Kipper's Birthday
Wrapping the biggest present ever... ...another themed day full of fun and learning experiences!
(No Kippers were harmed in the making of this - only injured when dropped on his head - but he was taken immediately to our first aid expert!)
Meet Freddy
Freddy the Frog is 12 years old. He was a (joke) gift to me by a friend when I qualified as a teacher and he has never left my side since! Freddy lives in whichever classroom is my home. He has seen more of me in action than anyone else - oh, if only he could talk human language!
Freddy has been loved, looked after, talked to, listened to and taught by over 360 children - ranging from Nursery through to Year 6 (and yes - Year 6 loved him just as much....in more of a mascot, teasing way!)
Freddy has direct contact via mobile phone with Frogland....and you wouldn't believe the problems they encounter there! BUT we always manage to solve them for Freddy and his froggy friends!
Watch out for more about Freddy and how we have helped him and he has helped us over the years.........
Freddy learns to use the the toilet:
If you've ever worked in Nursery/Reception you will understand the problem of the toilet area - especially if they are connected to your classroom!! They can be a real sensory experience - but not of the 'nice' kind! An interesting discussion took place after a particularly bad 'toilet' day in our class. I was describing the mess to looks of horror from the children - wondering how on earth it had happened!
Responses that came from the children:
" well.....it wasn't us it must have been the ones in the hall" (the ones in the hall said the same thing!)
"well....it could have been the night elves"
"well....maybe it was you" (!)
"well......I know....I know....it was Freddy Frog...cos they don't have toilets in Frogland"
So - we embarked on teaching Freddy how to use the toilet area. After much discussion and showing Freddy what to do....the toilet area still remained a place you would not wish to go! The children's answer was that maybe Freddy couldn't remember very well. One child offered to phone her mum and stay with Freddy overnight!
Eventually it was decided to take a series of photos and make a display in the toilets!
The children took the photos - with a little help - sequenced them and prepared number labels.
It made a big difference!
Little Red Ridinghood
It was the turn of Little Red Riding Hood this week to need help...
I received a phone call from the woodcutter - he had become very good friends with Little Red Riding Hood and her family. He was very upset as some children had laughed at Little Red Riding Hood in her school because she found it hard to learn to read words. She came home crying and very sad. Little Red Riding Hood is very good at making things and painting and jumping but she finds reading hard even though she would really like to read words. ("thats mean" says one of my Reception boys, another child says "we wouldn't do that because we care and share in here" - We have one rule for reading in our class....and one rule only.....we must always make it FUN)
So the woodcutter had made up a game for Little Riding Hood to play - it would help her to learn words. But he has sent it to us first to try it out and let him know what we think.
The game - a simple matching game - HF words on A4 paper - scrunched up - chucked around the playground. It became a challenge to find them all....match them up....and shout we're ready - racing against the clock! All 15 children worked together successfully.....and enjoyed scrunching the paper up again and throwing it around the playground to start the game again. It was followed with a competition of who could shout the words out the loudest - the adults or the children! We woke up the local residents!
Then the children evaluated the game for the woodcutter...suggestions...
* do it on dry wipe boards then the paper don't get messy and wet
* stick the words on vars and drive them around
*get blu-tack and put them on the trees on her way to school
*make up a dance and song as you find them.
Next activity - find your own way to help Little Red Riding Hood with her words...you can work alone, with a friend, with a few friends....
....and off they went....
- out came the computer and paint programme
- out came paper and pens
- out came glue, scissors
- out came a drum
out came the big building blocks and blu tack - for a word castle - obviously!!!
Some worked alone
Some worked with others
Interesting gender split - all girls and one boy went straight for paper, pens, scissors and glue and sat on the floor area - very busy and mostly working alone or with one other.
All the other boys went straight for the building blocks saying - YES we can work as a team here boys - 3 set about building - 3 others went off and cut out the words and brought them back ready to stick on - a real team effort
Final activity - make a train on the floor - sitting in line - superhero pencil fingers out - write on the child's back in front of you - visualising the words we have just read.
End of day - happy, real focus on reading in a fun....non-threatening.....way. And of course....we helped Little Red Riding Hood!
WORD OF THE WEEK in my class - 'plearning'.........mixture of playing and learning - not created by me.....created by a very creative 4 yr old in my class who simply said we don't just play in our class and we don't just learn...hee hee...we plearn! Brilliant - imagine the look on inspectors faces if they heard that!!!!
A Strange Parcel
A strange parcels arrives with a thump...!
A transcript of an hour in our Pre-Nursery/Nursery/Reception class - super kids, great adults!
9.24 - Large cardboard box full of different fresh fruit sellotaped up and writing put on top, deposited at high speed in the middle of the playground - on the spot 'engage the children' idea to working with fruit!
9.25 - Children arrive back from assembly
9.26 - Teacher - Something happened when you were in assembly - we heard a loud loud BANG - and we didin't know what it was!
Child - was it us banging the door?
Teacher - no - it came from the other way....and it wasn't in our classroom...it must have been outside! Can you help us investigate?
Children - YES!
9.28 - Children all walk carefully outside and around to the playground - stopping dead at the railings!
Child - there's a box!
Teacher - wow - what shall we do?
Child - go and look at it
Child - don't touch it - it might be dangerous!
9.29 - Children all run to the box - screams of delight - not one child touches it - they all stand around! (nothing to do with us adults - we let them work it out together!! - we all thought it would be ripped open by the first one there!)
9.30 - Child - there's writing on the box!
Child - what does it say?
Teacher - I don't know...I can't quite read it....Can you help me?
Children - yes
Teacher - mmmm....it begains with 't'.......ttttt.....
Rec Child - TO....!
Rec child - mmmmmm....there's 'n' - and does aeroplane action
Teacher - nnnnnn.....
