Elena Perea Úbeda-Portugués
Observations of the teaching learning process.
MONDAY November 3rd
Children come in, do a self-register and put things away.
Assembly: morning Prayer, Register, Timetable.
School assembly: Head teacher does an assembly about All Saints. Then each class has two headmaster certificates for best improvement and best continuous effort. Teachers decide twice each term who deserves it.
RE: They watch a video of a baptism ceremony and then do a role-play. They repeat the role-play with the TAs. Each student is assessed on a post it note that will go in their learning journals. The rest of the students play in corners.
Read, write, ink: They have divided all the students in Reception into ability groups. The within the group they have a talking partner. Letter M.
Singing and reading: Children go into de hall to sing. Three of them stay behind with the TA to read. Every child takes a book home every week and reads it to his family. Then they write comments on the reading notebook (They also use it to keep parents informed of what they are doing in class). The child reads the book to the TA and they write down their performance and tell the child to take a book from a certain level.
TUESDAY November 4th
PE: Change clothes for PE. 1h a week. Warm up with beans and instructions.
Read, write, ink: Letters are referred to by their sound. They practise different intonations. Then they practise the beginning sound followed by the word (/a/ /a/ apple). This is called bounce. They turn to their partners and say we are learning /a/; we love aaaaples and other things during the lesson. The teacher draws an apple and then models the letter (around the apple and down the leaf) Children practise the movement in the air, on the carpet and their bodies. The practise a few more words beginning with the sound. The teacher puts the /a/ sound flashcard in between others. They go over the sound and when they come to the /a/ they have to say the sound and "gotcha". They practise the chant writing on a blank piece of paper. Then they move back to the carpet and sound out words with /a/ with the help of Fred the Frog puppet. When they sound out a word that doesn’t exist they must say "what nonsense!" They repeat it with the letters on show this time. Teacher finishes giving stickers and asking children to say “We know /a/” to their talking partners.
Funky fingers:
-
Beads on sticks
-
Rolling play dough
-
Name writing
-
Multilink
-
Pasta with tweezers
They rotate in the stations during the week.
Learning explorers: Both classes get together and children play in different corners. Time is also used for handcraft activities in small groups.
Classroom management: three steps to move from assembly to seats. Step on is stand up, two is find a place, three sit down. It is done silently. Use of a rain stick to change activities.
WEDNESDAY November 5th
Bonfire night: Teacher asks the students if they know what day is it. Some of them are able to answer. Then, she shows firework pictures on the digital board and asks the children for words that sound like fireworks exploding in the sky. After a bit of brainstorming the teacher reads a poem and they look for some of the words they brainstormed and new one in there.
Then, suing their bodies and movement they try to imitate how a firework moves and sounds in the sky.
Individual work: The TA and the teacher help two groups of children complete a poem similar to the ones read with words about colours or sounds that remind them of fireworks. While they write the poem they can practise some of the letter sounds they know. The rest of the group can play quietly. Then, they swap and lower ability students have a piece of paper in the shame of a sound bubble where they write a word about fireworks.
Funky fingers and learning explores as explained the previous day. During learning explorers a TA and some students splash paint into black paper for the background of the fireworks display.
THURSDAY 6th November
Maths: The teachers are introducing subtraction. First with fingers and then in small groups with dinosaurs. They practise then in small groups according to level. See lesson plan for differentiation.
RE: Trip to the church to review baptism.
Funky fingers and learning explores as explained the previous day.
MONDAY 10th Novemeber
Start with reading corner for a group and the others at their tables. One child does the walk to school register where they mark how they got to school.
Assembly: Liturgy. 7 sacraments. Working on parables and finding the message.
Maths:
Starter: some students work with the TA or with the trainee teacher. The rest work with their talking partners. LO: I can quickly and accurately mentally add two numbers together. game: Flippy floppy fingers. they show fingers in partners and the first one to add it wins a point. Five rounds. Teacher gives specific instructions so the class doesn't get too loud. Then asks the class what they've learnt.
LO: I can add nor subtract any given number using an efficient written method.
Children use the column method. They have also learnt the extended column method. They do it mon their whiteboards and show. Then one student corrects on the board. The second example needs to carry over a number.
They can work in pairs within their ability groups. They use number fans to invent operations. Five sums of three digits, one group works with 2 digits. Then 10 students work with 4 digits on the carpet. Then they do subtraction. They learn by exchanging tens, hundreds or thousands to subtract. Assessment with thumbs. They ones that got it right can work individually and the teacher keeps those that need to practise again. Children correct with calculators.
Spelling:
Start with Read write ink books. Working on prefixes and dot and dashes for individual sounds and sounds working together.
Reading: 5 guided reading books. Dahl has to do spelling, Sparks does reading comprehension, Walliams free reading, Rowling Guided reading, and Morpurgo does book work. Sparkes must compare two stories and write down differences between life in Britain and life in India and Africa. Williams has a reading comprehension about racoons. Morpurgo reads a story with the teacher and works on it. They have to write a small play. Students help each other in groups.
