My class returned to school today all buzzing with excitement, chattering away, catching up with their friends, just like my first day yesterday. I vowed after my inset experience to ease them back in today and their excitement was the prompt to remind me.
After a New Year assembly they were put quickly into talking partners and then were to take it in turns to share what they did and got over the Christmas break. Now taking turns and sharing are two things year 2 children do not find easy so even this tiny task had to have a clear structure. They moved their chairs so that they were sat face to face then they were named A and B. A was to talk first and B was to listen then after 5 minutes they swapped over.
As I walked around listening to them chatter happily recalling their holidays I realised that even this simple enjoyable task was a learning experience. The speaker had to choose what to share, trying to choose things that would engage the listener, the listener on the other hand had to try their best not to talk over their partner but to actually listen. The classroom was buzzing!
Maths was an active lesson, counting in 2s in both odd and even numbers. Fun and enjoyable. After lunch we began our new topic based on the Katie Morag stories which involved listening to and discussing the story, predicting what would happen next and looking at the illustrations. This was followed by looking at a large map of the U.K. With lots and lots of exploring, discussing and learning.
So all in all a good first day back with me sticking to my personal vow. The children appeared to have a relatively good day with lots of opportunities to learn.
As for me and my brilliant T.A. We are exhausted!!
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