Writing Observation

[Guest]

Hi

 

I am getting observed at the end of the month by my headteacher and she is focusing her obs on writing. At the moment the children are interested in fireworks etc so i am linking their learning to colour, light and sound however i know their interests will have changed within a few weeks time. I have ideas for mark making in the continuous provision but am struggling for small group focused activities and a whole class input. any ideas anyone??????

 

thanks kate

[Panders]

i should think by then you could have a letter to Santa or something along those lines, or a special wish for someone in their family or friends

[Guest]

thanks pandas but what do you mean by a special wish??? also my children are just beginning to recognise letters and very few have started writing letters in their name, a letter to santa is a fab idea but how could i relate it to my children who can barely write? thanks for responding.

 

kate

[Hello Kitty]

Are you in pre-school? We make our own 'frames' for letters to Santa. It says something like 'I've been really good this year and for Christmas I would ' at the top and the we ask the children what they would like and ask them to draw a picture of it and if they are at that level we write it for them to copy then they write their name - however they can - it may be a squiggle, odd letters or the whole thing.

If it's writing skills, could you do a mark-making activity such as patterns in trays of sand or letters written in 'bubble writing' for them to trace inside the lines - or letters to trace traditionally.

If it's the content of writing - can you scribe for them? So they dictate their letter to Santa or what they did at the weekend or what they saw/heard on firework night?

[Guest LornaW]

Hi

 

I am getting observed at the end of the month by my headteacher and she is focusing her obs on writing. At the moment the children are interested in fireworks etc so i am linking their learning to colour, light and sound however i know their interests will have changed within a few weeks time. I have ideas for mark making in the continuous provision but am struggling for small group focused activities and a whole class input. any ideas anyone??????

 

thanks kate

 

 

How about doing shared writing you are the scribe and they are the composers. Get the children to think about developing their sentences, using connectives and wow words so they are talking the writing. Have you seen Talk the Big Talk it is full of ideas for EY and the basic idea is if they can't say it they can't write it!

 

http://www.andrelleducation.co.uk/shop/by-...k-the-big-talk/

 

Your shared writing can then be based on whatever is taking the children's interest at the time of the observation.

 

e.g. Perhaps they have made pictures by blowing paint and you want them to describle how they did the activity to make a caption for the display.

A child may then say " We blew the paint on the paper"

Teacher "yes we did blow paint on the paper what did we see happening?"

Child " the paint made a pattern like worms"

Teacher " so can we join those two ideas together using the word 'and'?"

Child "We blew the paint on the paper and it made a pattern like worms."

 

The children are getting the idea of using connectives and you could further develop it by asking for words to describe the worms!

 

Lorna

[Guest]

thank you Lorna and Hello Kitty for your ideas they are really useful! I am going to aim for writing a letter to santa as my focused activity as i know the children will be talking about christmas, higher ability to copy write what they want, middle ability to attempt to copy but focusing on pencil grip drawing lines and circles and lower ability to experiment with marks showing some control with one handed tools. Also we are a foundation unit and the Reception teacher is planning an activity based on christmas, however, I am going to observe the interests and see what is happening at the time and adapt accordingly. Love the other ideas for continuous provision and think I am definately going to go withyou idea Lorna for my whole class input, me scribing and the children talking. That link you sent me is fantastic.

 

Thank you all again for your ideas.

 

Kate