Planning for Play Based Learning

Since following the number agents blog I have begun to research and trial new ways of planning. Throughout my teaching career, I have always struggled with planning and have often felt it wasn't effective and often didn't reflect the learning that was occurring and the next steps. I have also felt that through working with a number of different teaching teams co-workers have also been struggling to make it effective.

Number agents have shown me a new way of planning which I have been trialling since the beginning of the term, through this planning I am able to gain a greater insight into tamariki and their learning, interests and schemas. By planning retrospectively I am able to document the learning as it is happening, support and extend their learning. 

I have found the mind map tool extremely effective, each day after school I go through my notes and photos that I have taken that day. Document the learning that has happened, who it involved, next steps to support interests and so on. 

I am also now keeping a weekly book about what has been happening throughout the week, this is displayed on the sign in/out table. Many parents regularly read this, tamariki enjoy showing whanau the photos in the book and it also helps whanau engage in oral language with tamariki about what learning has been happening. Once the week has come to an end I attach a copy of the week's mind map onto the back page of that week's diary. I also write a reflection of anything of the interests, concerns or what has worked/not worked well.
I am also able to make notes of anyone that needs extra support on both my mind maps and through my reflections so I can better support their learning.

There is also now a term display on the wall outside our classroom. I have created this in the hope that while whanau are waiting for the bell to ring they are able to look at the photos and see what has captured Ruma Tahi interests during each week.

I have also created an interests book where I can document more in-depth interests and learning that is occurring. Tamariki enjoy looking at this documentation and where appropriate I am able to photograph pages from this book and upload them on to Seesaw.

Overall I am feeling like my planning and documentation are finally effective and meaningful, I'm feeling really positive about my planning and have shared my ideas with the junior team. I have still been using my old planning format as well as I was concerned about what ERO may think of my new planning as I know it is probably not the 'norm'. But I am now going to stop it and use it more as a time table guide. I still use Reading and Math planning sheets to support my overall planning.

Play based learning in Room One

This year I have tried to offer more play-based learning in my classroom as a better way of meeting the developmental needs of the tamariki in my class. Through my observations from terms three and four last year it became clearly obvious that as Primary teachers there is an expectation on us to be pushing tamariki to do things that they are not developmentally ready or capable of doing. I have seen the pressure and stress that this places on them and so have tried to work on different strategies to better support the tamariki in my care. I am particularly concerned about the expectations placed on them regarding writing and the outcomes that are expected of them.

I have struggled with the pressure of knowing what my tamariki are ready for compared to what is expected of them and trying to justify the reasons I feel the way I do. I have attended a course on play-based learning and visited two schools offering play-based programmes and this has helped to strengthen my desire to follow my heart and do what I feel is right.

I have slowly been introducing more play-based activities throughout the year, encouraging pre-reading and writing activities through many different ways and focusing on activities that encourage oral language. I have taken on board what I learnt at Longford Education's course about how if you want play-based to be sustainable and authentic it needs to be introduced slowly.

I have noticed tamariki are now more engaged in their learning, with a focus on less formal learning and more small group, child lead activities and also seeking out interests that come from the children and extending them. 

I have also been committed to trying to spend more time outside, encouraging tamariki to develop gross motor skills, teamwork and using their imagination. I have set up a water area just out from our classroom where tamariki can poor, mix, measure and create, this has been really popular. We also often put a tent up where tamariki can read to buddies, have quiet time or pretend they are camping. We have also been spending time getting to know our wider community by doing a number of local walks and meeting people who work in our community. We also spend time exploring our community garden. 

Through these experiences I believe tamariki are developing many of the skills required in all curriculum areas, they are more willing to attempt new challenges when writing if they have genuine experiences to write about. Our class is calm and tamariki are engaged in learning without the underlying pressure to get things done within certain time frames. We are flexible and tamariki are able to learn at their own pace.

I have also had positive feedback from Lois who said that the tamariki who moved up to her class at the start of term four were coping so well and were well prepared for learning in her class, with great literacy skills.

To me this feedback tells me I am on the right track and I hope to continue to build upon my current play-based learning next year. I would like to focus more on child led learning, get a sandpit build and work more closely with Aimee now she is moving into room 2.

Making Learning Visible

After attending the Play-based course last Friday and having a debrief with Aimee on the drive home I have been thinking of how I can make the Key Competencies visible in my class so whanau can gain a greater understanding of what Learning through play looks like.

During my time teaching at kindergarten, I used to make a lot of displays about how tamariki learn so decided to try and create one in Room One. I worked on this display yesterday afternoon with my tamariki, believing that if they are involved in the display they will be more likely to want to share it with their whanau. There was lots of oral language that came from this activity, tamariki excitedly sharing what they had been doing in the photos and talking about where they would end up on the wall.

I was really pleased with the end product and this morning when whanau were dropping off their tamariki many took them to look at the wall. I also received some lovely feedback from parents and also the relieving teacher I had today. I am hoping that this wall might become a permanent display that evolves and grows throughout the year, something we can add to and talk about with one another.

I hope that from this display whanau will gain a greater understanding of how tamariki learn and that learning through play is still learning but just in a different way.

Pokeno school visit

Visit to Pokeno School

Today I went to visit Pokeno School to visit one of their New Entrant classes. I was really interested to see how they do their Yolanda Soryl program but sadly we had to leave before they did it. I found it really interesting to see how their morning routine progressed and how their writing program worked. I gained some ideas that I could bring back to my class, ideas around introducing a writing topic to the group and how to draw ideas from tamariki.

I discovered that they have a writing goal at the back of their writing books and they regularly revisit these. I am going to try this in my class but put it at the front of their books so their goals become visible to them. I will develop a format and two forms one to start with and then working towards the next.

