Guest Posted August 12, 2009 Share Posted August 12, 2009 I'm a nursery teacher in a primary school. In September my two classes will consist of 17boys, 9girls in the morning session and 16boys, 10girls in the afternoon session. Never had a ratio this bad before, pre-visit showed most chn to be very boisterous! I would be eternally grateful for any tips, advice, alcohol that can be offered!!! thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 12, 2009 Share Posted August 12, 2009 I have gone down the route of dinosaurs as my introductory topic, and aiming to spend a lot of time outside, contructing and the like. I am in reception and have 11 boys and 4 girls, a big change from last year which was 10 of each! Will also be looking to see what help, advise etc is given. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
katekit Posted August 12, 2009 Share Posted August 12, 2009 I have gone down the route of dinosaurs as my introductory topic, and aiming to spend a lot of time outside, contructing and the like. I am in reception and have 11 boys and 4 girls, a big change from last year which was 10 of each! Will also be looking to see what help, advise etc is given. LOTS of outdoor activities! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 12, 2009 Share Posted August 12, 2009 Last year we had 20 boys and 4 girls... it was a hard year but we found that gruesome activities held their attention well, like having a real fish and looking inside it.... messy play on a large scale was also a success, we made a large tardis that they then used in the home corner, we made a large pirate ship which we also used in the homecorner, we papered the floor, gave them pens, pencils, junk modelling and the cars and they made their own town, drew roads, made the buildings, basically anything that holds their attention... also as a previous post suggested.. plenty of outside activities... good luck... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marion Posted August 12, 2009 Share Posted August 12, 2009 Lots of active learning Personally I prefer a boy heavy class to a girl dominated one much less fuss Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emmajess Posted August 12, 2009 Share Posted August 12, 2009 Lots of active learning Personally I prefer a boy heavy class to a girl dominated one much less fuss Me too, Marion, absolutely!! Boys are much more straightforward than girls (in my experience, on the whole, not over- generalising etc etc!) As long as you're prepared to get outside lots, make lots of mess and be very noisy, a boy heavy class can be great fun! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan Posted August 12, 2009 Share Posted August 12, 2009 I'm going to move this out of the Article discussion section! But not before adding that I have just had the most delightful class ever and Ive been teaching a long time now. I had 11 boys and 2 girls in Reception which I took into year 1 with me last year, with an addition of 5 girls from the parallel class. But I have never wanted to take a class on before. I was quite nervous like you about the imbalance but it was actually usually very easy and yes I had some characters in there who were at times a nightmare! The boys were always receptive to whatever was offered to them and particularly to factual things and maths! Good luck and have fun. Approach this with an open mind and remember not to sit too long on the carpet and Im sure you will be fine!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 12, 2009 Share Posted August 12, 2009 Great advice and positive experiences already shared, good luck, and have fun come September. I wonder if a male teacher would feel 'apprehensive' with a looming high girls over boys ratio? (just thinking out loud ) Peggy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marion Posted August 12, 2009 Share Posted August 12, 2009 I wonder if a male teacher would feel 'apprehensive' with a looming high girls over boys ratio?(just thinking out loud ) Peggy If the male teachers I work with are typical Peggy then no. Boy heavy classes have a universal reputation for being harder to teach Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 12, 2009 Share Posted August 12, 2009 I'd just like to echo Susan's comment regarding carpet area. Short and swift for both boys and girls in my opinion Lots of physical stuff too both in and out Vicky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 Slowly over the quiet summer period we are losing the last of our school leavers and the place is much quieter for it. In the last few months the older boys have loved nothing more than dressing up in the outdoor area and using their imagination. I found our eldest boy wearing my Dad's old slippers, a (fake) fur hat with flaps from Canada and some massive wooly mittens from Oz, he was very internationaly dressed (my dad is Scottish does that count?). I was quite amazed by this play, they of course had their days when we had to try and keep them all apart as the sillyness soon got out of hand. Looking back at their profiles the most memorable thing seemed to be when we went to the fishmongers and got prawns and mackerel, watched the fishmonger gut them and then brought them back to investigate before our cook filleted them in front of the chidlren, cooked them and we all tasted them. There are lots of publications about boys and various types of play, can't think of any at the moment. THey do need to have good physical play but they also enjoy focused activities if of course you have followed their interests you should have no problem Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 Absolutely agree with not keeping boys on the carpet for too long. I was working in reception and we had 21 boys and 8 girls. The girls could sit for as long as you like, but the boys... Was lots of fun though as they really thrived with all the hands on/outside type activities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 Ooh! I'm glad it's not just me with a boy heavy class (14 boys and 9 girls)! I have usually had a fairly evenly mixed class or even girl heavy so this class list was a bit of a suprise. Thankfully we have our first topic of the term to be knights and castles which having spoken to their previous teacher they will really enjoy. Looking at the birth rate statistics for our area, it seems that a boy heavy class will become a familiar thing over the next few years. Lx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 13, 2009 Share Posted August 13, 2009 Can I just say that we have had a massively boy-heavy group for the last year and I completely disagree with the notion of "don't keep the boys sitting on the carpet for too long". Tap into their interests and they will be avid listeners, it is that simple. You need to know your class and if you know them, the rest is simplicity itself. Cheers, DDC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 14, 2009 Share Posted August 14, 2009 We too have just had boy heavy year of 18 boys, 4 girls. Looks set to continue as all new ones are boys too! However doesnt help when we had 3 girls withdrawn and others turn up for visit and decide not to attend due to the number of boys......anyone else experienced this??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 1, 2010 Share Posted January 1, 2010 Hi, Perhaps you would be interested in completing this online questionnaire for my research project into boisterous play? if you leave your email address in the further comments section at the end i will happily send you the results of my project. http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?fo...jSm9EU0Fub3c6MA Regards Caroline x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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