Guest Posted July 31, 2006 Share Posted July 31, 2006 I will have use of two rooms in sept and am in the process of setting them up - 1 as a 'work' room where teacher directed things happen and smart board and circle time etc and workstations (am in a special needs school) and 1 room as the 'child initiated room'. As experienced pratacitioners in the FS do you think this is an acceptable way of running my classroom and will it work?? thanks Jo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_4544 Posted August 1, 2006 Share Posted August 1, 2006 Are the two rooms linked or seperate? as this would influence my set up/organisation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 1, 2006 Share Posted August 1, 2006 they are linked with connecting door Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 1, 2006 Share Posted August 1, 2006 (edited) Hi Jo I have no experinece of working in special schools so I'm not sure if this is still the case but although it might be easier to run, my main concern would be that they don't enjoy being in the work room and see going in there as a chore(?) (I'm sure your teacher stuff is exciting, but with the best will in the world not quite as exciting as the stuff they come up with themselves)! I've got two rooms next year, both of which lead onto a small outdoor area. It's a bit different because there will be two classes for registration, but after that we will be mixing, and have just had a large hole knocked through to link them. Weve organised it a bit like this: Room 1: Carpet area; art area; dt area; computer area (x 3!); home corner; table top; graphics area Room 2: Carpet area with IWB; topic role play area; library area; sand/water/sensory play; science centre (this is new!); construction; small world; table top. Outside: will have some permanants, e.g. 2nd sand/water; horticultural area (plant pots because of a lack of any soil in the ground); and then will add others each day, e.g. bikes, mark-making; easels etc. Not sure how it'll work because it's all new but we just wanted both rooms to offer exciting experiences so have tried to share them out. Hope whatever you do works out for you. Let us know what you decide. Kelly Edited August 1, 2006 by Guest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 2, 2006 Share Posted August 2, 2006 Kelly - I am in a simliar situation to you. We have knocked through too and are offering different experiences in each room. We will register separate too and then mix both classes. Would be really interested if you have any ideas on how you are organising your planning as we are having to adjust ours to take account of new setup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 3, 2006 Share Posted August 3, 2006 We work in a similar situation and are yet to find an organisation system with which we are happy. We tend to have a 'room' and a quieter room. In the messy side we have sand, water, painting, sensory table, painting and busy area -glue, collage and junk modelling. All creative focuses are carried out in this side of the room. In the other side we have numeracy, literacy focuses, role play, small world table, reading den, writing table, smartboard and computers, We also register the whole class in here. However wew found that registering such a large group (45) together it took a long time to settle them in the morning so we are going to register in 2 groups in Sept. Adult wise we have 1 adult in the messy room, 1 adult in the quieter room and 1 adult outside. We try and have pleny of child initiated activites out as well as a few teacher directed activities - however we do find that this can be difficult as it can often mean that the adult doing a focus is disturbed a lot if the teacher directed are too difficult!! We would be interested to see how others work as, as i said we are not entirely happy with our system! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 3, 2006 Share Posted August 3, 2006 Thanks Lola glad I'm not the only one who has tried numerous planning formats. I feel that I am constantly refining our planning and it would be nice to find a planning format that is tried & tested and would suit the 2 room organisation. We have low nuimber this year in Early years (blame the dip after the millenium baby boom) so 20 in each class. All our children start in Sept with Summer born children doing mornings & spring born have p/t or f/t option. In one room we have a creative area, construction area, maths area & writing area. The other room has reading area, role play area, listening area, small world area, discovery area, & computer area. There are IWB & carpet areas in both rooms as they used to be separate classes. Medium term planning is not a problem. It is just trying to find a good weekly planning format. Also whole conflict between teacher directed time vs child initiated time. Having read Rose report thinking will have to have a definite phonics slot each day (previously 3x a week). Oh I don't know any suggestions gratefully received........... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_4544 Posted August 3, 2006 Share Posted August 3, 2006 We have two rooms interconected by our messy area. In one room we have literacy based areas..........writing area, role play, performance, malleable, large mark making, fine motor, book area, listening centre and a PC and IWB. In the other we have a number area, block play, large construction, investigation area, lightbox, DT workshop, small world and another PC. The children seperate for registration and then come together for all activities. We also have a large outdoor area with free access and are in the process of dividing this into areas. Currently we have 2 sand pits a digging pit and a garden area, a quiet area, whiteboards and painting areas, wild area and area for wheeled vehicles but are in the process of developing things further. