How to 'do' Halloween in Year 2...

Hey guys, so… if you caught my periscope this afternoon they you will know that my blogging mojo has gone missing! 

I've searched and I've struggled to find it but rather than just giving up I've decided to try and win it back! 

I've taken matters into my own hands and 'forced' myself to blog tonight! 

It is a perfect opportunity to link-up for Five for Friday  with my favourite- Doodle Bugs Teaching 

This week has all been about Halloween in my classroom! 

Even though I teach Year 2 (1st Grade) I still incorporate many areas of continuous provision more commonly found in Foundation Stage units and I am a firm believer that play is an integral part of children's development.
Whilst we have to get our half term assessments done, I always like to add in some fun too! 

 This week has proven to me just how right this approach is….

I have adored my role-play area and so have the children. I had hay-bales left over from our Farm Shop role-play so I decided to mix the 'rural' look with the Halloween theme and create a pumpkin patch! Visually, it WOWed but beyond that…. it excited! 

I split some pumpkins open using a rolling pin (very therapeutic) and let the children explore the pumpkin 'guts'- they developed their own ideas such as counting out the seeds and discovering which pumpkin had the most. 

The children also came out with great comparative language when pulling the pumpkin apart 

and it was great to be a part of.

'This piece is very rough compared to the slimy, stringy piece' said one little girl as she ripped off a piece of the pumpkin flesh!

 Messy hands, slimy pumpkin pieces and 6 year olds= fantastic! 

I also placed a lovely odd and even sorting activity made by the lovely Brittany of Tickled Pink in Primary who was my very first SLANT box partner! 

It was a great hit! 

Even though I knew there would be very little opportunity to do formal Literacy lessons this week, I wanted to look at instructional writing with the class as, although the children had produced 2 sets of instructions for BIGwrites, we hadn't formally looked at them. 

I wanted to capture the children's attention and create a sense of mystery about the lesson to fit with the Halloween theme. Sure, I could of dressed up as a witch and taught in role but I decided to use the magic of technology to hook the learning this time.

In order to set the week up and discover what the children knew about instructions already I used the 'Morfo' app to create a witch. 

You can get this app for free in the iTunes App Store 

She sent us a message asking for our help- apparently her potion wasn't working and she wasn't sure she had written her instructions correctly. We took a look at them and decided they were not a good set of instructions at all! Leading on from this, in groups the children produced 'What makes a good set of instructions?' thought showers and fed back their ideas to produce a class poster for our Working Wall. 

With the help of this poster we fixed the witches instructions and then followed them.

 This was the truly magical part! 

The instructions were simple- only 3 ingredients- corn flower, food colouring and water…. 

any guesses yet? 

Her instruction made oobleck!

 Each child got to explore the outcome and their puzzled yet fascinated faces made my day! 

I loved this lesson- it was simple, straightforward and engaging!

 All things a Monday morning lesson should be and as a bonus- I knew straight away that my kiddies are experts at instructional writing and I  didn't need to dedicate much teaching time to the features. 

Fab! 

I then added the remaining oobleck to the Pumpkin Patch in a pumpkin bucket so they could continue to explore it independently. 

This drew out even more descriptive and comparative language…

'I prefer this to the pumpkin' said one little boy…'prefer'…. I nearly fell off my chair!! 

Had I not provided this independent exploration opportunity then I would NEVER had guessed this particular little one had such a sophisticated word in his vocabulary! Sad but true! 

This week we had interviews for our new Head Teacher and as part of it my class were being taught by the candidates. 

As I knew my day would be disrupted I didn't want to get my teeth sunk too deeply into a new mathematical concept so I decided to build upon our 2 times tables practise and explore doubling and halving. 

We doubled numbers using pumpkin stickers on a mat I had made. I differentiated this activity easily using dice. As soon as I saw children were confident doubling numbers 1-6, I gave them a dice with 2 digit numbers on to try- quick, easy and effective! 

Some of my little ones are beyond using objects and are really comfortable using the partitioning method to add so I saw this as an opportunity to build on their place value knowledge and teach them how to apply it to doubling too!

I created a new resource which we loved! 'Frankie says…' contains halving statement cards- some of which are true and some are false. The children have to use an appropriate method, for many of mine it was still using objects, to discover which applied to their card and sort them. 

I bagged some bargain mini Frankenstine's head basket- 6 for £1- and the children used these to share their starting numbers between. 

I put all of these activities out during our independent learning time too- I love watching those who may have found an activity a stretch be supported by their friends in a fun and relaxed learning activity. 

As we had recapped the features of instructions I thought it was a perfect opportunity for the children to independently explore and apply their instructional writing skills in a play situation. 

