Guest Posted January 8, 2006 Posted January 8, 2006 Hi I'm starting up a new Share project in 2 weeks time and have 8 parents who are interested in coming. Share is about encouraging parents to be more involved in their child's learning. The idea is that parents attend sessions (about once every 2 weeks) largely led by a member of staff where ideas are shared about how children learn and good ways of going about doing this. The sessions take place during school time and last about 1/2 to 1 hour.The hope is that the parents will enjoy the sessions and feel free to contribute and finally come up with their own ideas. The parents can go onto to do accreditations if they want to and so develop their own learning. I'm starting the project for the 1st time in reception and as the date gets nearer I'm starting to get a bit worried about my taster session ( I plan to make uncooked playdough ). If anyone has any experience of their 1st session that they would like to share, you might help me feel a bit more confident about doing this. Thanks Trudie
Guest Posted January 8, 2006 Posted January 8, 2006 I haven't done a Share course but have experience of tutoring. As this is the 1st session you will need to think about forming the group, doing an icebreaking activity. I have previously used the circle ball game (as we do with children) The group stand in a circle, as they throw the ball to each other they say their name, do this a few times then change it to the adult saying the name of the person they are throwing the ball to. Also for a 1st session I give each adult a slip of paper with hopes and fears written on it. They write what they hope to get from the sessions/course and what they are worried about ( fears). Depending on how confident they are to speak out in a group, they can relay their thoughts to each other ( do fears 1st then hopes 2nd) or you could read a sample of them out. This helps them to feel that they are all "in the same boat" so to speak. I keep these notes and refer back to them at the end of the course with an evaluation excersise of "were your hopes met and your fear allayed.?" Sounds like a good idea to end the 1st session with making playdough. Good luck, hope you enjoy the experience. Peggy
bleucocker Posted January 13, 2006 Posted January 13, 2006 My classroom assisstant runs the share group for 30 mins once a week. She started off with showing parents how their child can make patterns and write their name in a baking tray with flour sprinkled on it. She found that the parents were too nervous to make anything infront of each other for the first few weeks. After a couple of weeks she made playdough with them and showed them cornflour play. Aparently they were mesmerised into silence for a good 10 mins as they all played with the warm playdough! This week she did the feeding Oscar activity with them. This is where they decorate a shoe box to look like a monster and the children post things into its mouth. eg things beginning with b. 5 children brought their Oscars in today to show. Be prepared to have to do a lot of the talking in the first week. But after the initial breaking of the ice the parent chat away now. Hope this helps and good luck Andrea
Guest Posted January 15, 2006 Posted January 15, 2006 (edited) Hi Andrea Thank you so much for your advice and ideas for the first session. Also please thank your TA, she sounds a real gem. I am going to do the tray and flour activity and keep it simple for the first 2/3 sessions. Thanks also to Peggy, I'm going to play a name game and have a list of questions that we will go through together. First session on Thursday and numbers rising! Trudie Edited January 15, 2006 by Trudie
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