Reflection Area

[Guest]

We have just had OFSTED and this has triggered a church inspection (CofE) after the holidays. I am supposed to set up a reflection area on a small table in the Nursery. I have found a cross and some childrens Bible stories to put on the table. Was just wondering if anyone else has had experience of a this or has any ideas. We are going to read Little Red Hen when they come in so might also put some objects/pictures related to the story on the table.

[Guest]

Hi,

We have reflection areas throughout our school (Cof E) and sometimes I have used a few simple pictures to encourage the children to talk and think about what they can see. At Christmas we had our Nativity set out and the children would spend time moving the figures and retelling the story. Do you have any corn or wheat grains which could be looked at and touched?

 

Or maybe the children could think of a very simple prayer/prayers which an adult could write or type with them and the children could then illustrate. I would let the children write their own prayer and then scribe under or beside it incase you get asked about it but it should be in the children's mark making first.

Have also used resources from The Festival Shop to reflect current activities in my class. We also thought about developing our Reflection area to include prayers from the children about their family or by their family but this has to be handled sensitively and as I have been off all half term I haven't yet put this in place.

Do you have a piece of material that maybe links to your learning that could either flow over the area or down onto it and you could then put pictures, words, speech bubbles onto it to link the whole area together?

 

Sometimes we are given whole school themes to look at linked to our Worship assemblies and so I try to include these into my Reflection area.I often use pictures of facial expressions with a few key questions as the assembly themes are often far too complex for the children to grasp fully.

 

Hope this helps if I think of anything else I will let you know.

Hope it all goes ok and that your OFSTED was ok too.

 

Nicky Sussex

[Lucie]

Hi we do this at my school (RC), in recpetion we have a low level table that I have situated in the book/listening area and underneath the main RE themed display. Last term it had

a cross

easter stories

a happiness garden (some real plants combined wirth flowers that children had made to show that they had made someone happy - this was to do with our RE topic)

the main prayers that we say on prayer cards

a prayer box (Nicky this is very similar to what you have suggested you will be introducing, chn write prayers and pop them in the box, there are no expectation surrounding this I.e. names, presentation etc, and often chn are happy to share their prayers but i never force this)

a childrens illustrated bible.

 

This sounds like a lot but really it is a small round table with a nice cloth on and some carefully selected bits and pieces!

 

It is nice if it is combined and discussed along with a theme, the children in my class became very intereted in Easter and its meaning and spent ALOT of time in this area looking at pictures in the stories and talking about Jesus.

I often sit in this area during RE time rather than on my normal 'teachers chair'.

Hope that helps.

Lucie x

Edited April 12, 2010 by Lucie

[dreamgirl]

Hi Lucie Loved yoyur ideas. Can you help me with someting. I too am in an RC school in Nursery. We follow our whole school RE planning but I don't like the units after Easter as they are almost identical in objectives to before Easter. Too repetitive. Have cleared it with my head that I can substitute something for the first half of summer term. second half is all about the church building and people. Have you got any ideas?

[Guest]

Our Catholic primary school has, in it's reflection area, a "please remember in your prayers" display.

 

It's fabric attached to the wall and there are a selection of shaped post-it notes that the children can write on (or ask someone to write on) Children use them along the lines of " Sarah's Nanny is in hospital" or "Mark's brother has broken his leg"

 

Is that the sort of thing you could do?

 

Nona

[Lucie]

Just wondering if you're using 'Here I am'?

We will be doing messengers/winesses, but it follows on from easter and Im not sure Im going to get the excitement that i did before the hols.

Think I will be focussing on the 'Good News' aspect and messages being sent and recieved - will hopefully give a nice link into purposeful independent writing.

 

Other topics until end of year are 'changes' and 'treasures' (both of which Im looking forward to!).

 

Umm will have a think,

 

Lucie x

[Lucie]

Back to OP, talk to the children about what they would like to be around them whilst they are reflecting. I know that we had lots of discusion about where the happiness garden should be situated and what we could do to enhance it. The children are more likely to use and acknowledge it for visitors (and for their own learning of course!) if they really understand its purpose, and what better way than helping to create it.

 

lucie x

[Guest]

Thanks for your ideas. Think I will get some special material to flow so we can attach things and encourage the children to do the same. Going to have the reflection area set up for the start of term and hopefully will be something we can add to. Thanks again for your ideas.