Assessment 2013/14

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:

• Photographs
• Quick observations as would appear on a postit or a magic moment
• Catch as You Can observations
• Small group observations
• Large group observations

It’s not until you look specifically at the assessment sheets that you see the differences.

The priority for every setting is showing progress.

Chinese New Year

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!

Maths is Everywhere!

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!

Newspapers pt 3

Group Paper

The writing lesson. Hopefully children will have had lots of writing opportunities before this point, writing down their notes and interview tips, brain storming and writing in the classroom during independent activities.

Introduction

Go again through all the children’s notes. You could even make it into a competition, to see who can write the best news paper with the best stories, the most interesting stories. The winning group could have some stickers.

Show children the front cover of popular newspapers. Point out the newspaper name, the headlines and the stories. Look at the different type faces and sizes of print.

Main Lesson

Suggested Time Table

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.

Useful Links

 

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?

Congratulations!

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

• Have lots of free flow!
  Children learn in many different ways, especially at such a young age. Whole class teaching, small group teaching is great but allow the children to learn independently using appropriate resources in the classroom.
  
• Small group teaching!
  The little ones can often find it difficult to concentrate in large group teaching sessions. I love teaching tables as they allow you to work almost one on one with a small group.

picture from TTS Catalogue.

The Case of the Missing USB’s

Why I Haven’t Posted Yet

The genius that I am left all my USB’s at work so I can’t post any of the resources I have made, which is the entire purpose of this blog!

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!