It can be hard to believe that we are heading into Term 3 with Senior Infants. They are really growing up and ready to make the transition to First Class and the longer day at school.
Senior Infants will also have to prepare for their big jump into First Class. They will be expected to work independently for longer periods of time. If they are in a multi-grade classroom Classroom Screen might be a handy resource for visual reminders for working quietly and for a traffic light system to reduce interruptions.
There are also lots of different assessment you could do to build a profile of the children in your class before the end of the year.
The NEPS resource pack for Effective Interventions is a fantastic resource for infant teachers and even teachers in first class. The checklists begin on page 18, there are checklists for the first and second 100 Dolch words. In my own class I had one A3 copy for the children to read from and an A4 copy for each child to record their progress. As they read the words I highlighted the words they knew. The next time I assessed them I would use a different colour highlighter. It was an effective way to record their progress over a couple of months.
Another reading assessment that is free is the Schonell Reading Test. A copy of this test can be downloaded from Seomra Ranga. Children can read through the list of words and then once they have read 10 consecutive words incorrectly you can stop. The number of words read correctly is an indicator of their reading age as listed here. While it is an older test, it can be used to identify reading ages but it does not give an indicator of comprehension levels. However for Senior infants going into First Class it might be useful to identify reading groups or levels for graded readers.
For maths, you could complete the assessments that are linked to the scheme that is in use in your school. Some of these book schemes also include detailed checklists which represent areas of the book linked with the current 1999 curriculum. Further checklists are also available on Twinkl (subscription required).
If you have any questions on the above assessment methods or can recommend any other assessment for Senior Infants. Please send me a PM/Email.
A.M.
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