Non Fiction Observation

[Guest]

Hi everyone, I am due to be observed on teaching reception about non-fiction. I'm just struggling on how to make it a wow lesson. I thought of introducing the differences between fiction and non-fiction then putting several books into sorting hoops. I thought then I might have laminated cards with certain words e.g. contents page, and once upon a time for the children to put with the correct hoop. I am very concerned at how much time they will spend on the carpet as thats what I am usually picked up on. Does that sound an ok intro? then for activities we have a nursery rhyme topic at the moment so i thought i could use incy wincy spider and introduce them to a spider non fiction book but then im struggling on independent activities and what to do with my focus group im confused!! any advice would be lovely thank you

Just a thought - what about different groups take different animals of nursery rhymes and they then write a sentecne to make a group non fiction book about that animal - does that make sense? x

Edited March 5, 2012 by Guest

[Froglet]

I'll have a proper think but just quickly I have in the past done a 'Favourite animals' class book. Each child had to draw a picture of their animal then we differentiated the writing part - some just did the name of the animal (I tried to make sure those had a CVC animal - cat/rat/hen etc!) Others did labels, others a sentence and some all three! (I have a YR/Y1 mix). We put them in alphabetical order and did a contents page then I used one of those spiral binding machines to make it into a book. It is still one of the best loved books in my reading corner.

 

I've done some nice stuff around writing instructions but not so much about the difference between fiction and non-fiction.

 

What about a selection of non-fiction books and giving children a topic - which book would you choose to find out about...?

[Guest ChunkyMan]

What about using instructions etc, something along their interests, maybe doing some cooking using basic recipes, making salt dough or something simple or following instructions whilst doing construction?

[Susan]

You need to determine your learning objective, to enable you to decide your activities.

 

There are some good ideas there.