Science Display – What we have been learning

Towards the end of my recent Professional Practice I had a look around the classroom and saw that although I had been enhancing the learning areas and displays already in the classroom, there was a subject which had nothing displayed for the children and parents to see. That subject was science, one of the main subjects in the primary and secondary years of education. So I decided to have a think about which display could be replaced and how I could let it include the children’s work throughout the most recent weeks.

Here is what I created:

In science we had been looking at plants and growing, which linked in with our topic for the term well. I decided that we would have a display where we would show the different parts of a flower as we had been looking at what they each did in recent lessons. I then also decided to pick some of the children’s cress diaries which they had completed to show what we had been learning at the beginning of the term. The flower was difficult to put onto the display due to there being an old alarm box in the middle of the display which is why there was not another option as to where the flower could go.

We made our cress diaries in the second science lesson of the term, looking at how we can grow fruit and vegetables as this was a common misconception amongst the children in the previous week. The planning for this lesson can be found here:

29.02.2016 Science Lesson Plan – Growing cress

The display which I created was all put up using blu tack which means it will be easy for the class teacher to swap and change as they please now that I am no longer at the school. The aim for the display was to show what we know, as well as leaving room for it to be a science working wall which can be left in the classroom.

How it meets the standards:

• TS1: I feel that this display and the work the children completed for it addresses part A of this standard, as it is a stimulating environment for the pupils, with examples of their work on display.
• TS2: This piece of evidence meets sub sections A and B as in the planning attached shows how I questioned the children at the start of the lesson to gain an understanding of where their knowledge is and throughout the course of the week after this lesson was delivered I asked the children to think and talk about the changes in the cress which they were growing.
• TS3: Sub sections A and B are demonstrated in this piece of evidence as I had to know about the growing of different plants and what they need in order to teach the lessons for the children to complete their work.
• TS4: Areas A, B and E are met in this piece of evidence as I had to plan and deliver the lessons which lead to the work which is on display. I used the lesson which the plan is attached for, along with a previous lesson to teach the children about plants and what they need to grow, which is demonstrated on the display which I created. I made the lessons interactive, letting the children experience the growth of cress use what they see to complete related activities.
• TS8: Sub section A of this standard is addressed as it shows part of my contribution to the way the school are able to see how the children are learning. It also addresses section E as it shows parents and visitors what they children have been learning as they enter the classroom.

 

Telling the Time – Visual Aid

Whilst on a recent Professional Practice I had the challenge of helping my children to start to tell the time. At first I thought it would be an easy task as telling the time is something I now don’t even need to think about, however I was very wrong. It proved to be quite a problem as I also struggled to think of a creative way to teach it.

As our class topic was on plants, I decided to try this approach, by adding a petal to each of the 5 minute intervals with their amount of minutes. I decided to put this up when the children were out of the classroom for their PE lesson with the sports coach and when they returned, all they could talk about was the clock. This proved to be positive for the children and myself as I could see that the children were observant with the changes I had made and they were engaged, wanting to know the purpose of the giant flower.

During the afternoon I explained to the children that the flower was to help them to tell the time, so that they could independently learn. I explained how we would be starting to look at the time and how each of the petals tell us how many minutes past the hour each of the big numbers stand for.

Original image from Pinterest

I also took the opportunity to teach the children that the larger hand is for the minutes, so when it is pointing to one of the petals, that is how many minutes past the hour it is, and that the smaller hand points to the hour which it is. The aim for the starter of the afternoon was to help children to learn how to use the visual aid which I had made and put up in the classroom, and to teach them what they should know about telling the time, passing on my subject knowledge of the time.

Throughout the course of the rest of the teaching placement I frequently asked the children in Year 1 and Year 2 what the time was, and although some were a little hesitant, most were able to tell me the time. This showed me that the children had made great progress in their ability to tell the time, even though I had not planned any specific lessons on the subject area.

How it meets the standards:

• TS1: I feel that this piece of evidence shows that I am working towards parts A and B because it enhances the environment where the children are learning and on a daily basis I challenged the children to tell me what time it is. The use of the resource allowed me to stretch the children who were developing the understanding of how to tell the time.
• TS2: This piece of evidence show that I am working towards parts A and B because it helped me to extend the childrens learning and teach them a subject area which can be used throughout the curriculum. Also, I was aware that the children in reception only needed to know the time hourly so set them the challenge to tell me when it was at an hour so they could tell me.
• TS3: I am working towards sub sections A and E because I knew a visual resource would be the key to engaging the children in a topic which could be boring to teach, such as telling the time. Also, I had be aware that not all strategies would work for the Reception children as they were only at the start of their mathematical learning in school.

Phonics Garden – Continuous Provision

Being in a mixed age group class on my most recent Professional Practice proved to be a challenge, especially being in a mixed Key Stage class. The class of mixed Reception/ Year 1/ Year 2 required the older children to be focussing on their upcoming SAT’s whilst the youngest were to be taught a completely different curriculum, encouraged to explore the enhanced learning areas and take a lead in their own learning. Because of the different styles of learning happening in the same classroom it was essential to enhance as many areas as possible to aid the younger children. I decided that due to the nature of our topic ‘Plants’, to enhance the Phonics area by making a garden, where the children could plant their phonics sounds and words if they could say them out loud. The area which I created looked like this:

The area was in the middle of the classroom with access from all angles. I decided to get a tuff spot tray and put it onto one of the stands, to make it elevated with easier access for the children. I filled it with compost and small planting pots. On each of the corners of the tray there was a  plastic pouch containing some flowers on lollipop sticks, each with a different sound or word from the Read Write Inc. programme which the children were familiar with. The sounds were on different template flowers to the green words, as were the red words. I also placed some grass along one of the edges with some other words along it. Above the tray I hung a watering can with water droplets ‘pouring’ from the spout which the children had previously completed, with everything they knew about plants on them.

The children found the area engaging and went to it frequently, and even though I was teaching another group in the classroom, I could clearly hear them pronouncing the sounds and words which I had made for the area. They became fond of the area and the new activity very quickly, engaged with their own personal learning.

The different words which I included were also appropriate for all of the children in the classroom, promoting reading and blending skills for all. As we introduced a new set of green words for the children, I made their corresponding flowers and inserted them into the pouches to encourage children to continue their phonics development.

How it meets the standards:

• TS1: This piece of evidence shows that I have been working towards parts A and B of this standard because it promotes a safe learning environment and it challenges children to enhance their own learning by reading the words which they know or are working towards in their phonics lessons.
• TS2: For this standard I have been working towards parts A and B because I had an understanding of where the children were in their phonic learning after teaching many lessons, and throughout about how the children could be progressed in this area of the continuous provision. They could be extended with new words and alien words as they become more familiar through the programme.
• TS3: Parts A, B and D are all shown in this piece of evidence as my knowledge of phonics and early reading had to be strong in order to teach the lessons and create this resource for the classroom.
• TS4: This evidence supports that I am working towards part E of standard 4 as I have contributed to the design and provision of an engaging curriculum which emphasises the importance of phonics in the Early Years and Key Stage 1 areas of the Primary Curriculum.
• TS5: Sub sections B, C and D have all been worked on and are displayed in this evidence because I understand how children develop in the earlier years of their development through schooling and that the activity had to be suitable for children of all backgrounds and abilities. Through the final weeks of my practice, a child who spoke little English was able to engage with this activity and develop her own English by using the activity put into place and the other children were able to help the child with this.
• TS8: Part A of this standard is being developed in this piece of evidence as it impacted not only the children in my class, but other children in the school who had difficulties in their English could access the activity to develop their communication skills.