Your Most Sensible Guess
In the Early Years Development Matters, estimating comes under Mathematics, Number 40 – 60 months, with the target: Estimates how many objects they can see and checks by counting them.
It would be easy to whack out a worksheet to tick this target off, but it’s important to avoid worksheets at all costs in the Early Years.
To that end, I have created estimating question cards!
Sink or Float
The easiest science lesson to do with little children is the sink or float lesson. It’s a very visual lesson and once completed, you can leave the water play out for the children to experiment for themselves.
It opens a discussion about suitable materials for boats, children can make predictions and easily see the results of their predictions.
I have done this lesson with children as young as 2 years old. They enjoy the instant nature of the experiments and are able to see which objects sink or float instantly.
picture from myteacherpages.com
I wouldn’t expect children to be writing anything down about this experiment. When I do this experiment, I write a lot of notes about what they children have said, or video their predictions, and take photos of their independent play.
Using the New Curriculum
As you must be well aware, assessment in the Early Years is a challenge now that they have change the curriculum. At a recent course run by our LEA, we met with other practitioners and it seems that everyone is doing something different, but basically the same.
There are many types of observations that is common in every setting:
It’s not until you look specifically at the assessment sheets that you see the differences.
The priority for every setting is showing progress.
Display and Resources
This year (2013), Chinese New Year is Sunday 10th February, although celebrations will take place for the entire weekend. I will be teaching the children about Chinese New Year the week commencing 11th February.
I do enjoy sharing Chinese New Year with the children in school. They have already explored Christmas and New Year a month before so are open to understanding that in China they celebrate New Year at a different time.
Chinese New Year is an excellent way to explore new cultures and talk about different ways of life. There are so many different resources and learning opportunities, there is even a story!
This is the Chinese New Year display in my classroom, it’s almost taking over one wall!
I am very fortunate to have a mother-in-law who can send me beautiful Chinese artefacts to show the children but there are a number of shops in my area which can supply easy to find resources.
You can also find resources for Chinese New Year from learning libraries.
I bought a number of the resources I use in my classroom from the China town in Birmingham.
I’m going to talk about the resources I have in my classroom based on the best of my ability, however if I say anything wrong, please leave a comment and let me know!
Not Just in Maths Lessons
When children struggle with recognising numbers in the classroom I always ask parents to do number walks with their children because maths is everywhere!
This is the Maths is Everywhere display I have at school. I use it to illustrate that there are lots of everyday items that have numbers on them. There are always opportunities to share counting and number recognition with children.
It is incredible how prevalent numbers are in our every day environment.
As the collage shows, there are numbers on our every day objects such as house phones and mobile phones, computer keyboards, street signs, television remote controls and even television channels.
Watches and clocks obviously have numbers on them, but also car number plates and microwave controls.
Receipts, train and bus tickets, measuring tapes, bathroom scales and kitchen scales all use numbers, as well as the labels in clothes. I didn’t include house numbers on my collage but they are an easy one to spot as children walk to school, as well as bus numbers!
You could ask the children to do a number walk and see what numbers they can spot! The higher the numbers they can see, the more points they get! The children can count up the points and find out who is the winner!
The 2012-13 Curriculum
Showing progress in the Early Years has always been difficult. The previous system of using profile points allowed practitioners to show numerical progress for all children from Nursery to end of Reception.
Many children would start in Reception at level 2 or 3, and would progress through the levels until they finished Reception.
Unfortunately, there is no current numerical method for showing progress nationally.
For our own records, in our Reception class we are trying to make sure we keep meticulous records of phonics, literacy and mathematics. I thought I would share some of my assessment sheets to help out other practitioners.
 | Writing Assessment Record Sheet We have split up the basic statements for the writing targets from 30-50 months all the way to a 2c on curriculum targets. We looked at the main process the children go through to be able to write independently and put it into a table that we can use to help us guide our planning and to track pupil progress. |
 | Phonics Assessment Record Sheet This sheet is one in which you can input the children’s total scores for the term. So, if they know 12/20 phase 2 phonemes and so on, and tracks the progress they have made from the previous term. Obviously leave the progress columns empty if those areas haven’t been tested yet. |
 | Reading Assessment Record As the children begin to use their phonemes to decode words for reading and also begin to recognise more words, this assessment sheet allows the user to track progress through terms and also see where the children are currently. |
 | Number Writing and Reading Assessment Record I do like to keep specific records to help with my planning. I find it’s easy to waste time teaching children things they already know. This sheet allows me to target specific children with specific number recognition which I can jot down in my planning. It doesn’t actually take that long, either. |
 | Catch as You Can Observation Sheets These sheets could be completed by your Learning Through Play Manager, as they are working with children. However, we don’t want to be filling in sheets when we should be moving children’s learning on so I recommend targetting specific children, perhaps children who need more help or children who are gifted and talented to use these sheets as effectively as possible. |
 | Magic Moments We keep Learning Journey scrap books at our setting, where maths, literacy and topic work, photographs and magic moments are collected and displayed to show children’s progress through the year. The magic moments cards capture special moments the children share with you. For example, today I was invited to a space party so I asked the child what happened at a space party and wrote down what he said on the magic moment card. This will later be stuck into his Learning Journey The magic moments cards are fantastic ways of capturing sweet things the children say and making notes about their progress through snapshots. |
If you have any ideas on assessment in the Early Years, please share!
