Reception

[start_to_finish]

It's bizarre how different reception is to the rest of the school. There's so much free time for the children that they must find it a real shock when they get up to year 1 and have to sit down and listen for long periods of time.

The thing I find most interesting is the observations. Took an afternoon to browse through the recent ones while filing them (helps them and me :)) and it seems like anything can be an observation. I'm also struck by the amount of direct speech in the observations - I would think it would be quite difficult to record the conversations accurately without hovering with a notepad and thus stilting the childrens interactions. I guess it's partly practice and sometimes the observations can be quite short. Still, having read through the ones in the files, I find myself jotting down things children have said to me that seem to be indicative of understanding of something (e.g. M telling me very seriously how he was going to take the seed home from his apple and plant it because it would grow into a tree and then the tree would make more baby apples).

We are working on pirate and princess themed things in our group work at the minute. I was very amused to see that not only do we have quite a few girl pirates, we have one gentlement princess. He is allowed to opt for Prince or Princess but because the rest of the group are girls, usually ends up drawing pictures of dresses as his clothes for the ball and so on. It'll certainly make his work interesting to look back on later either way. Funnily enough, we have been having problems with our year 5 reading buddies where some of the boys are asking our boys if they're gay and teasing them. Fortunately not this one - I think it's random - but it has involved some quite frustrating meetings trying to figure out the best way to deal with it.

Comments

[pomma-penses.livejournal.com]

Funnily enough, we have been having problems with our year 5 reading buddies where some of the boys are asking our boys if they're gay and teasing them.

Oh man. Uncool!

Y5 is going to be a big change after Y4 I think. (Have basically volunteered myself to be with W again in the mornings...)

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A lot of the time, kids don't notice they're being observed, which makes it easy. :)

I've been wondering if giving Y1 children the opportunity to work on the floor (with a clipboard if writing) would go a long way to alleviating the squirminess that seems to happen when they sit at desks. I notice they are given that option in Reception, and it's one of those things Montessori was keen on - children learning in body positions where they are comfortable.

Sorry, random thoughts. :)

[back-to-skool.livejournal.com]

Y5 is going to be a big change after Y4 I think.

Yeah, some of it is that particular year group (which contains some really difficult boys) but some of it is hormones and there ain't nowt you can do about that.

I've been wondering if giving Y1 children the opportunity to work on the floor (with a clipboard if writing) would go a long way to alleviating the squirminess that seems to happen when they sit at desks.

Ooh, interesting! That's actually not half a bad idea. There wouldn't really be space for all ours to do it at once in our room, but some of them prefer the desk anyway so it might work really well. Must try it next term.

[pomma-penses.livejournal.com]

And of course, for some of them, it might just be an excuse to roll around in a different place. :D Still, might be worth a shot.