Farm topic introduction help

[Guest]

Hi All, have lost confidence lately I am doing Farms for my Nursery/Reception class on Monday when I am being observed. I am going to make the class and outdoors into a farmyard with lots of activities going on. This will be the 1st day back from half term. Do you think I need to do an input 1st (after assembly) or just let the children go into the activities then support them in their learning or do you think I should put them into adult led groups for the activities to begin with? Any help appriciated x

[Guest]

I would personally do a class input to introduce the new theme and I'd probably have a focus activity where i'd target particular children.

[Guest]

Ok thanks what would you do for the input? x

[Guest]

I'm not sure really, you could read a story like farmer duck, what the ladybird heard or cocker doodle moo, perhaps discuss noises/animals you'd hear on a farm and model/do an activity that involves the children? E x

[catma]

What are your particular next steps for your children - I always find defining that helps me to define the activity that will deliver it.

[Guest sn0wdr0p]

Just going off on a tangent slightly but for future reference our out of school club were looking at farms as a topic last year and all our primary age children visited a Co Op farm as part of their From Farm to Fork Project which runs nationally which schools can also take part in. The children went out to the fields then went in the kitchen and co op staff made pizzas with them. The children returned with loads of different veggies and their pizzas.

 

Well worth taking part in. The local co op also helped us raise money to cover the cost of hiring a coach.

[Guest]

I would personally do an input to introduce the new theme may be read a story.

Good luck!

x

[Guest]

OK thats great thanks my next step is shape really that the whole class need so I am thinking of doing an interactive farm shape display ...somehow! :blink: If you are being observed for introducing a topic would your objectives be the same for the input and the activities or different? Thanks for any help I am a bit confused with the best way to plan / do things when being observed especially when it is the start of a topic as they need to see the children learning in such a short time x

[catma]

I'd have a LO for the group which you can differentiate via questionning and outcome on the carpet.

Then think how this can be woven into different areas of learning.

 

Which group are you doing this work with? The nursery group or the reception group??

 

You could start with a problem. Maybe the farmer needs to know how many chickens fit in his field (square 2d) or shed. (box 3d) depending on age/stage.(Problem solving/counting).

Then you could provide different tasks linked to that idea, e.g. Can you make a square lego barn that fits x cows?

 

???

[Guest]

Thanks that sounds great, I am doing with Reception and a couple of Nursery, 1 is 30-50 the other 2 are 40-60 so similar to my reception children. So you would have a different LO for the carpet to the activirties?

[catma]

Well I suppose there will always be simultaneous LOs in different areas going on in EYFS so the straight answer is yes, but it all depends on how many adults you might have, how independent as learners your children are, what areas of provision you will get best results from etc etc....without knowing your children it's hard to say exactly how I would do it as it would be different each time!

 

For me it's about how the provision supports application of the new skills across time rather than trying to teach it all in a session, so in a way you need to think about your provision and how you can embed this learning opportunity. Children may or may not engage with that provision as they may be applying skills from last week,term etc etc in the continuous provision but that's OK!! They can come to it tomorrow or the next day...just be clear with the children what the purpose of the activities you have put in place are, so they see the purpose of them in terms of outcomes, for example, we are going to do X so that you can practice y....

 

You could do something very physical e.g how many square bricks fit in a hoop which children could do independently as a challenge, or have a hidden shape hunt which children then need to sort (classifying and critical thinking) whilst adults can focus on more sustained shared thinking type activities.

 

Cx