It’s about Developing Knowledge
I’m having a bit of a preach I’m afraid.
Members of staff working with older children can often think that all we do in the foundation stage is play.
I have told the children in my class that we work with the toys in the classroom, and the head teacher will tell me off if I let them play when it’s not play time. The children now delight in correcting me if I say ‘play’ by accident.
Children in the foundation stage work very hard when they are playing. They are developing relationships with other children, learning about who they are and how they relate to other people. If they actually do the activity as it is intended, they will be learning about numbers, shapes, writing, sounds and ICT.
The role of the Learning Through Play Manager is essential for ensuring that the goals in the Early Years Foundation Stage are met. It is not all about teaching knowledge but it is also about developing that knowledge.
It’s More than Just Playing
I talk a lot about a Learning Through Play Manager. It’s an important role in any foundation stage classroom as the children will learn using activities but sometimes they can go a bit off task, as we all know.
Picture from www.allkidsfirstnj.com
The Purpose of a Learning Through Play Manager
There of many purposes of a Learning Through Play Manager, each of them importing.
The Second Lesson
To find the resources for this lesson and the first part of the lesson click here.
Resources
Introduction
Just a Suggestion
Different schools have different ways of working. I would never suggest that everyone should follow the same time table or routine in their classroom.
As Early Years practitioners we should always work to our children’s levels.
The time table below is a suggested time table for those schools who teach Literacy and Numeracy as discrete subjects. It could also be applied to schools which work on a thematic structure, incorporating literacy and numeracy into topic headings.
This is more of an Autumn time table, but it could be suitable for schools where children are working below the national average. The longer sessions in the morning give children the opportunities to really get stuck into what they’re doing without having to change to a different subject or activity.
Literacy ICT Resources
 | Cbeebies Alphablocks My absolute favourite resources for phonics and literacy! The children completely adore working on the Alphablocks. They work as a whole class teaching resources, a small group resource and even an independent activity. You can use the Alphablocks on your white board or on laptops. I would recommend Alphablocks to all Early Years, EAL and SEN teachers! |
 | Letters and Sounds The Letters and Sounds website is stuffed to full with resources and ICT games for the children to use! It’s mainly good for teaching phonics using the Letters and Sounds scheme, but all the resources are free and again can be used as a teaching session or independently. |
 | Sequencing on Cbeebies This is actually a really nice game for sequencing. The children can watch the video and then put it into the correct order afterwards. Children can do this independently or in a small group. |
Numeracy ICT Resources
 | The Numtums This is more for your children who aren’t yet recognising numbers, although if you’re playing this game with your SEN children you may find the others come to watch. The children pop the balloons and hear the numbers read out as they pop each balloon. Also good for EAL children. |
 | Cbeebies Numberjacks A bit like the Alphablocks, the Number Jacks site is full of fun activities for young children to work on in groups or independently. There are even some more difficult activities to challenge your gifted and talented children. |
 | Sorting We all teach sorting by colour or sorting by shape, but there are actually lots of different ways to sort. Using this site will show you lots of good ways to work on sorting with your little ones. |
 | Higher or Lower One of the Early Years targets is to know if a number is larger or smaller than another number. This game allows children to work with numbers in a fun and unique way. There are also higher numbers for your extension activities. This could be done as a mental oral starter or as part of a plenary. |
 | Basic Counting 1 - 6 You may have some children who start in Reception, or children who are in Nursery, who need counting reinforcement. This could be done as part of a mental oral starter in the Autumn term, or in small groups for your target children. |
Thematic ICT Resources
 | Diwali The British Council website has lots of fun little activities for young children. Difficult concepts like religious festivals are explained in a simple way that appeals to young children. |
 | Chinese New Year This is one of my favourite videos. You can pause and discuss what’s happening, play the video a few times and there is a fun year picker at the end so that children can see what year they were born in. Do the children have the same birth year as the teacher? |
You’re an Early Years Teacher!
Congratulations, you’re an Early Years teacher! You are now working in the most fun year group that there is! You will have more breadth than ever before to express your fun and creative side!
The other year groups are great too, but nothing beats the Early Years Foundation Stage!
Basic Tips for the Early Years
picture from TTS Catalogue.
Why I Haven’t Posted Yet
What I am going to do instead is work on the links page so that if any parents or other teachers are looking for different resources you will be able to find the links on here! Hopefully this blog will be useful to other teachers. Especially those who find themselves in the Early Years and aren’t sure what they’re doing!
Please keep checking back, progress will be made soon!