Literacy: LO: I can describe the style of an illustrator writer. I can answer questions about a range of books by one writer/illustrator. One group works with the trainee teacher and another with the TA. Teacher draws answers from students. They talk about their ideas with the talk partner. he keeps LO through the power point to refer to them. They work on the characters, the techniques to illustrate, settings & others.
Activity read a book and writes a report about it and about the author's style. Correction is tickled pink and green for growth. Students will devote the beginning of the afternoon to complete the green for growth parts.
RE: what does assessment mean? It has to be your own work. LO: Use religious terms to show understanding of being called and the sacrament of confirmation. They read the questions asked during the confirmation ceremony. Then, in small groups, they must think about one day to day rule for each one and an example of how to carry out that rule.
Singing: They do some signing practise in the hall for Remembrance day.
Reception
Year 4
 Reception classroom |  Self register |  Learning to add |
|---|---|---|
 Talking partners |  Name sticks |  Autumn leaves on the playground |
 Book band chart |
TUESDAY 11th November
Start with reading corner for a group and their others at their tables. One child does the walk to school register where they mark how they got to school.
Remembrance Day: Children give ideas in assembly about Remembrance Day.
-
Poppies were the only flowers in the battlefield.
-
Today, a hundred years ago WWI ended.
The trainee teacher gives an explanation about how the war started because they are still a bit confused.
A child asks why it is called a world war if it was mainly Europe. Because most of those countries were empires and other countries like Australia.
Ways of fighting. Trench warfare. Video of conditions in trenches. Pictures for discussion. Trench foot. Poison gas. Shrapnel. Bayonets. Barbwire.
Children write a prayer in the prayer books for the fallen soldiers.
While they write, the teacher dims the lights, lights the prayer candle and shows a video about the tower of London from the cbbc website.
Guided reading: the five groups rotate on the activities they did yesterday.
Handwriting. Practice letters i u & t linked and unlinked.
PSHC: Children are given three pictures to discuss the feelings of the people on them and why they feel that way. After the first group discussion they are told the three pictures represent the same feeling. After another discussion they are told the people are feeling guilty and children are asked why that might be. The teacher “puts his acting hat on” gives them a real situation in the classroom where he said his phone has disappeared while we were in music class. Then "he takes his acting hat off" and asks the children how they felt. The teacher gives the three whiteboards to write the situations when they feel guilty. The children come to the front and order the situations from the most to the least guilty.
 Play-dough sausages |  Beads on sticks |  Pasta and tweezers |
|---|---|---|
 Blocks |  Name writing |  Read write ink |
 read write ink |
 fireworks words |  firework poem |  IMG_20141112_083501.jpg |
|---|
 subtraction work with numberlines |
|---|
 Talk partners displayIn all classes children have talk partners. They are used specially during assembly to discuss answers and options before pitching them to the class. |  School councilThe student members of the council decide with the head teacher solutions to bulling problems |  RE council display |
|---|---|---|
 Class bulletin board |  Corridor bulletin board |  Corridor bulletin board |
 Corridor display |  Corridor benches to work w/ TA |  Book nook |
 Craigwell class |  Year 4 class |  IMG_20141118_143323.jpg |
 Behavior , board and talking partner |  Helping treeChildren can add a leaf with a comment every time they help somebody |  Drawers |
 Maths display |  Literacy washing line |  Maths washing line |
 IMG_20141117_083425.jpg |  Maths washing line |  English washing line |
 Maths display |  You fit right in display |  house points |
 PSHE activityChildren had to come up with a situation where they would feel guilty |
|---|
WEDNESDAY 12th November
In the morning I was teaching in reception. If you want to see what I did, you can find the lesson plan and the activities in this strand.
Reading: Rotate in reading groups as usual.
RE: Assessment about confirmation. After each slide of the presentation they turn to their talking partners to discuss some of the questions asked by the teacher. Then they do a written assessment.
 Story and worksheet |  Children completing the worksheet |
|---|
THURSDAY 13th November
Assembly: About reconciliation. Year 6 prepared some readings for it.
PE: Outdoor PE today. A PE teacher comes to school to teach it this time. I have had the oporunity to observe this lesson together with Beatriz who is a PE teacher.
Guided reading: Groups rotate as usual.
Literacy: LO I can use powerful verbs to engage the reader. Vocabulary: verbs, engage, powerful WOW. A student reads the objective and they discuss it with their talking partner. Then the teacher picks children with the lollipop sticks and asks to explain the vocabulary words. The objectives are always displayed on the left of the board as the presentation continues.
The teacher gives them a sentence from the book they have been reading: Mary and Michael came into the room. They need to change the verb to a more powerful verb. The children come up with some verbs and even some adverbs to make the sentence more interesting. Before he dismisses the children to do work he asks CCQs for the Learning objective. He also gives them the instructions for the task and the uses ICQ.
