New Term - New Day - New Group

New Term - New Day - New Group

Session 1

This is a larger group, 11 children present, and a wider age range with more very young ones.

The staff asked me to tell in the main classroom, as I had done at the end of last term, because they thought the children were more relaxed in the familiar surroundings.

They certainly were more relaxed, though I am not sure that was a good thing. I like the sense of special occasion created when they have to enter a different space. In their own space they felt relaxed enough to ask questions, demand snacks, play with BumbleBee and remove the stuffing from a cushion to balance little fluffy white clouds on their heads!

All part of my learning curve.

The older ones were paying attention throughout and I must learn not to be distracted by the babies.

I started with Chanticleer & Pertelot because it has lots of appealing soft-toy characters and a bit of drama and animal noises... but the ending is  weak. I must work on that before the next group that I will be meeting after half-term.

Then I told Father Mouse (see my video extract on YouTube http://tinyurl.com/2f9q7bd ) because the puppet works so well... but not, apparently, with very young children. They cannot yet understand the concept of 'puppet' and are not impressed.

I ended the session with Mighty Mouse, using a new, larger and more flexible soft-toy mouse. This worked quite well... partly because the most distracted children had wandered off, but also because the new prop is funnier and more expressive.

Then came a general demand for dinosaur stories next time! I don't know any dinosaur stories... are there any? I will do some research. But I think they will accept a dragon story instead. At least I know they are looking forward to our next session.