Reading books order after The Storm ORT?

[Iamnotminterested]

Just that. Floppy has found the key and friend wants to know which books come next; I can't remember (or have I erased them from my memory?)

[simpson]

Oh so should numbers 1-9 not be used at all?

[simpson]

And I am sure DD's teacher talked about 15 areas, not 17....

[mrz]

There are only 7 areas of learning

The 3 prime areas are communication and language; physical development; and personal, social and emotional development.

plus 4 specific areas

? literacy;
? mathematics;
? understanding the world; and
? expressive arts and design.

[Periwinkle007]

We haven't been given any idea yet in terms of numbers for EYFS or NC levels. I assume we will get some sort of mention at the end of the summer term.

some list appeared in the reading diaries recently which said she was at 40-60% for reading but given she reads chapter books fluently I have no idea what this is in relation to.

I am anticipating her coming out as average to slightly above average but personally I would say she started reception (having missed last year's intake by a couple of days because she was born so overdue) at above average and just hasn't been taught anything ACADEMIC that she didn't know back in september. She has however learned group work, speaking in front of people, culture, topics etc so she has learned other things. I just think it is a shame that she would happily have done proper maths, writing more stories (she writes books at home), geography (she can point to lots of countries on a globe and tell you things about them) etc.

[mrz]

40-60 months developmental stage perhaps?

[mrz]

sorry i missed off the + it's 40-60+ months

[Periwinkle007]

ah that would make more sense - thanks. I did like the wording they used to use in the EYFS about up to 5, no mention of the poor kids who are already 5 when they start in reception. at least 60+ months includes them too.

[Periwinkle007]

I think the new categories are much better than grading 1-9. much easier for teachers to know whether someone is one or another rather than trying to work out if they are a 7 or an 8 for example and I don't think as parents we need an exact number, just are they where they should be, slightly behind or slightly ahead.

[mrz]

The old EYFS also had the 60+ months category to be fair.

I think lots of teachers are struggling with the new profile because it is so subjective and the results of the pilot studies shows fewer children meeting the "good level of development" level than with the old profile.

[Periwinkle007]

did it? oh, on all the photocopies/leaflets from the EYFS that we were given all just said 'up to 5, up to their 5th birthday' etc. it was the introductory documents and they weren't produced by the school, we had the same wording on the ones from a separate preschool.


thats funny though because on the surface of it it seems it should be less subjective than trying to finely grade children but then I didn't read it in a lot of detail. I am just relieved that in 4 terms time both my children will be through it. I still personally am not sure why there is a need for an EYFS to be honest. kids used to manage perfectly well without one for preschools and reception could just be included as early entry KS1 stuff

[mrz]

The new ELGs are so broad and teachers are expected to make a judgement of "emerging" "expected" or "exceeding"

[Periwinkle007]

oh I see. from one extreme to the other then. I do wonder who comes up with all these things. My mum is relieved she got out of teaching when she did...

[simpson]

I wonder if that is why DD's school are still using the old one...

Periwinkle - your DD sounds like mine, she is into pointing to countries on the globe too and I think she is ready for more "academic" work certainly wrt reading and writing.

Numeracy she is pretty bog standard

[mrz]

they reduced the number of ELGs from 117 to 17 but they just incorporated the old ones into much broader new ones

[Periwinkle007]

yes I think she is. today she has written a story about an elephant called Alice. not sure what this elephant was doing but it did involve a vacuum cleaner and a feather duster! Maths - she used to be good at that too, subtraction in her head before she turned 3. then they told her at preschool she has to use her fingers and now at school she has to use a numberline and she has ended up all confused and now can't seem to do any maths at all half the time.

She definitely has a fascination for other countries and cultures, travel, nature, science. everything really which is brilliant. Am just ordering these books for her
www.thebookpeople.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/qs_product_tbp?storeId=10001&catalogId=10051&langId=100&productId=300985

[simpson]

DD wrote a story yesterday about a cat who couldn't sleep and no adults were allowed to put the cat to bed!!!

She can add ok (with or without a number line - but she has not used a number line at school yet) but subtraction is tougher for her...

Can't open your link, sorry Anything to get DD reading non fiction would be helpful!!

[Periwinkle007]

oh sorry - perhaps it is because it is a link to buy something. if you go to the Book People website and search for The Nature Year Collection. it is a set of 12 books, one for each month about nature around the world, so autumn in New England, badgers getting ready for winter.

