Category: Health and Wellbeing
Protected: Introduction to Drama Strategies – 06/10/2020
Serial Days 2 and 3
Some interesting observations that I have witnessed during placement days 2 and 3.
- During maths lessons, the teacher would blow bubbles to allow the children time to think of their answer to the math question. This allowed the lower ability children the opportunity to process the question and think about the answer.
- After the numeracy lesson, the children were given a selection of activities that they could choose to do after they had finished their work. (The Planning Board). Some children chose to complete calculations in the sand or with playdough and others made pictures of calculations with the help of number lines and an abacus. For the plenary of the lesson the teacher took photos of the work completed by the children on a camera and then put the pictures on to the whiteboard. The children then had the opportunity to sit on the “share and shine” chair and talk about their work and share it with the class.
- What I liked most about this idea was how excited the children were to share their work with the teacher and the rest of the class and also how supportive they were of each other’s work – It was really great to see!
- During literacy, the teacher introduced the ‘say and trade’ activity to help the children with word recognition of their common words. Each child was given a posted note with one of their common words and then they began to walk around the classroom. When the music stopped the children would join up with a partner, say the common word on their posted note and swap over. This was a good way of getting the children to actively participate in their learning whilst developing effective communication skills with their peers.
- In the afternoon when the children returned after lunch the teacher put on the NumberJacks subtraction video for the children to watch to calm them down and allowed her time to set up the tooth brushing station.
Placement Day 1
Thursday 23rd January
Today was my first day of placement in primary 1/2. Whilst in the class I found it very interesting and exciting to see all of my knowledge and understanding in practice as the children worked on their literacy and numeracy skills.
Interesting observations
- When explaining the learning intentions and success criteria the teacher used toys called “learning ladybug” and “successful snake” to engage the children and keep them focused on what is expected from them.
- In the morning when the children arrived, the teacher reinforces the days of the week, months of the year and asks the children the date.
- In maths, when looking at number patterns/sequins the teacher used a washing line and gloves to teach the children how to count in patterns of 5. The gloves with 5 fingers were a great visual for the children as they could easily count the fingers if they needed to.
- When completing the writing task the children used number lines to help them identify missing numbers in the sequence.
- One successful method that I noticed the teacher using to ‘chunk’ up the lesson was to use interactive videos on https://app.gonoodle.com/discover . I noticed that the teacher used this strategy to help the children when they were becoming restless or beginning to lose focus. This not only improved the children health and wellbeing by getting them up and moving as all the children were very keen to join in and dance along. In addition the videos developed their understanding as they were related to the task i.e. patterns.
Communication in Other Environments
In today’s workshop we were put into groups of 5 and set the task of building a den using some materials provided such as poles and cardboard and other materials that we found i.e. leaves and sticks.
Within my group there was a leader, however, this leader was informally chosen and naturally stepped up to this role and she had experience in building dens. The leader had a vision for out den and explained to us how she thought would be the best to build the den based on the materials that our group had. I was happy for someone who had more experience than me to step up and share her ideas with the group. In my personal opinion the most challenging part of working in my group was having to work and communicate with people that I normally wouldn’t and discussing different ideas until we found one that suited our group and materials.
When talking to other groups about how they built their den, they used the ‘5 P’s of explaining’ as a way of communicating with us about how they built it. The group discussed how they planned and prepared their den and then listed some key points and features of their den and why they built it the way that they did.
As we were outside our communication was not only verbal, when explaining to others within my group, I used hand gestures to communicate instructions and sometimes had to raise my voice to communicate with other group members if they were far away. Throughout the task we were constantly listening to other people’s ideas and giving feedback based on our own opinions. In my personal opinion I didn’t find that I was having to speak above the sounds in the environment as all my group members were actively engaged and listening. I understand that when completing this task with children that they may become distracted by the environment, I feel that one way of overcoming this is to not talk at the children for a long period of time and get them actively engaged in the task such as finding materials and building the den quickly.
