Wednesday, 4 September 2013

Portfolio 1: Bean Bag Literacy Targets

This portfolio piece outlines a resource I have developed whilst on placement. I have included this as I feel as though it was a successful session. Around 15-20 children participated during the session, and I also saw other educators at the centre repeating the session later.

I feel that this was engaging and effective because the literacy component was embedded in a gross motor activity. This is not to say that 'pure' literacy activities cannot be engaging, but that embedded activities are particularly attractive to me personally.

Activity title: Bean Bag Targets Outdoors
Date: 6th August 2013
Time Period: Morning
Who planned for: Primary care group children’s names removed (whoever is available & interested) plus other children who want to get involved.

Expected Learning Outcomes
       Relates to Outcome 5 - Children are effective communicators
o   Begin to understand key literacy and numeracy concepts and processes, such as the sounds of language, letter-sound relationships, concepts of print and the ways that texts are structured
       Relates to Outcome 1 - Children have a strong sense of identity
o   Children learn to interact in relation to others with care, empathy and respect
       Relates to Outcome 2 - Children are connected with and contribute to their world
o   Children become aware of fairness       
o   Waiting their turn
       Relates to Outcome 3 -   Outcome 3: Children have a strong sense of wellbeing
o   Children take increasing responsibility for their own health and physical wellbeing
       Building gross motor skills

Context for the Session
       Relates to ‘Let’s Get Physical’ Term 3 Plan

Session focus
       Looking at the fundamental movement skills in throwing and catching (body & head, arms)
       Using letters / sounds to mark targets on a net
       Using fruit and vegetable cards to mark targets on a net

Preparation
       Print out first 2 sets of ‘Jolly Phonics’ and laminate - s, a, t, p, i, n, ck, e, h, r, m, d.
       Need to have a range of bean bags for the children so they can choose ones that suit them.
       Check weather

Teaching and Learning Strategies
       Introduction (5 minutes)
o   I will position myself outdoors and engage a group of children in my new experience. As other children approach I will encourage them to join in also.
o   I will introduce my session by asking: “I’m going to try out hitting these targets, who wants to join me?”
o   I will explain that there are two nets, one with fruit and vegetable targets, one with letter sounds.
o   I will demonstrate that when they hit the target, we need to say what the target is (or have a guess)
       Main teaching session (20 minutes)
o   Ask each child in turn to choose a net and throw 5 bean bags.
o   I will observe each child, looking at their fundamental movement skills and helping with identifying the targets they have hit. For the very young children, the fruit and vegetables would be more appropriate. For the older children, we can also ask them what words have that sound in them.
o   I will model both the movement skills and the identification for the children and support each individual child that is engaged in this experience to practice.
       Conclusion (5 minutes)
o   I will ask each child in turn to tell me their favourite part of the session.
o   I will ask each child to tell me which part of the course they found the most difficult.
o   I will share with the children that they can set up a similar experience for themselves using the equipment / materials available and the ideas from today.

Note - There was also a reflections / evaluation section here but I have removed it due to space constraints.








1 comment:

  1. James this plan offers a multisensory approach learning sounds, and builds in an element of judging distance, space and trajectories. How could these dimensions of the plan be etched out further for the children involved (in the moment and as follow-ups on the plan)? There are also many critics of the phonics approach to literacy learning - you may want to investigate this further to feel more confident in justifying this focus.

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