipe.

Measuring With Our Feet and Hands!

Monday 18th November

I helped the children with real versus non real words in the morning and I heard a few readers.

A lower ability set were doing an activity recognising words, they had to write down the word on a whiteboard and then spell them out with the magnetic letters and match them to the card word phrase as well as read these out to me. I helped them to stay on track with concentration and reinforcing good behaviour with rewards e.g. they could have a superstar ticket or they could play with the construction kits if they did good work. I was really pleased with the work that they have done, this group has certainly come on brilliantly since September and I am very proud of them!

The children have been doing about measurements and measuring things with their feet and hands. The teacher used 10 steps from the edge of the carpet to the door, a child used 15 steps because he has smaller feet. A child measured the desk using 8 hand spans the teacher took 4 handspans. So the  children learned about feet and hands not being a reliable form of measurement as different people's hands and feet are different sizes. The children have also been using straws, cubes and different lengths of string to measure and estimate sizes of objects. This makes a difference to uses a ruler as the children had to be more creative!

I had a hospital appointment in the afternoon so I had to leave the class for this.

Measurements & Forces

Wednesday 13th November

I helped the children learn about measurements, they were comparing whether a string is longer or shorter than another next to it. This helped with their estimating and prediction.

I heard some children read and made records of this in their reading diary and the green folder.

 In the afternoon I helped some children get changed for P.E. and heard some more readers.

We also looked at forces and whether their is a push or pull force or both.

I cut out some signs for a transport display as the children have been learning about different kinds of transport such as going in a car, or riding the train, or even flying when going on holiday.

Remembering the Hero Soldiers for Rememberence Day!

Monday 11th November

Today there was a special assembly to remember the soldiers who fought in the first world war and sacrificed their lives doing so! I was allowed into the assembly hall for the first time which was really nice. A child held a lit candle for the service and we had the two minute silence which is customary for the date. The head teacher also gave a speech about the war and the soldiers actions. Due to the assembly there was no phonics session for Y1.

I helped some children in ICT play a game about money, the children had to recognise what certain coins were and how much they totaled. The game was a little too easy for the group and so I found them a game where they had to compare two sets of coins and click on the one with the highest total. This is a comparison game.

I heard some children read and I helped some children with a letters game where they had to use the magnetic letters to spell out a word and then check this against a word card. This was helping a lower ability group with word recognition.

Real Words Vs. Non Real Words

So there was no school on Monday (04/11/13) due to a training day!

Wednesday 6th November in 1J

I helped the children practice their recognition of real words versus non real words and whether they could take one word and create a sentence using the word they had chosen.

As it had been bonfire night the previous night, the children had learned some bonfire poems and I was helping to do the actions along with the teacher, which the children had come up with for certain words in the poems such as hands straight out for the word 'whizzing' and punching the air for 'bang' and so forth.

The children have also started learning about forces - 'pushing' and 'pulling' motions of forces. So for example we were looking at whether a a swing has a push or pull motion or both, and how a child creates this using their feet, pulling/pushing forwards and backwards to make the swinging motion.

Finally I helped the children get ready for P.E. and heard some children reading. I also helped two children put the reading book bags out for home time, and I also got the lunch boxes for both Y1  classes.