Focused ICT activity

My lesson plan will have to wait, just remembered i didn't blog anything about the ICT used in Nursery this week.
This is the first time since September that the children have used the computer for a focused activity so i was really pleased the teacher asked me to carry out the activity. The learning objective was to see if the children could add the correct number of objects to a night scene, this been 3 objects. ( Our topic this term is day and night). The activity was carried out using Tizzy and the first step for the children was to be able to create a black background. Some children were able to carry this out independantly, others could choose the black colour but needed support on which ICON would enable the whole screen to be filled at the same time and then there were others who had no clue how to even highlight the correct colour. Approx half the class needed lots of support, with most of these children having very poor mouse control and knowledge of what the mouse did. After the screen was coloured black or dark blue they then had to add 3 planets. Again a couple could do on there own and knew which ICON was used for the pictures, but for most of the class i needed to show them which it was and how to be able to scroll down etc to find the picture they needed. Some of those with good mouse control and understanding of number could do this with ease. However, some children who can count objects with ease normally and have a good understanding of how many, struggled as they didn't have good control of the mouse or didn't feel confident using it. There were also children who were able to use the computer confidently but were unable to add the correct number of objects.It was great carrying out this activity individually as it gave clear evidence of who could do what and will enable the teacher to use these observations in future planning. It  also opened my eyes to the differing degrees of knowledge that all the children have.  One little girl even looked at me nervously and said can you help me! She had no knowldge of how to use the computer and didn't even know the name for the mouse. Thats when it struck me that how would she know if nobody had told her or explained what it was for. It made me aware of the importance of ensuring i use the correct terminology and giving the children correct instructions. I hope the children were able to take something away from that lesson because i certainly did.


Crikey, i am getting good. Even managed to add some photos of the children doing the activity. Right really must get on with my lesson plan now.