At the age of five, children are ready for some kind of school experience, and they have a mixture of feelings of apprehension, excitement, interest and pride in taking such a big step in their lives.
However, they are still at an age where the individual interest of an adult is the most important experience for them.
It follows that they can be extremely demanding on the infant teacher - wanting to show what they have done, looking for reassurance, asking questions etc.
Parents obviously play an important role in satisfying this need of their child for interest, support, approval and consequently personality and educational development.
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To introduce the pupils to the various routines of school life - how to line up, where to find things in the classroom, how to find the office, what to do at assembly, milk time, interval, etc.. |
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To encourage the children to participate and co-operate in class and group activities - to listen quietly to a story, to sing, to share materials, to take an interest in others and to become aware of themselves as class members. |
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To encourage the child to sustain an interest, to learn to concentrate on learning activities and to accomplish assignments and tasks independently. |
These aims are best achieved by the encouragement and praise of parents and teachers and without stress or pressure, helping children do things for themselves, giving them a sense of responsibility and a feeling of accomplishment.
The school uses the term ‘Language Development’ to describe the complex processes whereby children learn to understand the spoken word, to
express themselves orally and to read and write effectively.At this stage the child is building up a range of words and expressions
he/she hears from everyday contexts and conversations.These provide the essential foundation for later reading and writing development.
The school seeks to offer a range of ‘language experiences’ - stories, poems, songs, centres of interest, classroom discussion to introduce to pupils a rich diet of vocabulary.
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arents have a natural role in complementing this process by talking and listening to their children, by explaining things of interest to them and by encouraging them to read for pleasure.The school uses the reading scheme ‘ Oxford Reading Tree ‘ as a sure and gradual way of teaching reading, supplemented by story books and material from other schemes.
‘ The Oxford Reading Tree ‘ is based on stories about characters with whom children will readily identify. These stories focus on child-centred situations and experiences which are instantly recognisable, such as having a wobbly tooth or losing a favourite toy.
The reading scheme is imaginative and is useful because Art, Craft and language activities arise naturally from the stories.
The class is introduced to the characters through picture storybooks and the children learn the first words from flashcards and posters before being introduced to the reading books.
It is important that the child meets success with reading right from the start and so the scheme should be gradually developed and not hurried.
At this age, reading should be fun, and approached through stories, with the aim of helping a child read a storybook by himself or herself.
Parents are encouraged to participate in helping with reading. They can read the book to the child, discuss the pictures and story and then encourage the child to read, prompting if required, and giving lots of praise.
A separate booklet entitled ‘Reading - A Guide for parents’ provides more
detailed information on how parents can help their children with reading at home.As the year progresses children will be introduced to the sounds of the
letters of the alphabet and how to write them.At the beginning we use the sounds of the letters, not the names, so as not to confuse the child.
After learning the sounds, the children go on to learn how to begin to sound out words for themselves, and this complements the ‘look and say’ approach of learning words by their shapes.
With handwriting, it is important that a good deal of hand-eye co-ordination practice through drawing and other activities precedes the learning of the formation of letters.
Gradually the children learn to form the "lower case" letters and the sounds associated with them.
The letter style adopted at present in the school is as follows:
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It is important to that the children learn to form letters correctly during Primary 1 and 2 as this has benefits later on.
Children often enjoy copying writing, but we feel caution is required as they often develop their own habits of letter formation which can be difficult to change.
We therefore recommend that if children wish to write at home, parents should help their child by encouraging the formation of the letters as shown .
At this stage, children find it easier to express themselves through a
drawing or painting.We place stress on drawing and pictures as an important aid for the child to use in telling a story.
By encouraging lots of detail in the pictures and by asking the child to draw what happened before and after, we are helping children build order and detail into their stories without the handicaps of having to write them down.
The teacher will often ‘scribe’ the child’s comments below the picture as an aid to reading and writing.
Parents can help children in their writing by discussing their child’s drawings and pictures - talking about the detail and perhaps, by scribing titles, names and simple sentences for the child to look at, read and at a later stage begin to copy.
The school uses the Scottish Primary Mathematics Group material published by Heinemann - Stage 1. This material is supplemented by material from other
mathematics schemes and computer software.The accent is on strong conceptual development of mathematical ideas through the use by the children of practical materials - counters, cubes, toy money, shapes etc.
The course is covered by the use of the teacher’s guide which introduces new concepts and ideas. The children go on to use worksheets, cards and a set of pupil workbooks. The course cover:
Colours - red, blue, yellow, green...
Numbers 1 to 10; Counting 1 to 10; Addition and subtraction 1 to 10
Money and coins up to 10p.
Sorting and matching shapes and solids; Pictorial representations
Introducing Length - short, long; Time - Hours o’clock
Where possible the teacher tries to extend the pupil beyond the work given in this course.
Parents can help children with counting small numbers of objects, and matching games like dominoes. Help can be given to learn to form numbers correctly. Simple additions can be carried out in real life situations- How many cups do we need? Construction toys, Lego, are good for concentration and developing spatial awareness.
A wide range of learning activities are available in the classroom for the children to choose from e.g. jigsaws, construction toys, sand, plasticene, listening centre, computer, library corner etc. These offer informal play activities, reinforce hand-eye co-ordination, visual, auditory and tactile perception, language and mathematical development, and also encourage children to work co-operatively and independently.
It is important that all children experience the full range of play activities within the classroom e.g. computer, play house, construction toys etc.
Almost every day the children will get some kind of learning experience through a centre of interest. This may be introduced by a story, a television or radio programme, a visit or visitor, a picture etc. The aim is to provide an interesting context for children’s language experience to be broadened.
Topic studies in Environmental Studies usually last several weeks and provide the vehicle for concepts in Health, Science, Nature Study, History and Geography to be introduced - at an appropriate level for these children.
Some examples of topics are: "People who Help us", "Winter".
Religious and Moral Education is approached in a similar way often by the sharing of a story or discussion of a poster. The weekly infant assemblies complement the classroom work when the infants come together to sing, and listen to and reflect upon a story or topic with a Christian or moral theme.
The natural discussion of a child’s interests at home with parents will contribute to their understanding of their place in the world and the concepts and beliefs which are important to their family.
The children are regularly encouraged to sing and play percussion in the classroom using recorded radio programmes and cassettes. Singing is an important feature of the school assemblies. The visiting music specialist and the class teachers also provide opportunities for singing.
A time is given each week for P.E. during which the pupils learn game and gymnastic skills. The radio programme "Let’s Move" is used for expressive movement to music.
Children receive opportunities in their classroom for a wide variety of art & craft activities e.g. drawing, painting, plasticene, collage, printing.
Home reading should be ideally supported by parents each weekday night. A little written homework on phonics, letter formation and/or mathematics will be
introduced later in the session. It is useful to establish a simple homework
routine at home and parents are encouraged tosupport their child along the lines of the guidance offered in this pamphlet.
More information on the Reading Scheme is available at the Oxford Reading Tree web site at
www.oup.co.uk/oxed/primary/ort