Guest Posted August 31, 2005 Posted August 31, 2005 (edited) Hi, I start at school on Monday and have spent ages playing about with a timetable but still haven't managed to decide exactly how I would like to plan the day. On my last practice it was very informal and I would love to strike a balance between the two. I only have the children in the mornings and need to fit in literacy and numeracy every day. Can't see how I will manage to fit in handwriting, reading, and all other areas of the curriculum - Araghh!! I know this topic has been covered in the past but I would love to hear what others have planned for this year. I would also like to know how many teacher directed activities the children have to complete a day or over the course of a week? Edited September 11, 2005 by Guest
Susan Posted August 31, 2005 Posted August 31, 2005 Matilda, dont worry about a timetable at the moment, would be my advice. If you were part of my team I would also be telling you not to stress too much about curriculum coverage, you need to establish your rules and routines with the children for any successful learning to take place. By all means do little bits of literacy etc to help you to get to know the children and establish the levels at which you need to concentrate but the time you spend now making your children feel happy and setting boundaries etc will reap dividends. Remember not to make unrealistic expectations of the children or you and they will become very disenchanted so take it slowly and dont be worried about changing things. Have an idea of what you want to achieve each day, relax and enjoy. Good luck.
Guest Posted August 31, 2005 Posted August 31, 2005 Thanks Susan, I plan to ease in gently and spend time getting to know the children and establish rules and expectations but I was thinking further down the line. I want to have a plan in my head of how I will organise things so I can introduce elements slowly.
mundia Posted September 4, 2005 Posted September 4, 2005 Hi matilda. How long will you have children in the mornings only? Do you have any class support? Surely your chidlren will have to be full time at some point? The question 'how do i fit it in?' is anwered really by saying...'you cant' Thast how many of feel who have full time chidlren. You can only do what you can do. I would get your chidlren settled into routines etc, and then think about what you really ned to cover in the time you have. If you are obliged to plan or lit/num sessions every day, id keep them short to allow for other areas of the curriuclum to be shared. But if have some felxibility over what you plan, I would try to get a balance of all areas so that some are not excluded altogether. If there are other memebrs with the part time issue, perhaps they can share their timetable with us?
Guest Posted September 4, 2005 Posted September 4, 2005 Hi Mundia, I will be having my children for mornings only till October half term and then they will be introduced to a full day gradually. I will have one nursery nurse and one teaching assistant full time. I am a concerned with giving equal coverage within this time. Is it ok to have literacy and numeracy each day and one of my support staff focussing on a knowledge and understanding activity whilst the other facilitates? We could then swap over the next week with me doing the K&U or creative activity. Should I have one adult led activity for each area each week? I apologise if these questions seem silly but any help would really be appreciated. If anyone does have a timetable they would be willing to share I would be most grateful. Excitement and sheer terror have definitely set in, I only hope they don't notice!
Marion Posted September 4, 2005 Posted September 4, 2005 Hi Mundia, I will be having my children for mornings only till October half term and then they will be introduced to a full day gradually. I will have one nursery nurse and one teaching assistant full time. I am a concerned with giving equal coverage within this time. Is it ok to have literacy and numeracy each day and one of my support staff focussing on a knowledge and understanding activity whilst the other facilitates? We could then swap over the next week with me doing the K&U or creative activity. Should I have one adult led activity for each area each week? I apologise if these questions seem silly but any help would really be appreciated. If anyone does have a timetable they would be willing to share I would be most grateful. Excitement and sheer terror have definitely set in, I only hope they don't notice! 37293[/snapback] Hi Matilda I will be having my children in next week and the following week until lunchtime, after that I will have one week where they will stay until 2pm and then full time. The first week will be a settling in and getting to know each other type activity week (some children won't have attended the unit). After that will concentrate on Numeracy and Literacy activities with child initiated activities to cover other curriculum areas until the children are in school full time
Guest Posted September 4, 2005 Posted September 4, 2005 Thanks Marion. that's very helpful. I would do the same if they were full time before half term but that would be too long not to plan adult directed activities for I feel.
Sue R Posted September 10, 2005 Posted September 10, 2005 Hi Matilda - how's it going? Hope the terror wasn't evident, but I hope you're enjoying it now. Sue
mundia Posted September 10, 2005 Posted September 10, 2005 Hi matilda, how was the frist week then? Hoe you are managing a routine and the chidlren are settling in. Tthey are not silly questions. No question is silly if you dont know. Persoanlly I wouldnt worry about having a focus lit and num every day in the time you have, but soemtimes we are under prssure to do these thing arent we? Certainly Id keep whole class sessions very short and make plenty of time for independent activities. If you have support Id make sure only one of you os working with a group or on a focus activity whilst the other facilitates play. You also need to build in some outdoor time if you haev access to outside. You can also timetable yourself for observations as you will need to fit these in as well. Let us know how it's going?
Guest Posted September 11, 2005 Posted September 11, 2005 Hi, I have not started yet and won't be starting till the end of the week as I am doing home visits to all children. It has been really nice to meet the children and their families but I do want to get started now. I will let you know how it goes. Thanks for the advice.
Guest Posted September 13, 2005 Posted September 13, 2005 hi, just thought i would let you know my routine however it may be slightly different for you as my children are all full time! I have a weekly theme derived from my half termly topic of this term - ourselves!! i have a TD activity for CLL, MD, KUW and CD each week which the children partake in either with myself or my TA, linked to the weekly theme! I am also trying to have a literacy or numeracy input each day but this doesn't always happen! These inputs cover word level, text level and phonic level by the end of the week! We also have whole group PD sessions which this term is focussed on the Parachute to encourage PSHE elements as well! I also have circle and music times in the afternoons before or after Plan Do Review! Hope that this helps!
Guest Posted September 15, 2005 Posted September 15, 2005 (edited) I have a weekly theme derived from my half termly topic of this term - ourselves!! 37788[/snapback] Hello! I think I might be hijacking here but I am an NQT just trying to figure out how to break down the topic of 'Myself and My Family' into good, meaty weekly themes. Would love to know how you did this? I have only had children in for 3 days and am already on my last legs just with trying to get them into the routines! I am feeling quite shell-shocked! Have not properly introduced the topic yet as the children are not all in until next week, although we have done some activities like drawing our families, drawing around our hands etc. Any help would be brilliant Edited September 15, 2005 by Guest
Guest Posted September 15, 2005 Posted September 15, 2005 Hi, I am also doing myself/ourselves this term. I have split mine in to a bits and pieces, babies, handy, senses and healthy week. I then brainstormed each theme under each area of learning. Some of the books I have suggest birthdays (I am covering this next erm when I focus on celebrations), Our families, names, favourite things and growing up. You could always split senses down into smaller bist too.
Susan Posted September 15, 2005 Posted September 15, 2005 Hi Susie, sorry to hear that you feel so ragged but it can be a bit like that in Reception! Dont worry too much at the moment about your curriculum coverage in terms of your topic. You need to be establishing your rules and routines and that can be exhausting but it is PSE. provide free choice or child initiated activities with little bits of more formal teacher focus times to enable you to get to know the children and the children to mix in this new group. You will soon get to grips with the group dynamics and move on appropriately. Good luck.
Guest Posted September 17, 2005 Posted September 17, 2005 Well I have had my first two days with half of my class and I have really enjoyed it. All are responding really well to praise so far. I have a couple who don't seem to want to tidy up but we can work on that. I went to the hall on Thursday and Friday and we did circle games, and all seemed to enjoy. Feel really happy and am looking forward to seeing them on Monday.
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