Nqt Observation Numeracy Ideas Welcome

[Knoksk]

Hello,

As some of you may or may not know I have just recently started my NQT year in a Foundation Stage Unit which I am loving. During this particular observation I will have 7 reception children and 4 (who have a good consentration length) pre schoolers. At the moment we are learning to count and I will have assessed the children to see what they can count to at this point. So I do not want a number activity.

 

I was thinking of a shape activity.

 

This will be the carpet activity:

 

I will tell them what they will be learning about today - WALT (I usually have a puppet for this)

 

Feely bag with several shapes inside and each child has a turn at placing their hand into the bag and discribing the shape. It has four corners etc. The other children have to guess the shape.

 

It will then move on to the white board where the children draw a picture of a shape. E.g. Square, Triangle, Circle, Dimond (?)

 

Independant activity:

 

Drawing shapes in the paint - TA with pre-schoolers

 

Reception - Drawing around shape templates on coloured paper, cutting them out and sticking them into their numeracy books whilst talking to me about what shape they are.

 

This is my idea, if you have any other thoughts or ideas, please share them with me. If you have any advice I would love to hear it. I want to give my best during this observation.

 

Thanks

 

K

 

*I have a question here, would you expect children at this time of year to know what a pentagon/hexagon is? Or would you just stick to the ones above?

[Knoksk]

Or I do have several shape cut outs (that I made for an interview) I can stick these outside and the children have to run to the shape. This would be instead of the cutting activity mentioned above? Or maybe instead of the feely bag and use the feely bag as a pleanary?

 

Sorry my brain is working over time now lol.

[JacquieL]

You could give the children shapes and ask them to see what they can find outside which has the same shape as the one they are holding. Then you are relating shapes to the environment rather than as an isolated idea. They could use a camera to photograph what they find. The discussion and search will mean they are using lots of shape language naming the shapes and talking about the properties, such as it has 4 sides and corners ....etc. etc.

[Knoksk]

I like the sound of that. They would probably really engage with that as well due to the cameras. Then I could put the photographs up on the computer and the children could discuss them.

 

Thanks for yout imput. Im going to include the little game as well as they seem to love the outdoors.

[Guest]

Hi there Knocksk -

 

A feely bag is a tried and trusted activity and, in my experience, one which generally goes down well with the children. One thing I would say is make sure they can get both hands in - it makes all the difference if they are having to count sides/corners etc. I think your idea of getting the children outside is great and will probably go down well with your observer! How about having a shape treasure hunt, looking for shapes you have hidden or shapes in the school environment? Let the children take photos. You could also hide shapes in the sand tray for your littlies or have a printing activity or shape cutters in the malleable area. I would not worry too much about anything beyond circle, square, triangle and rectangle unless you have some v bright sparks! But it is worth including different types of triangles - they look different but are still all the same family - and also differently sized shapes for the same reason. good luck for your observation - you could have a lot of fun with this!

[Guest]

I'd say not to use hexagons or pentagons, but perhaps you could use oblongs instead. Many of the children that start call oblongs rectangles, which leads nicely into talking about how oblongs and squares are both rectangles - look at the properties of these shapes and compare. It's something that tends to come up quite early on in shape work.

 

Shapes in the environment is a great activity, and the language that will emerge during your cutting activity will give you the chance to observe their use of everyday language or mathematical vocab to describe the shapes.

 

I mentored our NQT this year - and the advice I gave her early on was to use me as another adult. In a FS classroom the children will want to include any adult that is there, so discuss with your mentor if they are happy to mingle with the children in their play - this will take the pressure off of you a bit! Just relax, you'll be fine!

[Knoksk]

OOO Polly I love those ideas about the treasure hunt. I could start with the game outside where they run to the different shapes and then tell them it is their turn to find the different shapes hidden outside and in their classroom. When they have done that they can take pictures of the different shapes with the camera and if I have time they can look at the different shapes on the computer.

 

Thanks guys you are really helping me out. Rather than being scared I am starting to feel relaxed and excited.

 

I like the idea of them cutting shapes with different pieces of paper. Maybe I could do that as a follow up the next day. The great thing is, is that it is a monday. Thanks Jess for your thoughts and I will be sure to use the term, 'oblong' as I have some bright sparks.

Edited September 14, 2009 by Knoksk

[Guest]

I f you are relaxed the children will be too - have fun, enjoy and let us know how it goes - word of warning - have a plan B to transfer it inside in case of truly foul weather LOL !

[Knoksk]

Just want to say a big thankyou to everyone who gave me tips and ideas for my observation. The lesson seemed to go well and I feel better about my job already. Thanks.

[Guest]

Glad to hear it, well done you

[Guest]

Well done - a good lesson observation is always good for the confidence