And two days in Nursery...

My first week as a supply teacher was quite a lot of work... after a day of recovery on Wednesday after my big day in Reception, I was called in the evening asking me for the following days, in Nursery.  After discussing with the Deputy Headteacher that I'm technically not trained in Early Years, agreed that I was prepared to give it a go... and because of some long standing plans went out for dinner, coincidentally with some teachers from the school.

The Librarian who had invited me to go along said to the other teachers, that she'd invited me along because she knew that over time I'd be part of staff anyway... but funny enough, and quite reassuringly actually, two of the four Nursery teachers were there, and when I said that I was going to be at school again tomorrow in Nursery it prompted a lot of speculation about which teacher was missing (which I didn't know).

Arriving at school on Thursday morning, found out which class I had, and also was lucky enough to have support from a Mandarin co-teacher that I knew, as she had been my daughter's Mandarin teacher two years earlier.  She was so capable with the routines, and because of the young age of the children helped so much with reassuring them that everything was fine, even with this strange new teacher - me.

The absent teacher had left a nice activity for the children to do, and it is quite well managed as the children have the flexibility to choose when they do it, and then can do other activities around the classroom.  There are trainsets and dollhouses, a home corner, blocks, a book nook and puzzles to choose from.  The children can just help themselves to find whichever toy they would like to use, and the children see what other children are playing with and then float between the different activities.

The activity we did on Thursday was gluing the penguin (we were the Penguin class) lifecycle on a piece of card.  The children had to take an egg, a chick and an adult and put them in order.  But they could almost go anywhere, and you could work the order out!

Moving the children around the school was tricky, keeping them walking together, and in the same direction, and quiet. Over the two days they had choir and library, both of them are upstairs, and that was a challenge.  Library was tricky too because they have to take their shoes off... But lots of time is spent shepherding them around, in and out of the playground, in and out of the lunch hall, don't forget your hat...

On Friday, the teacher had left no planning, so I did a collage activity to make a flower, and then had them draw a flower on a similar size page, then stuck them side by side on a piece of card.  The end result was lovely, ability levels varied significantly, but they did look really good!!

After lunch each day, the Nursery children have an hour of scheduled quiet time.  While the children are in the playground, the class ayi lies out mats, each with a pillow and a blanket, closes the curtains and turns off the main lights.  The children come in from the playground, wash their hands, take off their shoes, have a drink of water and then lie down on the mats, and listen to some soothing music.  Some children fall asleep straight away, and others take a bit of persuasion, but on the two days, 14 out of 15 children slept soundly for at least 30 mins. Once asleep they looked just beautiful, with such an innocence, losing all self consciousness, they slept so contentedly.  As each one finally dropped off, we tucked their blankets around them and let them rest.

Waking up was gentle too, opening the curtains and letting just the sunlight slowly filter in. They then played or had a snack and then it was time for the last clean up of the day and a story before they were picked up.

I was initially terrified of the thought of teaching Nursery, but they were sweet kids, I'd do it again!

Supply Teaching

At 6.45 this morning I was lying in bed preparing my kids about getting up and getting ready for school, when my mobile rang, with a local, but unrecognised number... I answered somewhat suspiciously after all who would call me at that time?  Oh - welcome to the life of a supply teacher!  It was the Headteacher at my kids school, wanting me to teach a Reception class for the day.  After confirming it was not my daughter's class I didn't hesitate, and accepted straight away - I didn't ask any questions - what time? what responsibilities? etc.  Just immediately sprang into action, showered, dressed, made lunches, packed bags, collected stuff that I might need, downloaded age appropriate music to my iPod (OK - my husband did that!), breakfasted, dressed the kids, loaded the buggy and set off, by 7.45am.  On the way, I texted a collection of people to rearrange plans for the day.

Got to school, and dropped off my son's stuff in his classroom, but kept him with me, then my daughter's stuff in her classroom and dropped her off in the playground.  Then five minutes before the bell rang, dropped my son off in his classroom and went to collect Reception Barn Owls.

'Who are you?', 'Where's Miss A?', 'Why?' and took them inside and asked them to sit in a circle on the floor.  I introduced myself and then played a circle game to learn all the kids names.  Four had been in my daughter's class last year, and one is the son of a friend of mine, so there were only ten to learn. One had lost a tooth, so he was easy to remember.

The teacher had left a great plan, which was really easy to follow.  Started off with some sounds for the letters, S, M, A and T.  The kids, who are 4-5 years old, came up with some great words. In small groups we went on a Sound Walk, listening carefully to the sounds we could hear around the school - the bubbles gurgling in the fish tank, the bell like sound when you stamped on the drain, the hum of the air conditioner, a car driving by going 'vrooom', children talking and walking and crickets screeching.  The children drew some pictures to describe what they heard, but it was a bit tricky as they were using clipboards and sometimes standing up.

I had to teach PE, and in my emergency teaching kit, I had my iPod and some speakers... we played musical statues and Simon Says, and then played with a parachute and some balls.  The kids shrieked with delight when they could run under the parachute and hold each handle.

At break and lunch, each time my daughter saw me, she sneaked up and gave me a cuddle, or took my hand.  I think it was quite novel for her to have me around all day!

At the end of the day, they had a fruit snack and then after packing their bags ready to go home. I read them 'The Gruffalo'.  I love this story, and can think of so many learning activities to build on from this book.  Today it was just the end of the day story though.

After all the kids had gone, my daughter was delivered to my classroom by her Mandarin teacher.  And we went home together, after our day in Reception.

I came home, exhausted.  Had dinner home delivered...