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 3, 2006 Share Posted August 3, 2006 We also have an outdoor area too with free access to large sandpit, water area, whiteboards, large construction, garden etc. Marion do you do any whole class teaching e.g. phonics or do you do this in smaller focused groups? Do you use a visual timetable with the children? Be interested to know what your short term planning is like - willing to share too! Although not entirely happy with ours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_4544 Posted August 3, 2006 Share Posted August 3, 2006 We are a FSU so slightly different (maybe) this is the current format although it is still an ongoing work. We plan for Monday and Tuesday each week (this is very flexible and often changes in response to the childrens interests or 'lack of') then follow the children's lead for the rest of the week. Some of our planning is retrospective. As we have both nursery and reception the children split into groups for whole class/large group sessions (these are by ability/maturity rather than straightforward age groups) At the beginning of each session the children will have either a literacy or numeracy large group activity on the carpet followed by small group activities. Children not working on an adult directed/focus task are free to choose. We ensure all children complete the focused tasks each day using class tick lists. Planning_daily.doc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 3, 2006 Share Posted August 3, 2006 I am going to have two rooms and a outside area . The two rooms are linked by the toliets and a little hallway. Im not sure how this is going to work with only me and 1 other member of staff. A planning nightmare!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_4544 Posted August 3, 2006 Share Posted August 3, 2006 (edited) http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/primary/p...s120105keep.pdf The REPEY report says Play within instructive learning environments The REPEY project found that the most effective early years settings provided teacher-initiated group work, balanced with an ‘open environment’, where children had ‘free’ access to a range of instructive play activities in which adults supported their learning. In good and excellent settings equal numbers of activities were initiated by adults and by children, suggesting that effective settings encourage children to initiate activities and dialogue previously modelled by staff. Freely chosen play activities often provided the best opportunities for adults to extend children’s thinking. I think there is something in SPEEL but I am having problems accessing it http://www.dfes.gov.uk/research/data/uploadfiles/RR363.pdf Edited August 3, 2006 by Marion Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 5, 2006 Share Posted August 5, 2006 (edited) Marion Thanks for sharing your planning sheet & your help. Had previously read KEEP info but not SPEEL so thanks for highlighting it. I supose the exciting thing about being in Early Years is that each day is so different that it is envitable that each settings' planning is different and that perhaps it would be disappointing if there was a single format that we were constrained by. Maybe I need to stop the quest for the perfect planning format and embrace planning as part of the learning journey and to go out and have the confidence to find what works best for our setting. Feeling strangely liberated!! Am off on 1st family holidy on Mon (baby just turned 1) so will try to relax for a couple of weeks. Am very willing to share resources, planning formats when I return if needed! Edited August 5, 2006 by Guest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_4544 Posted August 5, 2006 Share Posted August 5, 2006 In September we changed our planning almost weekly think the present form must be draft 1000000000099 hopefully we will get there eventually Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 5, 2006 Share Posted August 5, 2006 Glad to hear everyone experiences the same difficulties. Somtimes we think it is jus us who goes insane with planning and praticality nightmares! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 5, 2006 Share Posted August 5, 2006 We're going to daily planning for the first time in Sept. We're basing it broadly around topics but might change this to go towards non-topic based planning (not sure how this might look yet). On the daily plans we'll plan for the short carpet sessions, as well as the adult focus actvities. It'll also say which resources are in each of the learning bays (which will be a mixture of ideas from the children and from us). The only other bit says which adult is in each room / outside. Not sure how it'll work yet so may need adapting. It looks very detailed but we are planning to keep it short - also some things will stay the same for the next day - depending on the children's response to them - so will not need to do a brand new plan each day. (I'll attach a sample one cause it might be easier to understand!) 1.1_Tues.doc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 6, 2006 Share Posted August 6, 2006 hi i'm just wondering if you sit down as a team to plan as it seems very detailed. Is that the only planning grid you will use? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 7, 2006 Share Posted August 7, 2006 (edited) Yes we plan as a team - we trialled it at the end of last year and it doesn't take that long. As I said before, some of it stays the same - including a lot of the more detailed stuff because we might keep the same learning objectives and just change / amend the activity. It's the only one we use because everything like PE / ICT goes in the focus activity bit on the relevant day. At the moment it's quite detailed because we're not too used to using them but am hoping to make it more simple once we get the hang of planning daily rather than weekly. I think it looks like more work than it actually is because there are so many different boxes but when you look at the bits that we actually have to fill in it isn't too bad. Edited August 7, 2006 by Guest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_79 Posted August 7, 2006 Share Posted August 7, 2006 Let us know how that goes, Kelly. Looks interesting to me! presume the numbers after your activity bay areas are the room locations??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 7, 2006 Share Posted August 7, 2006 Yes. May soon change totally if we decide to go ahead with non-topic based planning Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 7, 2006 Share Posted August 7, 2006 Thanks Kelly, it looks good, I hope it all goes well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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