AnonyMouse_9610 Posted September 19, 2009 Share Posted September 19, 2009 hello i really want to get my parents into the classroom, and involved. Does anyone have any advice or suggestions on how to run a session where parents come in and play with their children, i dont feel confident enought to 'teach' carpet sessions with parents in, any thoughts? Really want to make this work as i know parents are an issue in our school, as in they dont get involved, quite a deprived area and i think most parents find school a bit intimadating. I thought if i can get them in in FStage they might take part in school life further up the school. thanks for any help you can give Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 19, 2009 Share Posted September 19, 2009 In my last school we had regular parent play mornings. Parents were given an activity sheet when they arrived which gave them details of possible activities in the different areas of our foundation stage unit. Then the parents (or quite often the children!) could choose what they wanted to try. Staff would then be on hand to chat to parents, help with activities or play with children whose parents couldn't come. We would often try and theme the morning, for example we had one all based around colour. Hope that helps! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 20, 2009 Share Posted September 20, 2009 I have done some very successful games mornings in the past using playing cards. Parents and children can play snap, trying to make a run from ace to jack together by having half the cards each and taking turns to put down the next card in the sequence- the winner is whoever gets rid of all their cards first. You can make up simple games for yourself, but be sure to try them out first! If your parents are reluctant to come in, I would suggest you keep the session short and may be do it from 9:00-9:20 or 3:)0-3:20 etc. so that you are not asking them to put in any extra effort as they would be there anyway. Make sure you do refreshments and it goes without saying that every adult has to be seen to want them to come in or parents will soon pick up a bad vibe and not come back. Also, be sure that you are not tied up during the session, so that you can make a bit of a fuss of each parent who has turned up. Remember to consider what you will do with the children for whom nobody comes. If it takes off, you might like to try an INSPIRE workshop? Google it and see how these are run- they are 1 off 1hour workshops for parents and children during which they make a game or something similar to take home at the end. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 20, 2009 Share Posted September 20, 2009 I am looking to do a familiar thing in our setting. So far we use Share which is an organisation (not sure if just a Suffolk thing) we have a coordinator who comes in and helps us plan an afternoon where parents come in and carry out activities with their children. We usually have a topic or theme anc generally its very crafty so parents are not put off as we are in a similar catchment where parents do not like school!! We carry out Share sessions every half term and it is now expanding into the rest of our school as our parents have really got involved, but it is alot of hard work at fisrt. We are now looking to carry out stay and play sessions every week in reception on a Friday afternoon 1:30-3:00 - first one will hopefully be this week, we are going to use these sessions to allow parents to see how we work and do a variety of activities and encourage them to play with their children. It won't be anything 'fancy' as we still want to use Share, it will be a usual afternoon just with the parents. However I am not use if they will need checks if they plan to come in weekly and this is something I need to look into. I am also going to make myself available for any questions or worries parents may have and also an opportunity for them to look through their child's learning journeys. As part of this session we are going to leave post-its out so parents can give us ideas of what they would like for the following session e.g. some phonic activities they could use at home to help their children. Sorry I have run on loads, and hope it makes sense...so much to explain lol! I think the main thing to remember is keep it simple and fairly informal so they do not feel scared and can have fun with their children and meet other parents!! Hope it helps Claire Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 20, 2009 Share Posted September 20, 2009 Googled INSPIRE but couldn't find anything..... If someone else finds it could you post the link cos it sounds interesting Ta Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_9610 Posted September 20, 2009 Author Share Posted September 20, 2009 Thanks for all your help- some great ideas! i will definatly set it up now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_18403 Posted September 23, 2009 Share Posted September 23, 2009 hi the way we get parents and children working together is doing 6wk taster sessions in which parents come in to school and have roughly an hour on a subject such as story scks or spanish then their children come in from schol to join in activities for the next hour and the family learns together hope this is helpful marshie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 24, 2009 Share Posted September 24, 2009 Hi we are starting stay and play sessions this year. we have 4 colour groups running through the school so we have made a 4 week rota for the paretns to come in that way there are only a few others there so not so scary. We run it on a tuesday so on the monday i send a note out explaining what will happen when they come in, what we expect from the children and what activities will be going on. I also put little prompts on to help them such as 'if your child have drawn a picture encourage them to write their name.' then this way they dont feel like lemons stood in the class. I also open the doors a bt early for those parents and my nursery nure/mentor is on hand to have a cuppa with them and she just chit chats to them, shes amazing with parents, and it just makes them relax and feel like we do really want them there ..........................ntill they start demanding the reading books changed more often haha x dont know if this is what you were looking for x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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