I've been mantling with my new reception/year 1 class for a total of seven sessions, which is probably why I haven't got it quite right yet. This doesn't stop me continually wondering what the problem is and how I'm going to solve it.
The story so far:
Chapter 1: The children created a hedgehog who they discovered was lost and alone because it's woodland had been destroyed. Luckily, Percy the Park Keeper found it.
Chapter 2: The children visited the woodland and found lots more animals that had no homes because of the destruction that was happening. They decided to make new homes for the animals, which turned into creating a representation of a woodland.
Chapter 3: Percy appealed for help: the woodland was far too big for him to manage alone. The children became Park Keepers.
Chapter 4: Percy had too many jobs on his to-do list and so the children helped with the final one: counting the animals in the woodland using animal tracks and other signs they found.
The children were happily being drawn in to each session, but I wasn't sure I was happy with what was happening after that; while some were remaining invested, others were just losing interest almost immediately.
It was after Chapter 4 that I contacted a MoE colleague of mine (@LucyCoatesReay) and asked for her advice. She has been using MoE in Reception for a year and does a wonderful job. She suggested that I try to introduce a bit more of a mystery or a little danger; so the next session looked like this.
Chapter 5: I had an envelope on the floor labelled 'To Park Keepers' with a red 'Top Secret' sign on it.
Inside was a letter from Percy saying he'd spotted something odd in the woods and needed our help. There were also some unclear photos of different parts of a gruffalo. I passed the photos around and every child was interested. They identified that this was a gruffalo and were keen to find it.
We went to the woods (we agreed that our outdoor grassy area would represent the woods) where we found gruffalo poo (mud + PVA glue + water) and other signs that the children decided were there, such as a footprint, X marks the spot, some destroyed equipment... ( in hindsight I should have made a few more clues for them to find). Despite a few children hearing the gruffalo and claiming to have seen it, in the end we agreed we hadn't actually caught it.
Chapter 6: In role as Percy I expressed my concern that a gruffalo was in the woods because it was causing so much destruction. I asked for the Park Keepers' help and they came up with ideas. I stepped back out of role and invited the children to draw their ideas on paper (in an attempt to focus them a bit). We then went outside 'into the woods' where the children made humane traps, gathered water for the gruffalo and made cakes to tempt it. I particularly remember one boy who had previously laid down on a beanbag for a whole session spending this session mixing gruffalo cakes and talking about the gruffalo for about 45 minutes.
Chapter 7: I didn't plan a session; instead, I just put a small soft toy gruffalo (with a considerable amount of previous mantle experience) into one of the traps. Sure enough, within a few minutes of the children going out to being their child led learning (and just as I was trying to have a conversation with an unexpected visiting SALT teacher) they ran in shouting they'd caught a gruffalo.
This mantle is not going where I intended it to, however, the children are much more invested in it at the moment and I'm working out ways to bring the woodland animals, and in particular hedgehogs, back into it.
Next: how to get a bit more out of the Year 1 children with some more careful mantle planning.
Comments
Post a Comment