Guest Posted April 7, 2009 Posted April 7, 2009 Hi Everyone, This is a tricky question... I was wondering what type of things other people have observed children doing do obtain scale point 8 in any aspect of PSRN. As yet, I have to award it to any of my children because I have no clue what I'm looking for! I'm sorry if I sound really silly! I'm sure that some of the children in my class can 'do it' but have no observations or evidence of this. Can anyone help? Also, the way my setting is structured means that we have free-flow between 2 classrooms, with my classroom containing the 'creative' parts - e.g. malleable, junk modelling, drawing (graphics), construction, challenge area and the book corner, and the other classroom contains the 'academic subjects' - e.g. literacy (writing), numeracy, KUW activities/exploratory play, role-play and small world. Due to this the only time I observe any aspect of PSRN is when it's at the Challenge Area in my classroom - HELP! I really appreciate your ideas/help/advice, Sam x
AnonyMouse_79 Posted April 7, 2009 Posted April 7, 2009 Hi Sam and welcome, if I havent already welcomed you elsewhere! Challenges are super for assessing the problem solving aspect of PRSN. You need to talk to the children about how they do something and how they know, or why. You could also assess this within your teacher focus times. however, it does sound as if you need to rethink the way you are working to give you the opportunity to free flow with your children and see the other "half" of the curriculum in action.
AnonyMouse_3307 Posted April 7, 2009 Posted April 7, 2009 Equally the adults in the other space should be feeding into all profile observations too!! Cx
AnonyMouse_4283 Posted April 10, 2009 Posted April 10, 2009 I am intrigued by this challenge area can you tell me more about it? What is it? what sort of activities do you offer in this area? Would be interested in implementing in my setting!! Haven't heard of it before Thank you in advance to your response!
Guest Posted April 10, 2009 Posted April 10, 2009 Hi Jo Jo, Of course I can! My challenge area is an area where the children are set a challenge/challenges and when they complete them they receive a sticker/certificate. In the week before half term I had sorting compare bears as a challenge, making a pattern with the bears, drawing pictures of favourite characters, writing their favourite parts of various stories, making a bear without drawing (the children's choice!), using a construction toy to make a house/chair/bed suitable for one of three bears and explain why it is for one particular bear. I also ask the children what they'd like their challenges to be, they often come up with things that you were thinking of but usually extend themselves even further. I also use it as a way of incorporating things that I might not see (due to our room set up) into my classroom (for example, the writing or sorting of bears). I have recently introduced it and have found that the children really engage with the challenges and it can inspire others when they hear that 'so-and-so' have completed the challenge. I found that children who wouldn't usually access certain areas e.g. construction, now access these areas through the challenge. If you look at www.sparklebox.co.uk they have 'ready made' templates for certificates and also challenge ideas and an editable challenge sign for you to use. I hope this helps! Sam x
Guest Posted April 10, 2009 Posted April 10, 2009 Hi, this is to everyone - What type of activities would you offer in this area to promote problem solving? Things such as can you make a __ for __? Thanks! Sam x
Guest Posted April 10, 2009 Posted April 10, 2009 I'm not sure I can be of any help - we find a lot of the PSRN points really hard to observe as incidentals. How can you find out that children recognise all the numbers 1-9 just through their play - you may find out about a couple of numbers but not all of them. It's really hard to get a balance between accurate assessment and observations through CI activities.
Guest Posted April 19, 2009 Posted April 19, 2009 The green Early Years Foundation Stage Profile handbook gives some useful info of things to look for e.g.: NLC8 - finding missing numbers, grouping, sharing, estimating C8 - doubling, halving, grouping, sharing SSM8 - choosing appropriate shapes for models/ pictures and saying why, choosing correct sized objects (Not quite sure why grouping and sharing come under both NLC and Calculating, but never mind!) Hope that is of some use. Emma
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