I turned my writing and exploration areas into a Potions Lab- I provided the children with objects, coloured water, sand and glitter, a cauldron and writing prompts. It was a massive hit and lots of fun! 

We love Finger Gym in our school to develop fine and gross motor skills and pencil grips- our Potions Lab asked the children to pick up small objects and use circular motions to stir their mixtures- perfect Finger Gym enhancement!  

Even our daily Finger Gym sessions were given a spooktacular make over! 

Apples and salad tongs…

 Picking up spooky table confetti and collecting in mini skeleton heads…

Using tweezers to remove spiders and ants from green jelly…

Adding and removing table confetti to create our own Halloween dough….

and combining our mathematical and fine motor skills to sort spiders with tweezers in the small world! 

It has been lots of fun in school this week- all topped off with spooky snacks, creepy costumes and ghoulish dancing! 

Take a look at our Halloween decorations…

How has your week been? 

Awesome I hope!

Independent Play in Year 2

As teachers we want nothing more than to have children who keep themselves clean and tidy and never make a mess right? WRONG! What I think a lot of people presume is that if children are sat listening attentively and then carrying out instructions to do exactly what you have just told them to do then they are 'learning' WRONG (please feel free to read any political angle you like into this post!)!!!

Anyone who spends time with children knows full well that messy and chatty usually means investigating, enquiring, collaborating and learning is taking place.
However, I am often surprised by the amount of people (I sadly include some teachers here too) who once the children are past Foundation Stage, totally expect them to have 'grown-up'- I'd like to hop in a time machine and see how 'grown-up' they were at 6 and 7!

Yes, I totally accept that quiet time where children get on with the task at hand is, by Year 2 anyway, a common and necessary part of the day- hey, I am not judging, certainly if you walk into my classroom this will also be the case- particularly every Friday morning as we engage in our BIGwrite, but this is definitely not the norm!

It's lucky then that I get to work in a school which believes that learning through play is not something to be left behind in the Foundation Stage but which should be embraced throughout out the children's time in school. My classroom is rarely at voice level 0 (no matter how hard I try during 'Reading to Self') but I can honestly say it is worthwhile, task focused chatter which fills the air, especially during independent time.

Polar themed Small World and Reading Den

I only get 2 uninterrupted afternoons with my children (by this I mean where I am actually in class and we don't have to go out for P.E.) and half of one of these is Golden Time so it's vital I squeeze every opportunity for learning in that I can.  The obvious joy of independent play is that they are learning without really realising it- they think it's all their own idea and often it is!

Here is an overview of how our only 'whole' afternoon session runs-
We discover our new Learning Challenge question (we follow the Focus Curriculum) and usually spend 15-20 mins discussing, thought showering, exploring a stimulus and planning our next steps in learning. I then work with a small group at a time on an activity relating directly to the LC question whilst the rest of the children explore the independent areas.

Opportunities for independent play on offer on any given afternoon include a range of continuous provision activities (CPA) including-

Role Play Area, Small World, Dressing Up

Space themed Small World

           Interest Table, Research Table, Computers,

Independent Research

Listening Area, Reading Den, Writing Table,

Puppet Theatre, Craft Area, Maths Area,

Space Dough in the Creative Area

Creative Area- Messy Play

Independent Maths

Construction Area

Rockets in the Construction Area

These are always enhanced with new elements each week or half-term to reflect our Learning Challenge.

My children rotate around these areas and activities in a very free and relaxed manner- they know the rules and are not allowed to leave an area until I call for the next group and can only then join an area if there is space- they cannot demand that someone leaves. I know that at first glance you might think that the same children will gravitate towards the same areas every time but I always start the session off by offering each area at a time and we have a number limit so I simply 'fill' each area with the children I want in it so that those who would normally stick in a particular area are forced to choose somewhere else by default, plus this is only how 1 and 1/2 of my afternoons run so its not like 'Little Jessie' is in the Construction Area EVERY afternoon!

One of the things I try hard to do is ensure that each area offers the children the chance to either write, mark make or develop their motor skills and if I can squidge a little maths in there too…mores the better!

I am blessed with a class who are very self motivated but this is due to the fact that they have worked this way for all of their school life and have received nothing but positive praise and rewards for their learning and development during independent time- whether that be for the learning of a new fact, solving how to get the pompoms down the tube run, persevering with a jigsaw, writing a story or simply (hey lets be real) collaborating in a kind and productive manner with others. They have learnt that independent play is truly learning for learning sake and not mine!

Do you embrace Independent Play?
Any and all ideas are welcome so please feel free to comment or contact me