Science Club

On my most recent professional practice I organised and ran an after school Science Club for children between the ages of 4 and 11 to explore different exciting investigations with the other student in the school. We decided to explore fun experiments which may not necessarily link to the national curriculum to get children engaged in their learning. We catered 16 children in the club and each week looked at different activities. The science club ran for 4 weeks after school on a Thursday and we looked at experiments ranging from making slime to the Coca-Cola and mentos investigation.

Running the after school activity for the children was beneficial to my own development as prior to this practice I had not taught any science lessons to a group of children on previous practices, so felt uncomfortable teaching the subject. It helped to build my confidence when teaching the subject and encouraged me to become more familiar with the science strand of the National Curriculum.

Attached below is a copy of the lesson plan for the first Science Club session:

25.01.2016 Science Club lesson plan

How it meets the standards:

• TS1: Parts A and C of standard 1 are met in this piece of evidence because I had to make sure it was safe and a non hazardous learning environment for the children to learn in. Also, I feel as though I have demonstrated  positive attitudes, values and behaviour which are expected of pupils throughout the Science Club sessions which we held. 
• TS2: I feel as though I can show working towards part D of this standard because I had to demonstrate my own knowledge and understanding of how children learn and how this can impact on the teaching of an after school club, which need to be approached differently from ordinary national curriculum based lessons.
• TS3: I feel that this piece of evidence shows that I have been working towards part A of standard 3 because I had to understand and have a secure knowledge of science investigations and curriculum areas, in order to maintain pupils’ interests in the subject, and address any misunderstandings the children may have.
• TS4: I have been able to impart my own knowledge of maths into the sessions and develop understanding through effective use of lesson time, as well as promote a love of learning in sessions which shows I am working towards sections A and B of this standard. The out of school hours club shows I am securely working towards section C as I have arranged and ran an out-of-class activity to extend the subject knowledge children have in Science. i also feel as though this shows I am contributing to the design and provision of an engaging curriculum within science, working towards part E.
• TS5: I feel as though this piece of evidence shows that I have been working towards all parts of standard 5, A, B, C and D because I had to differentiate the sessions due to it being available for children between the school years of 1 and 6, covering two key stages where the children would have different understandings in Science. I had to have an understanding as to how all of the children in the group would be able to learn with their capabilities and support them through their different stages of development. I also had to have a clear understanding of the needs of all pupils, including those with special educational needs, as two of the older children in the group suffered from cases of SEN/D and needed extra support when learning in a classroom environment.
• TS7: Running an out of school club for children to access and enjoy shows that I am working towards parts A, B, C and D of standard 7 because I had to manage the behaviour of the children who attended the club and have high expectations of all, especially the older children who should have been setting a good example for the younger children attending the club. I also had to maintain good relationships with all children in the club in order for it to run smoothly and effectively.
• TS8: Parts A and E of this standard have been met with this piece of evidence because I made a contribution to the wider school community by providing the experience of an out of school science club for the children and I had to communicate with the parents of the children to inform them of the club or any concerns with any of the children after each session.

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.

 

Maths Display/ Working Wall

In the classroom where I did the majority of teaching throughout my final Professional Practice, the Maths display was the area which I knew I could continually add aspects and examples of work due to the topics which I was teaching. At the start of my placement I could tell the display had been put up at the beginning of the school year, and there was little which had been added throughout the Autumn term. I thought it was the perfect opportunity to add my own ideas and the children’s work as we covered the different areas of mathematics. Below you can see a photograph of what the display looked like on my last day of Professional Practice:

As you can see on the image, the main focus of the display was the numicon which we used, and examples how much each one is worth.

Throughout teaching practice I taught the children about doubles, and the children displayed their knowledge onto the ladybirds which you can see on the left hand side of the display.

We also looked at 3D shapes and how to make them using different materials. I decided that these could hung from the ceiling so that their understanding of what they look like can be clearly seen by anyone as they look up.

Another area of maths which I looked at with the Year 1 group which I worked with was their number bonds to 10 and beyond. The children had little understanding of their number bonds so I decided to laminate tulips which I made. The children wrote all of the different number bonds onto the tulips and they were put onto the display as a reminder of what they have learnt about. They provide a visual stimulus and linked to our topic of ‘Plants’.

At the bottom of the photograph, under the display you can see a large whiteboard. On the whiteboard was a table with the columns ‘Heavier’ and ‘Lighter’, which was a part of the last maths lesson I taught with this group. Below were some balance scales and the children were encouraged to weigh the different objects in the classroom to see what was heavier/ lighter of the two.

I feel as though I enhanced this display/ learning area well throughout the time I was in this classroom, and left plenty of visual reminders for the children to use in their future mathematical learning.

How it meets the standards:

• TS8: I feel that this piece of evidence shows that I am working towards parts A and E because it was a visual contribution to the classroom, to let all of the children that were working in the classroom see their work on the wall. Also, because the school assembly was held in the classroom it let all of the staff and children from the school see what KS1 had been learning about. It was also a way to communicate with and show the parents what we had been learning as they came into the classroom to drop off/ collect their children.