apple Posted March 28, 2011 Posted March 28, 2011 Hi folks I have an observation on Wednesday and wondered if anyone can inspire me with this concept- I am teaching a small group of nursery children and am lacking inspiration and ideas
Panders Posted March 28, 2011 Posted March 28, 2011 Inspiration in short supply, I'm afraid! First thing which sprang to mind was I'm a little teapot short and stout, 2nd verse in which they must stand tall, I'm a tube of toothpaste on the shelf, I get so lonely all by myself, when it comes to night time here me shout, just lift my lid and squeeeeze me out. 3rd verse I'm a little robot short and square, I have no toenails, I have no hair, if you want the answer to a sum, just press my button and out it comes! Could you look at a range of animals tall and short. could you compare pairs of children into tall and short. sorry inspirationed out!
Guest Posted March 28, 2011 Posted March 28, 2011 Hi folksI have an observation on Wednesday and wondered if anyone can inspire me with this concept- I am teaching a small group of nursery children and am lacking inspiration and ideas You could link it to spring and resd titch ....the little boy with the seed it's good!
Susan Posted March 29, 2011 Posted March 29, 2011 Not very inspiring, Apple, but Im also intrigued as to why you are choosing this if you are not inspired BUT I think I would try some sort of movement game, children making themselves tall and short on a signal or finding tall and short objects? This is a difficult concept that I think we underestimate as it is easy to think something is tall because it is high- in fact I saw a Jez Alborough book with exactly that issue! Good luck.
apple Posted March 29, 2011 Author Posted March 29, 2011 (edited) excatly Susan - difficult concept that we do indeed underestimate that is why I want to get it right. I didn't choose the concept as it is something that I have been asked to look at as part of understanding such concepts. I may have phrased my request wrong in saying I was unispired... just needed more brains on it to come up with different ways to approach the idea and make it as practical as possible. So thank you for all the ideas. I like the movement idea and will use this to start off with. I also would like to encourage children to record (however they may see fit) their findings - will ask them to find objects that are taller or shorter than a given object. The Mark Making Matters document has made interesting reading about mathematical graphics so will try to incorportate some of this into our activity. Edited March 29, 2011 by apple
Susan Posted March 29, 2011 Posted March 29, 2011 Arh! I think you need to make your starting point clear --I have started really emphasing with yr1 that tall starts from the floor and goes up towards the ceiling. Later we looked at comparisons and later at moving things into different positions, ie on a table. I also think that I would use "self" as the object so this is as tall as me or this is as short as me.
StrawberyTwirl Posted March 29, 2011 Posted March 29, 2011 You could use popoids with bellows squashed or stretched? You could look at pictures of animals and them create some of your own, maybe use cut out pictures of animal bodies and an assortment of legs. Ask the children to create new animals, tall animals and short animals. There is a book... in the tall tall grass... but not can't really remember it well...but maybe an idea of what you can hide in tall grass and what you could hide in short grass.
apple Posted March 30, 2011 Author Posted March 30, 2011 Hi Susan haven't had my feedback from head yet but I think it went fine. We started off with your idea of moving- can you make yourself as tall as you can- one bright spark looked over to the blocks and started to build a tower to stand on which then led the others to copy which then led to some wonderful discussions about taller and shorter as there were only a few blocks :-) We then looked at a range of objects I had gathered getting the children to choose one and then compare it with their friend's object. I asked them if they could think of a way to record their findings and one of the suggested writing it in a card, another drawing a picture and a third suggested he go an play elsewhere The drawings were interesting and although not mathematically correct in the positioning (wouldn't expect that at this stage) some did show understanding of size. My favourite was of one little girl who having chosen a juice bottle and packet of digestives to compare and then draw, she proceeded to draw a ghost in a cage the mind boggles!!! We finished on comparing two feathers one short and one tall (peacock) and then I showed them how to balance them on their hand discovering that the taller an object the easier it is to balance it. After the children went off to play the head teacher lept up and asked "0oh! can I have a go with the peacock feather?"! so all in all I felt it went well but then I will have to wait for the feedback to see if the head did thanks once again for your ideas. I also loved the idea of explaining tall starts from the floor to the ceiling...
Susan Posted March 30, 2011 Posted March 30, 2011 a third suggested he go an play elsewhere If only everything was that easy but how fantastic! Did he join in or go elsewhere? Well done. Im sure the feedback will be fantastic. Hope you dont have to wait too long.
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