Child - there's an s
Children - nursery! its for us!
Teacher - there's more words....
Child - i can see 'and'
Teacher - 'r'
Children - reception......its for all of us!!
Child - who's it from?
Teacher - i don't know - what shall we do
Children - OPEN it!!
Teacher - how?
9.33 - Children all begin working together to rip the sellotape off. Some stand back and just watch - others pass out the contents
9.34 - Child - bananas!
Child - wow
Child - look
Child - whats this paper? (opens it up) - ITS SPORTACUS!!!!!!! LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOKKKKKKKKKK!!!! (and shows everyone the picture)
Teacher - who is sportacus
Children - he's from lazy town....
Teacher - why do you think there is a picture of him in the box?
Child - cos he sent us the fruit - he eats fruit!
Child - it came in his aeroplane!
Teacher - oh! what shall we do with it?
Child - take it inside and eat it
Child - make a drink with it like sportacus!
Children - come on! (and drag us adults along!)
9.40 - One child cries as they have nothing to hold - another child says 'here - help me' and hands one handle of his apple bag to the other child
9.41 - 8 children attempt to move the now empty box across the playground - they hold it up high above their heads - hands everywhere - laughing when it falls. They persevere and get it inside!
9.43 - children standing around chatting animatedly. some quiet and looking.
Teacher - how shall we sit to talk about what to do
Child - A CIRCLE
All get into a circle
Teacher - why did Sportacus send us this package? Whisper to a friend what you think. Whisper to another friend what you think
anyone want to share their idea?
Child - i know - Little Red Riding phoned Sportacus and asked him to send us a present cos she wanted to say thank you for us helping her to learn to read
Teacher - wow - how kind! what can we use on our body to explore the fruit?
Children - eyes, ears, nose, mouth, hands, feet (!)
ok - lets go!!
9.50 - Group activities commense - fruit tasting, smelling, touching, cutting etc......lemons, limes, raspberries, blackberries, bananas, apples, pears, pomegranite, melon, oranges, kiwi
Descriptive language - disgusting, delicious, yummy, sticky, juicy, oooooo there's black bits inside it!, squidgy, yuk, sour, sweet, bumpy, wrinkly, smooth, hairy, scrumptitious
10.25 - an aeroplane goes overhead at playtime - kids shouting thank you to it madly - they think it is sportacus!
A great morning!
The WOW washing line
Celebrating learning achievements...but with a difference:
Washing line at child level - across a space in the room (watch it doesn't become a health and safety risk!) or as part of a wall display.
- Buy some cheap wooden pegs and encourage each child to decorate/paint/write their name/attach a picture or photo of their face onto their wooden peg.
This becomes the personalised 'wow' peg that holds learning achievements on the 'wow washing line'
The difference...it's not up to me (the teacher) or any adult in the classroom to decide which piece of learning goes on the 'wow washing line' - it is totally up to each individual child. Nor are we allowed to suggest it should be just literacy/numeracy or anything else that can be recorded nicely and neatly on paper and double mounted!
Of course - it could be a piece of writing...or a sum....but equally it could be a piece of abstract art, a photo of a child playing music and dancing (they can request a photo to be printed), a print out from the computer, a moment the child describes (e.g. helping someone) which an adult scribes (my class are 3-5yr olds)
The only criteria is that it's something they are proud of achieving.
It generates much discussion, focusses on personal choice and personal reflection and can be changed as often as they like!
All of the intelligences are celebrated..................
Gingerbread Lady Comes to Class
So what happens when a GINGERBREAD LADY dressed in a pink polka-dot bikini arrives in your Early Years classroom.....?
stereotypes are questioned
empathy occurs
problems are solved
comparison of texts take place
imagination and creativity blossom
team spirit develops
laughter resounds
learning becomes inspirational
AND 3,4,5 YEAR OLDS DISCOVER IN 17 QUALITY QUESTIONS THAT IT'S A GINGERBREAD LADY IN THE THINKING BIN TODAY!
So - how did a gingerbread lady dressed in a pink polka dot bikini arrive in the classroom?
Basically - a late night at a Governor's Meeting meant I was too tired to stop at Tesco's to pick up the regular 'gingerbread man'! HOWEVER a gingerbred man was needed to engage the children in the next 'magical land' we were visiting! (Alice in Wonderland has been travelling through the 'doors' each week to a different 'land of make believe'....and we have been following her).
So - a frenzied rummage through my kitchen cupboards resulted in the discovery of a long lost GINGERBREAD LADY in a pink polka dot bikini! (courtesy of Starbucks a very long time ago!)
And then the 'plearning' started.....
A quick run down of the learning events!
Thinking Bin Activity - guess what's in the bin? 17 quality questions and they had the answer...
Raucous laughter!
More raucous laughter at the sight of the gingerbread lady dressed in a pink polka dot bikini!
"She's crying" I whisper
"Why?" says one?
Ask her - I say
"because it's sunny in Gingerbread land and I was sunbathing...I didn't know I had to wear wellies to come to Wales" says the Gingerbread lady
Problem to solve - the gingerbread lady needs help - her brother has gone missing....can we work out where he is?
search the classroom.......search outside..................discover 3 books with a gingerbread man on them
read 3 books - compare.....
decide what to do with the sly old fox - "kick him up the butt" says one child quite passionately
make things to cheer up the gingerbread lady
build a bridge to cross the river so any other gingerbread men won't get eaten
go on a gingerbread man 'run' around the field.....but did you know he collected one piece of treasure as he ran...children must select only one thing to bring back to the classroom - decision making skills......and justify their choice......every piece of tresure is then weighed....because of course - the fox will sink if the treasure is too heavy......
.....and the learning is continuing.....!!!!
