Has it only been two weeks since we went back to school?
To me and some of my teacher friends it seems like a lot longer, and summer vacation seems like a dark and distant dream. I decided to put one of my vacation photos on my computer as a screen saver to remind myself how relaxed I was on vacation. I am also trying to stay calm as we get acquainted with the new curriculum, the SEN changes, and the new kids in the class.
Planning my maths lessons is interesting because I have a mixed Year 1 and Year 2 class with Year 1 on the new syllabus and Year 2 on the old one. I have been using Nrich to help make my lessons fun. It’s a great website full of brilliant activities to help teachers, as they say, ‘incorporate rich math tasks into daily classroom practice’. I love quote on Nrich website home page
“Life is too short for long divisions.“
I have been looking at the new Key Stage 1 math sample questions, markschemes and comments for the 2016 assessments. They are on the government website and are published by the Testing and Standards Agency. One of the questions is:
¾ of 20 =
Personally, I think it’s a challenge for 7 year olds.
Thank goodness there isn’t a new phonics curriculum either! With all the changes in the syllabus, at least the phonics stays the same and I’m enjoying not having to re-plan everything for that.