Guest Posted February 13, 2010 Share Posted February 13, 2010 Hi there everybody, Can't believe I am doing my assessments on the weekend, but it has to be done at some point during this half term, so thought i would get it done today to free up some of the hols. Anyway, I have noticed that at this point in the academic year my Reception girls are out performing all the boys in Writing. Girls at point W6, and boys lagging behind at point 3/4/5. What i'm asking you guys out there....any suggestions on tempting the boys to write for a variety of purposes. The girls are naturally writing fictional stories, writing lists, little notes to each other and posting them in the post box...along comes the magical postman and delivers them in theer trays for the following morning as they come in. Thought this would capture the boys imagination by providing a post box, but not really happening. I am doing houses, homes including animal homes next half term, so have given it some thought as what the boys might like, to encourage them to write more independently and have come up with maps, diagrams but need some inspiration for the boys. What are you guys doing out there would love to hear from you and if you are finding the same results misspink xx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 13, 2010 Share Posted February 13, 2010 If you are doing houses (with role play I presume as its reception?!) could the boys be delivery men..... they have to write notes when people are out as do post people........ could they be builders with their drawings and writings re the things they need, to build a house/ extension etc........ they might need to order bricks, order tools etc........ suddenly gone blank after answering the door............... can't remember what else I was going to say! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 13, 2010 Share Posted February 13, 2010 Great ideas there Scarletangel thankyou. I know its probably normal for girls to be more 'natural writers', but i am just hoping its not my style of teaching thas more directed to te girls. Its on my mind, so will consider other masculine activities centered around boys writing. Cheers for those ideas. I was also thinking somehow doing pirates and having messages in a bottle. Possibly go down the route of pirates homes xx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 13, 2010 Share Posted February 13, 2010 Could they make their own animals den or something, 3 of my boys made and igloo outside with a big white dust sheet and the next thing i know they are helping themselves to the camera, clipboard and drawing their igloo...one boy wrote this is my igloo by ****** i nearly dropped down as previously he has only played with the train track!!! So could you get isome big sheets and tapes and string for them to fix it and together and maybe paper nearby for their den design which they can label and modify? oh or could you set up a role play bit where they are architects who design houses for people? oh i love startin a new topic : ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 13, 2010 Share Posted February 13, 2010 Great ideas you guys, love 'em. I can't wait to get started with them. Thanks heaps xx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KST Posted February 14, 2010 Share Posted February 14, 2010 Justed wanted to say that my boys are on the whole lagging behind the girls. They have started to mark make during their play more this half term but not really beyond scale points 1 and 2. Getting boys to use their sounds in their writing when its not adult directed is proving to be hard so i think its just a developmental thing with boys. Sounds like you are doing a good job so don't worry that its your teaching! x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 14, 2010 Share Posted February 14, 2010 last term we had a writing cave........hung up some bats, spiders etc The boys loved it and often outnumbered the girls in there. I'm sure that you have already got toolboxes with markmaking equipment, writing toolbelts, clipboards etc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mundia Posted February 14, 2010 Share Posted February 14, 2010 Also, boys often prefer to write lying on the floor or standing up rather than sitting round a table Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catma Posted February 14, 2010 Share Posted February 14, 2010 Anyway, I have noticed that at this point in the academic year my Reception girls are out performing all the boys in Writing. Girls at point W6, and boys lagging behind at point 3/4/5. Be careful with analysis of scale points - it's not a hierarchical thing. A child could have points 123, 4,6, vs another with 123,4 5; they'll both have the same overall score of 5 and be at a similar stage of development ie within ELGs, just with differing strengths in the aspect of learning. The sequence is not important within the 4 - 8 point range. However, having said that points level analysis will throw up these kinds of queries ie why are less boys attaining point 6. Cx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knoksk Posted February 23, 2010 Share Posted February 23, 2010 Im doing houses and homes this term, we have a builders yard - a sand box on the floor with tools and things in and they are encouragfed to wear hard hats. We then have an office next to it where they can write letters to people who want a house building, a list of materials they need. They have a diary to write in and paper to draw pictures of houses on and then build them. My boys cant get enough of it. Although none of my children choose to write they are all hands on. I only have 7 reception - 2 of which are girls and if they could get away with out writing they would lol. So thats why we made the office to maybe inspire the girls a bit more to write. We wrote a story together about Bob the Builder today and everyone got uinvolved even the boys and they began to write their own sentence about what Bob was doing. Im going to do this every day to try and get them writing stories - because mine just are not writing stories at all. Okay so ive gone off on one and if I dont make sense I am sorry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 23, 2010 Share Posted February 23, 2010 My class decided they wanted a school in the role-play area, so I asked them what they would need and tried to accommodate their requests (which fortunately were fairly reasonable!!), even though it meant I had to rearrange the room to give them some 'drawers' to keep the things in! Anyway, I put some exercise books in there as well as some different kinds of paper. My lot don't have exercise books at all, but they decided they needed things to record who had hurt themselves on, how the 'children' were doing (like my and my TAs observation books!) and the activities folder I have, so I put the exercise books in there - and they love writing in them! Boys included. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knoksk Posted March 2, 2010 Share Posted March 2, 2010 Actually the more the paper has been there in the builder's yard the more the boys and the girls have accessed it. It pays to be patient - or so I have just recently learnt. lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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