I have wondered if I could also make one of these for math and reading also. I will see how well I get on with the writing one.

I have been continuing to struggle with my planning, it was great to have the opportunity to see Karen's planning and what works for her. I was able to pull some ideas from her planning that I look forward to seeing how they may work for me.


Update:
I have created my own versions for tamariki goals to put in their math and writing books. Tamariki have enjoyed looking at their goals and receiving a sticker to place beside a goal when they reach it. We revisit the goals that they are working on at the start of each session so they know what they are working towards.

Yolanda Soryl

Today I went to the Yolanda Soryl course on how to teach Phonics. I found this course full of tips that I know will become useful teaching tools in my everyday practice. I really liked the way she linked tasks with actions which are similar to what I am doing currently with my shape words. This technique has a great success rate with children often seen using actions to words they are learning throughout the day. I am going to use Yolandas youtube videos as a follow up to this course as the day was so fast-paced that at times it was challenging to take in. I think it will also be helpful for Angela and I to watch them together so she will be able to understand what we will be teaching nga tamariki. Aimee has also kindly ordered some of Yolanda's resources and we hope to have them for the start of term two. Today I was able to put into practice one of the activities Youlanda had demonstrated using individual whiteboards and nga tamariki responded really positively to it.


Update:
Yolanda's programme has become second nature in Room One now, we all know the routine and it runs smoothly each morning. I have noticed that tamariki have a much stronger sound and letter knowledge since starting the programme and we are getting through the letters much more quickly and are able to also revisit them. I have also noticed a greater improvement in tamariki using their letter knowledge throughout the day whether it's through their zone work or story writing or during their play-based learning, their letter and sound knowledge is now evident everywhere.

Teaching Portfolio 2018

This a a space for me to collect and present the evidence needed to show that I am meeting the NZ Practising Teacher Criteria. The twelve criterion are listed on the right side of the page  and have a number to show how many pieces of evidence I have collected,. An initial post was needed to set up the 'label' needed to make the list. With each post of text or photo/video, I can add a date and a label to show when the criteria was met. 

I revisited Katrina's class last Thursday to bounce some ideas around with her about my zones as I had been noticing that our tamariki weren't engaging in activities for as long as they had been and we were having to rotate every ten minutes and we often only made it to 10.00

I knew Katrina took her zones right through to lunch time and thought i was ready for some fine tuning. Looking around Katrina's class I was able to think of new ways to tweak my zones, Katrina offered some great ideas and encouragement and I was ready to give things a try. The next day I shared my ideas with Angela and with her encouragement we redesigned the zones for Monday with lots more choices and we also introduced maths activities within the zones too.

New introductions included the maths area, play dough, floor puzzles, whiteboard activities, tamariki led writing table and a number of other activities. We wanted them to have a greater choice that captured their interest longer and encouraged group interaction and problem solving and teamwork.

On Monday Angela and I was amazed at how things went, after introducing tamariki to the new zones they were excited to make a start and were so engaged in their activities that we didn't rotate zones until after 30 minutes! There was great cooperation and a greater focus group-wide. There was only one zone that didn't work as well as we hoped but with the introduction of a couple of extra activities, it worked just as well as the others.

These two terms have been an enormous learning curve for me and I am finally feeling more comfortable and confident in what I am doing. I am excited and so looking forward to next year as I will know what works well and how I like to 'run' my class, I will be able to continue to build upon my resources and will continue to streamline my zones and will trial a way of recording them in term one next year.

I have introduced zones to our tamariki as a way of them strengthening their knowledge on the shape words. I was able to talk to Katrina and with her support, I could see how this could work for our class. At first, I found the idea overwhelming and couldn't think of how I could implement it so it is meaning full to my class, I knew there was no point in just copying Katrina's exact ideas that somehow I had to adapt it for the best outcomes in my class.

I decided to not do the block plan of where tamariki went and when as I found it too daunting, instead I decided to introduce five stations that were represented by a colour and at each station there would be two activities. I began gathering and making activities so that there were enough for all the stations and also surplus so that I could introduce new activities each day to keep the tamariki interested. I will review this implementation once our tamariki have become familiar with the routines and the games to see whether it is working and any changes I need to make.

Update:
Zones have been working well for three terms now, tamariki are engaged in learning and look forward to discovering what activities are available in the zones each morning. I have been constantly sourcing new activities to keep the zones interesting and fresh. The zones have offered many opportunities for peer teaching and tamariki sharing their knowledge with tamariki that are new or less abled. This has been really empowering. I was trying to run our reading groups while the zones were in rotation but found it was too difficult to keep some tamariki on task as well as listening to reading groups. So we now do reading straight after morning tea and during rotations myself and my teacher aid sit with a zone each and work with them. This has worked out really well with all groups working with an adult for one math and one literacy activity each day.

I have been struggling getting through my reading groups as Katrina had suggested doing each child individually, but I was finding that by the time I did letter sounds, shape words then a reader with each individual child it was taking right up to morning tea time twice a week.

I decided to ask for some advice from Tina and she suggested taking small groups of three or four as this work well for her when she taught new entrants. I could see if I could get this to work it would be much better so began trailing it. What I found was it was much better and tamariki were able to learn off one another and encourage each other and strive to keep up to each other and set them selves goals like trying to get to the next shape word group because they wanted to be like their friends. I have continued to use this method, working out who within the groups work well together and being flexable to change things when needed. So I might have some groups of four some of three and some of two and if someone needs extra support I am able to offer that too. I am now going to focus on how I can extend tamariki reading experiences and get them progressing up the reading levels by carrying out running records and regrouping where necessary.