Children have a page wit a few sentences. The first thing they need to do is to find verbs and underline them with their partners. After that, half of the class gets one set of sentences and the other half others. They stick their learning objective in their books and change the verbs in the sentences to make them more interesting. Also, they should add other adverbs to make them even better.
Science: Children are given plants in groups to dissect and post it notes to write the parts and their functions. Then, they do a drawing in their books and label those parts. Lower ability students work with the four main parts of a plant while others work with the parts of the flower. As a plenary the teacher shows a video of how a plant grows over time.
French: LO Gender of the words. The French teacher comes once a week to do a lesson. She teaches the same lesson to all year groups. Asks the children to look at the words she has given them and sort out them in two columns just as they please. Then she introduces the pronouns un/une and asks the children to sort out the words again. In the next activity children need to listen to the teacher saying some words and write M for Masculine or F for Feminine on the whiteboards and show. For the last activity, children are given a sentence with a translation in the bottom. They need to read the sentences to their partners and if they manage to translate hem they can steal it.
Presentation about Spain: You can see a pdf of the presentation here. Children have really enjoyed it and are very excited to get to know more about Spain.
 English |  English |  Science |
|---|---|---|
 Dissecting plants |  Dissecting plants |  Dissecting plants |
 Dissecting plants |  Dissecting plants |
 Spelling books |  Spelling test |  Guided reading groups |
|---|---|---|
 Handwriting practise |  Topic research |  School library |
 School library |  School library |  School library |
FRIDAY 14th November
Assembly: They attend assembly about giving back and charity.
Maths: Mental arithmetic test. They correct each other’s tests. (Click on the calculator to see it)
Handwriting: Practise m n and p
Topic research: children have one hour to keep researching on the decade they chose for their projects.
Spanish presentation: I finish showing them the presentation.
MONDAY 17th November
Assembly: After their religious assembly the house captains are given their badges. Every week they collect their house points. The house with the most points gets a trophy at the end of the year.
Read write Inc.: Children work in pairs testing each other on their spelling words. They need to sound them out and write them. They need to aim to get four in a row. Then they do a fill in the gaps. The last activity is a dictation of some words to work on for the next days.
English: LO I can plan a story based on one I have read. Vocabulary: story fiction plan. They talk about the use of a story mountain. They are going to introduce story pegs. They need to try and incorporate the objective from last week: Engage the reader. The work is differentiated in three sheets. The lower ability group will work on the same story I’ll take you to Mrs Cole and they have pictures to remind them of the story. Then, the middle ability groups need to think about a story with the story pegs given and the top ability group have to think of a story and also about some words they would like to include in it.
Maths: LO I can order and name the days of the week. Children seat down in assembly with a whiteboard, a pen and a clock. LO I can tell the time to the nearest minute on analogue clocks and convert to digital. They need to write the same time in both clocks and put the name below each. They talk about the parts of an analogue clock: face, hands, minutes, hours, and seconds. The teacher shows a time and the have to show the digital clock in their boards. The teacher spots some mistakes like writing 6:12 instead of 6:00 and he asks the children why some people got confused.
Guided reading: The have groups as usual and they rotate.
 Read Write Inc. |  English activity |  English activity Lower set |
|---|---|---|
 English activity middle set.jpg |  English activity top set |  Maths starter |
 Math assembly |  Maths assembly |  Maths activities |
 Guided reading |
 Read Write Inc activity |  Maths activity |  Book work during guided reading |
|---|---|---|
 English objectives |
TUESDAY 18th November
Finish work: Instead of quiet reading in the morning children use these 20 minutes to finish their work.
Class assembly: Four students went to the University of Chichester to write an article and they tell the experience to the rest of the class.
Maths: LO: I can order and name the months. LO. I can find times crossing over the hour mark.
Blue & green: The manager has lost his keys and each film will now start 45min later. Write the new times.
Yellow & orange: Each film has a 20min trailer at the beginning. What time will the film actually start?
Red: A power cut has affected the digital clocks. Set them to show the same time as the analogue clocks.
Read write Inc.: words ending in zhuh spelt -sure. They watch a video with a presentation.
Guided reading: Rota
English: LO: I can plan and write an engaging story. I can use complex and compound sentences in my writing. I can use speech punctuation and adverbs or adverbial phrases. Together they change the first sentence from the book and make it more interesting.
Handwriting: They have to practise letters e c o.
Music: They keep rehearsing the song to sing in the cathedral.
PSHE: The objective of the lesson is how to keep calm. The teacher uses a presentation from www.teachingideas.co.uk called Chill Skills. Then, they are given some situations they usually encounter and they have to find a peaceful solution and role play it.
Homework: Homework is given on Tuesdays and due on Monday.