Guest Posted April 1, 2011 Share Posted April 1, 2011 Hi can we start a discussion about what boys are interested in within your setting and what activities have been successful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_13453 Posted April 1, 2011 Share Posted April 1, 2011 At the moment it's spiders at Preschool. We've made spiders out of loads of different materials, lego, stickle brix, kinex, clay, pipe cleaners and painted pictures too. We found the book "The very busy spider" and enjoyed making a rubbing of the finished web. We've drawn webs and hunted for them outside and even made one of our own with string on a bamboo frame - although a lot of that ended up being me because it took a ridiculous amount of time and patience! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Spiral Posted April 1, 2011 Share Posted April 1, 2011 Ben 10! Dinosaurs and karate!! We're trying to encorporate these by ensuring they have space to play in - made our own Ben 10 watches and play a range of fantasy games - saving the dinosaur from the jungle etc. It's hard work, especially when you've a range of girls to work with too and they are much more into hair and dolly play, hope that helps, Spiral Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_13453 Posted April 1, 2011 Share Posted April 1, 2011 oh we also have a couple who are really interested in skeletons too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_19782 Posted April 1, 2011 Share Posted April 1, 2011 My boys are currently enjoying using sticks in the garden, planks in the garden, they are liking nuts and bolts inside with magnets, stones and shells, bit of superman, soldiers and knights thrown in for good measure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_11396 Posted April 1, 2011 Share Posted April 1, 2011 Knights and castle,dinosaurs, tunnels, anything to do with wheels,tracks,clipboards,notepads,fire service tools and equipment. Anything physical, physical, physical. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_11653 Posted April 2, 2011 Share Posted April 2, 2011 Ours at the moment are dinosaurs, knights and unfortunately play fighting!! At the moment everything they seem to do lasts 2 minutes and they are off to something else!! The garden is the main area they use at the moment digging in the mud, hunting for insects amongst the logs, play fighting (really not sure about this!!). Don't know if it's the time of year but they get things out play for a minimal amount of time and then move on! Anyone else having this at the moment? Kris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_11396 Posted April 2, 2011 Share Posted April 2, 2011 Yes thats us to at the moment, requiring lots of physical activities, but i have to say they are playing beautifully as a a group and there are lots of wonderful imaginative play. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_30128 Posted April 2, 2011 Share Posted April 2, 2011 i recycled some huge carpet tubes this week so those have been a big hit ...used for car tunnels/ balls/ levers (seeing if they can lift each other!) measuring sticks. Next week we are going to get the saws out and chop them up ...not sure what they will do with them then! aprt from that saled spinner art (id like to develop this a bit more but still thinking about this one at the moment)Ive just read teacher toms blog about centrifugal force and my mind is now ticking!.... they have also got rather good at playing football....i mean really playing football with one ball and a whole group!...pretty impressive cooperation going on ...even some of the really young ones have worked out that they have to all work together i do think this time of year is difficult for a lot of our children because there is lots of talk at home about them moving on to BIG school...so they get fidgetty, then when the allocations are done they settle down, then they get cheeky and a bit rude and then the last few weeks of summer they turn into cuddle monsters and tell you how much they love you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 2, 2011 Share Posted April 2, 2011 Ben 10 mostly which we have tried to harness this term with a superhero theme. Fighting (I had a gun brought in to show and tell this week!) I have a group who are heavily into animals especially whales/sharks etc and I have one boy who is obsessed with fairies and anything pink and insists on having the daisy meadows fairy books read to him every night. I teach reception by the way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_32166 Posted April 2, 2011 Share Posted April 2, 2011 i have one little boy obsessed with dinosaurs, a group of boys who make guns/ weapons all the time and either play supeheroes or knights and another group of boys who do experiemnets all the time and make explosions. So i have just finished doing dinosaurs, digging up bones/ fossils, making plaster of paris fossils, looking at skeletons. At the same time i have also had a science lab in the role play, we did lots of science experients and went off at one point into volcanoes and did bi-crab and vinegar explosionns, before that did a massive superhoero topic, and got loads of story telling/ writing from the boys! My boys have also been mad on police since they started in september and they always find a way to creep back in! After easter holidays i was going to address the knight play but then this week they started re-arranging the classroom into a cinema! so i don't know what to do now! and after the easter holidays they will proberly be interested in something else. so with my current class i often have several things going on at once! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SueFinanceManager Posted April 4, 2011 Share Posted April 4, 2011 Science activities always went down well with mine... built boats out of convenience food trays and then loaded them up with different things to see which ones sunk first Archimedes.....put a small world person on a raft (man stuck to piece of plastic with blue tack) in a container with a rope across the top and made children run round garden finding stones to raise the level of the water to rescue him Building things of course.....competitions to see who could build highest brick tower with out it falling over...measuring them as they went and recording results Building ramps and then sending cars down and marking with chalk how far they went Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 5, 2011 Share Posted April 5, 2011 The boys at my setting are in to Ben 10, Vampires (from twilight), Superheores like batman and lazy town. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 6, 2011 Share Posted April 6, 2011 I do worry that because boys have such a need that we are all worrying about trying to meet that sometimes the girls' needs can be overlooked. I have recently had a massive superhero term which has been really successful and yes the girls were into it too but it may not have been their choice to begin with. I worry that I approach my planning with 'now what are my boys interested in and what will engage them this term' and that doesn't seem fair somehow. My girls are such an enthusiastic bunch though that they will become inspired by pretty much anything as long as there are creative and writing opportunities. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 I think you just answered your own point. The reason to start with boys interests is because the social institution of school does not really suit most boys learning styles. They want to be up and active and doing stuff but schools want them to sit down and write and draw stuff. Add in a profession that is overwhelmingly female and national data which clearly shows boys underachieve and there is an unanswerable case. But no planning should exclude any group and you always think about opportunities for girls play/interests. Our reception class has a male teacher who is obsessed with writing (for a purpose,at an age appropriate level, in context and as a natural part of play) and as a result has lots of enthusiastic boys who are happy to write, but the girls writing is even better... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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