READY TO GO: TRIED AND TESTED - Ideas for supply teachers
These are a few ideas that I have tried and tested as a supply
teacher.
NOISE. This is a great
strategy for establishing expected behaviour for the whole class, encouraging the
children to work quietly. I write NOISE
on the whiteboard explaining to the children that if I feel that they are working
too noisily then I will simply remove a letter.
NOIS
I encourage the children to aim to keep NOISE by rewarding
them with 3 house/team points, marbles or whatever their class teacher uses
this decreases to 2 points if I remove S
and to 1 point with the removal of I. If
there is no existing award system in the classroom, then I find a way of
rewarding them: may be with finishing early to play a quick game.
NO
If three letters are removed so that NO is left then the class
know that there will be no rewards.
At the start of the next lesson I return to the complete word
so that we have a fresh start.
This is a whole class strategy so if there are just a few
children or an individual that are not working quietly I would use another
strategy with those specific children.
DIAMOND POEM
A great activity to use in an English session is the diamond
poem. It can be used with any topic and
any age.
Having
decided on a topic ask the children to write a noun on the first line; two
adjectives on the second line; three powerful verbs on the third line; a four
word phrase or clause on the fourth line.
Then work backwards, i.e three powerful verbs on the fifth line and two
adjectives on the sixth line. Sometimes
I reverse this asking for three adjectives and two verbs. Finally the children finish by writing a
different noun but one that is linked to the first.
Tiger
Orange,
stripy
Prowling,
hunting, roaring
Hunted to
near extinction
Powerful,
beautiful, fierce
Stalking.
Pouncing
Cat!
It is not always possible as a
supply teacher to have a diamond framework ready to use as a resource. I have given the children A4 paper and
illustrated how to make a square from that so that they can write onto that,
using line guides if necessary. As an
extension to this activity, children can put these ideas into full sentences;
creating a descriptive paragraph about the chosen topic. They can also illustrate their completed
poems.
A great maths lesson is rip lotto
which I wrote about in a previous blog.
Finally, this is an idea I have
used a lot as a supply teacher. It is easy to set up and like the diamond poem
can be used with any topic and age range.
It just takes a piece of plain paper,
ask the children to draw a simple outline of an object. They then fill in the area around the outside
of the object, using small, delicate lines.
I have found that some children need encouraging not to make the fill in
pattern too big. I have the best results
from using one colour and paper that is not too big, about A6 size.
