Mixed Age Rec/yr1 Support With Daily Routine Please

[Guest]

Hi,

this is my first post here and i know this has been asked hundreds of times already but i wonder if anyone teaching a mixed rec/yr1 class could post their 'normal, on a good day' routine. I have 19 reception and 6 year 1s and some weeks i feel like i get it right but at the moment it just seems like i can't get the mix right and am beginning to doubt myself.

At the moment i have challenges in our continuous provision areas called busy bee jobs that i ask the year 1 chn to complete each week (some so, some don't) and also open this to reception which they really enjoy.

I have tried so many ways of setting out the day that now i've confused myself but at present we have 4 maths sessions during which 2 groups work with an adult while the rest self initiate or choose busy bee jobs.

We have separate discovery time which is everyone self initiating and both adults observing/intervening in play

 

the bit where i'm coming unstuck is making sure my year 1s have access to year 1 specific literacy, we work in a very cross curricular way and i've fallen into the trap of planning literacy/topic activities and putting something for all chn when maybe i should be still letting the younger rec play during that session rather than asking them to do a literacy activity? does that make sense?

 

Anyway, i am completely confused and would really like some clarity again so would really appreciate anyone who could post their routine across a day/week - how many maths, literacy, topic adult focus activities do you plan in and how do you make sure all chn work through them? also how much whole group teaching do you do, i feel like mine are tied to the carpet all the time at the moment...aaarrgh

thanks in advance

[Susan]

As a year 1 teacher who is struggling to get the balance right and as Literacy Coord battling with the usual raising writing standards, I dont think you should worry about your reception children accessing literacy activities and of couse they should have a daily discrete phonics session anyway. They can only benefit forom the literacy activities you are providing for year1, as long as no one is stressing about what they are doing and they are coping appropriately.

As far as your year1 busy bee jobs go, you should be insisting they prioritise these in your self initiated time now.

 

4 maths sessions a day???? or a week?

[Guest]

Thanks for the advice,

oh and 4 maths a week (ouch head hurts just thinking about that in a day)

there's a fine line between giving formal elements fot the year 1 chn and i have some really bright reception too, but not making it too formal for the younger reception chn - it's very hard

the busy bee jobs are prioritised but when i'm working with other groups of reception there's a certain degree of trust there - i'm having another plug this week with a new chart for each of them to mark off when they have completed one.

[Susan]

If they are coping with a little bit of formality does it matter? I have always found that actually children quite like it providing it is appropriate activity wise.

 

Also re your busy bee tasks, I do appreciate what you are saying and how difficult it can be to do but maybe you could think about some sort of reward system for the completed tasks. I have seen on another forum that someone gives raffle tickets for completed tasks and at the end of the week, a ticket is drawn and a prize awarded!

I have struggled to fit this sort of system into my routine and school expectations, unfortunately.

[Guest]

Raffle tickets is a great idea - i was thinking about a reward system but we have such funny parents who keep a log of who gets what and when but a raffle is great..thank you