Guest Posted September 13, 2009 Share Posted September 13, 2009 Hi Just in case anyone interested have started using a FS style organisation in year 2. We have had to manage the access to outside as we don't have a door in our classroom but other than that going well. It has made us realise how in the past we have skilled the children in FS to think for themselves, plan, organise their learning time and then undone all that work in year 1. I had previoulsy taught the my current year 2's as FS and was suprrised at how many skills I had to reteach them.."What shall we do now?" is a question I keep getting, they never said that in FS? Anyone else on the same journey would love to know how it is going. Jay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 12, 2009 Share Posted October 12, 2009 Hi Just in case anyone interested have started using a FS style organisation in year 2. We have had to manage the access to outside as we don't have a door in our classroom but other than that going well. It has made us realise how in the past we have skilled the children in FS to think for themselves, plan, organise their learning time and then undone all that work in year 1. I had previoulsy taught the my current year 2's as FS and was suprrised at how many skills I had to reteach them.."What shall we do now?" is a question I keep getting, they never said that in FS? Anyone else on the same journey would love to know how it is going. Jay I'm supposed to be bringing fs style learning to my year one setting which in this school has traditionally been very formal. I only teach literacy and numeracy as I'm part time but I'd love to hear more about how you've organised this. How much time do you dedicate to whole class work and small group work? Can you give any examples of areas you have set up? I'm finding it difficult as I have children who do still need fs learning, and others who are heading rapidly through level 1 and catering for all their needs is causing a huge headache. I'm sure it must be even tougher in year 2 when the spread might be even greater! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 16, 2009 Share Posted October 16, 2009 Hi Sorry about the delay in reply but I had given up hope of anyone being interested! The year 1 class works the same way as FS with the same CP areas set up, it has some familiar equipment and then some new to extend learning. The day is organised very much like the FS children have group time followed by activity time. During activity time one adult is doing an adult led activity, one adult is joining in with a play activity and writing observation notes. A further two groups are doing challenges. These are open ended challenges and in a morning are literacy and numeracy based. They require children to complete a task and there is always something the children have to do that can then be looked at by an adult. The challenges usually follow on in some way from the adult led activities so children are applying their learning independently. Jay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 16, 2009 Share Posted October 16, 2009 (edited) Thanks for your reply! It sounds a little like the set-up I'm using at the moment, except my TA takes a second adult led activity group. For one, I have five groups to get around instead of the usual four, and for another she wouldn't be at all comfortable getting down and playing with the children since she's used to a more formal setup and I don't think she appreciates my continuous provision efforts at all! At the moment I'm working on my independent activities and trying to get them right. Do you have any examples of the challenges that have been used? I'd be really interested to see what sorts of things they get up to. My class are quite low ability and don't seem to have ever worked independently before so finding things do engage them and still moving their learning forward in a meaningful way is proving quite difficult. Edited October 16, 2009 by Guest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mundia Posted October 16, 2009 Share Posted October 16, 2009 HI Concrete, its great to hear about your experiences with bringing the good bits of fs practice into year 2. Good for you being on the front line on that one. Im really interested to know how your school/leadership and colleagues/parents took this move.. was it easy to get everyone on board? Im sure that others who may be thinking about this pathway would be interested in the groundwork you needed to do before you got going as well as what challenges you have faced on the way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 5, 2009 Share Posted November 5, 2009 I for one, would love to hear more about this. I want to develop my year 1 and year 2 classes to being mre FS, but don't know how to start, how the timetable would work, how the head would approve, parents etc. Or how it would work, and still get good levels at the end of year 2. Any ideas would be great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 9, 2010 Share Posted June 9, 2010 I'm currently in year one and run it very much like foundation stage - moving to year two next year and planning to do it exactly the same! I have all of the areas that I did when I was a reception teacher, all of which are in relation to the topic. For example when we did Africa last term I had an African village role-play where they had to act out the daily life of an African village, a safari role-play where they went on the safari jeep and used wow words to describe what they could see, an explorers corner with a boat were they spotted the different countries thay could see and plotted them on a map and an African market with a shop where they used lots of money. I also had a creative area where they could make whatever they wanted (but I encouraged them to make things for the African market using clay), a challenge area, water and sand with different phonics and number activities and a writing table (sometimes in relation to the topic and sometimes different.) Our school is doing the thematic approach (as you can probably tell!) so I like everything in the classroom and all of the activities to reflect the topic. If you are coming out of reception you will find this very easy, everything just needs to challenge the children a bit more and have more of a focus! In the infants we do integrated maths and literacy in the mornings with me teaching aspects throughout the morning by simple gathering children on the carpet. I set out five activities which are a mixture of maths and literacy and all in relation to the topic. I then let the children choose between the activities throughout the morning, including the continuous provision. Hope that makes sense and is helful! Some people are dubious abour continuous provison in year two but I can't wait to start it and think it is so much more beneficial to children that sitting at their tables all day - they are only 7 after all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 9, 2010 Share Posted June 9, 2010 (edited) That sounds fabulous! How did you fit all those different role plays into your classroom though, or were they one at a time? Next january I'll be doing a topic on explorers and I was thinking of choosing a country to study as explorers (planning in advance here!). I was going to go for Italy since I can't do China (my first choice), but you've really inspired me to start considering Africa now! Edited June 9, 2010 by Guest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 9, 2010 Share Posted June 9, 2010 No I had them at the same time - it has taken me forever to sort the classroom out so that I can have everything in that I wanted! I only have three working tables (and I don't even use these all of the time!) so that obviously frees up space! Yeah I would definitely do Africa! I went ot a school there so that's why I did it and the children LOVED it! Really inspired it and it's probably one of the only topics that I have done that i didin't run out of ideas for! Links really well with safrai / jungle as well! We sponsor my school in Ghana and wrote letters to them which was also really good! If you would like to the details of the school the teacher there is very open to it! It takes about three months for mail to get country to country though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted June 9, 2010 Share Posted June 9, 2010 Wow I have only three working tables which are quite small and even then I have no where near enough room for that many role plays,. I can fit one in and possibly two at a push but something else would have to go. You are very lucky to have that much space! Is there any chance you could PM me the details of that school in Ghana? Would be fantastic to get a link going there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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