They aren't reading books but I don't think that matters. they say age 7+ so I think they will be pitched at the right sort of level. Illustrations rather than photos I think but one of the covers shows salmon leaping and that kind of thing so they sound interesting.

My daughter loves the usborne beginners non fiction books, they are nice and simple - supposedly level 8 or 9 reading band depending on the title and the pictures are good. She is far more interested in non fiction than fiction. in fact she has just begged me to buy her the spider one! (I HATE spiders but have tried so hard not to let the girls realise that and she thinks they are fantastic!)

[simpson]

DD seems to be the opposite and loves reading Flat Stanley, Roald Dahl, Rainbow Fairies etc.

We have some non fiction books (a set of 40 My Animal Kingdon books for £5 from a charity shop) and she will not touch them....

Will check out the book people though

[Periwinkle007]

We haven't got anywhere with Flat Stanley or Roald Dahl. She likes the Rainbow Fairies but I think she is much more confident with the early reader ones rather than full blown chapter books. I don't think she likes being parted from colour pictures. I found a reading book from when I was at school (a wide rangers green one? think thats right) and she was horrified at just how boring it was to look at. I have lots of books for her when she DOES feel ready for them, my parents kept almost all our books in their loft and they have been transferred to ours so a mix of Enid Blyton of all sorts, Roald Dahl, The Bullerby Children, all the old ones and then Rainbow Fairies, humphrey the hampster, Mammoth Academy, Tilly Tiptoes among others that Grandma has bought for her for when she wants them. our house is full of books but then I know that when she does start reading them they can work their way through them so quickly and we have 2 daughters and then a niece as well so they won't be wasted.

Book people prices are so good. they have a mermaid set at the moment - 12 books for £9.99 I think. Thats where I get most of the birthday presents for classmates from.

[learnandsay]

Periwinkle, do you know what specifically is confusing your daughter when she uses number squares and number lines? My daughter flips between abacus, fingers and counting in her head. (She can't use number squares and number lines on her own but she can if she's supervised.)

[learnandsay]

Number squares and lines are abstract concepts, albeit simple ones. My daughter hasn't really got the concept of units, tens and so forth. So she needs to be spoonfed on squares & lines.

[Periwinkle007]

my daughter was more than happy in her head and now she is being told that is wrong and you HAVE to count it along a number line. so I think she is now thinking it must all be harder than it actually is.

so say I said to her 'if I had 10 sweets and you ate 3, how many would be left?' she was instantly able to answer 7 before she turned 3. NOW however she starts faffing with her fingers saying 'I have to use my hands and count back 3' it is ridiculous. It might help some children but she had kind of bypassed that stage with no problem but now thinks that is what you have to do so it slows her down. I am not sure whether to tell her you don't have to do that just do it however it is easier for her or let school do it their way. We had the same thing with phonics. she was upset one day because they asked her to do her reading and she missed being taught 'o' and was saying she would never know how to read o and she therefore would never learn to read. I was puzzled and said 'but you already know o, you are reading level 5 books' and it turned out she thought they had to learn the actions and didn't realise they were learning the actions in order to learn how to read.

[mrz]

young children need to use concrete manipulatives (like an abacus) to develop number concepts
I would use a bead string or counting stick
www.tts-group.co.uk/shops/tts/Products/PD1723260/50-Bead-String/?rguid=bfa55b90-e294-44cc-853f-941d9538e457

[learnandsay]

I think you need to have a word with the teacher then. Are you saying that she can do the sum perfectly well without the squares and lines but when she uses them she gets it wrong? (And are you positive?) If that's true then it's not right and the teacher needs to take a step back. Teachers shouldn't be confusing children and taking away their existing abilities.

[Taffeta]

My DD finally "got" the number square concept today, having had practice with it with me at home for the last year, as well as using it at school.

I've tried to show her a million times how its made up, ie subtract 10 go up a level, so subtract 9 do it diagonally upwards etc. I must have shown her this 100 times but its never, ever gone in. Until today. We have done no Maths at home for about 2 weeks ( I have been doing extra with her at home as she was behind last year ) and today, with no prompting, when asked to minus 9 went diagonally up instead of counting out, and did the same and counted on one with 8. I was open mouthed. And it led me to think again with DD that she gets it when she gets it, not when I want her to get it.