Lesson Observation

[Guest]

I have a lesson ob next week - the focus across the school is calculation. At this early stage (have just finished initial assessments) it will have to be pretty simple - either one more, or adding two sets to find total. Struggling to think of anything exciting - and I know everyone else will be doing all singing all dancing lessons. My class range from children who can't get three objects, to some who are reasonably reliable at counting to 10 and can recognise numbers to 10.

 

Initial thoughts include making playdough buns and adding one more - maybe rolling a spot dice to decide how many to make initially. Playing skittles, knock some down and then roll again and say how many altogether (though I think this may be a bit hard because they won't split it into how many they get first throw then second) OR throwing bean bags into a hoop and counting how many, then friend throwing into same hoop and counting how many altogether - challenge for more able to draw what they've done.

 

I would be grateful for any ideas - panic always sets in when faced with observations.

[Guest]

How about using raisins to create sums. I have used a paper towel with a line down the middle and then the children can count out some raisins on one side and then on the other to create a sum - you could even put the + and - signs on the paper towel, or you could add one more/one less. They could record their calculations - less able y drawing the raisins and more able by using numbers?

 

Hope this helps, sorry its not that exciting but food usually engages the children!

[Guest]

I do the same as the raisin activity, but have drawn out ladybirds, bus and house. Ladybird obv has two sides, house has two floors and bus is a double decker. Then I get the kids to partition a group of objects (black spots/people/animals etc). Role a dice, move that number upstairs and the rest downstairs. Then ask ..... which has more/less? for MA - write mumber sentence or record as a picture.

With the skittles, just have one throw and do as above....are there more fallen over/standing up? or later in the year we have 10 and do number bonds this way.

This week we did estimation. The chn took a handful and guessed how many there were, matched to a card if necessary, then other chn tried to take the same amount. After this, they discussed who had more/less/same. Obv we used small beads - all the same size.

Good luck.