Teach Primary Issue 18.5

50 | www.teachwire.net Judith Harries gets children looking forward to all the possibilities of autumn term T hese activities – ideal for Transition Day – are a great way to encourage children to reflect on this academic year and look forward to the exciting challenges that the next one might bring. Begin by asking children to fill in the ‘favourite things’ worksheet ( tinyurl.com/tp-Favourite ) , answering the questions and writing their memories in the shapes provided. This will get them in a reflective mood and stimulate ideas for the following activities. Remember you are… Provide children with some mini stationery, e.g. A5 lined writing paper and an envelope. Ask pupils to write a letter to themselves about what they are proud of achieving over the last week, month or year. When they’re done, add your own note to each child's envelope reminding them of something they achieved this school year. The children can open the letters in their new class to help them feel recognised and more confident. Selfie postcard Invite children to write a postcard to send to their new teacher. Ask pupils to describe the things they have enjoyed about the last year. Use the ‘favourite things’ activity as a prompt. What were their highlights? Encourage them to tell the teacher what they are looking forward to next year. Children moving from KS1 to KS2 may be particularly looking forward to activities such as swimming, learning musical instruments, or playing on a different playground. Or they might just be looking forward to playing with their friends. You might want to provide photo prompts for some activities. Have children decorate the picture side of the postcard with a ‘selfie’, and pictures of some of the things they're looking forward to doing next year. Wishes jar Start a ‘wishes jar’ with the children. Use a screw-top jar and provide small squares of coloured paper. Encourage children to write down ideas of what they are looking forward to doing next year, or in the nearer future, and post them into the jar. These could be read at carpet time to help the children talk about next year. Contributions might include things they want to do, people they want to see, places they want to go, and so on. Some children might benefit from writing frames with sentence starters on them such as: I am excited about… , I would like to try… , I am worried about… , I would like to improve… This idea can also be adapted into a ‘worry jar’ for children to share worries or anxieties about the future, which can be kept anonymous. What am I looking forward to… Try making up a song to the tune of What Shall We Do with the Drunken Sailor: What am I looking forward to now? (x3) When I’m in Year 1/2/3? I want to ……………… (x3) When I’m in Year 1/2/3! If you’re looking forward to… Introduce this fun circle game to the children. Invite them to sit or stand in a circle. Repeat the refrain “If you’re looking forward to __________, next year, swap places.” Each time, the children must move into a different place in the circle. Add different ideas in the gap. Try these ideas: going swimming, riding my scooter to school, using the climbing apparatus, doing harder maths. Can the children think of an idea to put in the gap? Looking-forward telescopes Make some ‘looking-forward telescopes’ by decorating cardboard tubes from paper towels or wrapping paper. Provide some small paper circles for children to draw what they see through the telescope. Is there something exciting happening at school or home that they could draw? What are you looking forward to when you grow up? Finally, children sometimes enjoy looking further forward, to when they will be grown up. Talk about different types of jobs that their parents or grandparents do. Play the drama game ‘What’s my line?’. Sit in a circle and invite children to mime doing different jobs for the others to guess. TP Coming UP NEXT... Judith Harries is an experienced early years and primary school teacher. She specialises in teaching music and drama and creates educational content for a variety of publications. THE B I G SUMMER S END - OF F