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We have continuos provision available in workshop areas for the children to freely access.

 

Our children aged 2-5 (4) are altogether "free play"- as "strongly" suggested by our area early years

advisor.

Do you have group time where you split your children into "funded and non funded" and do you do any targeted learning in these times?

 

Does anyone have any planning sheets they can share on the "planned" part of your weekly learning as Im going round in HUGE circles!

 

thanks

 

sharon

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our 4 yr olds have a group every day and the others from 2 1/2 - 4 are in mixed grou;s and staff do activities that can be simplified or extended depending on the children in thier group - works well. :o

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Hi Sharon,

 

We are based in a village hall and due to having to pack away, the children do sit down at various times. For our circle time, we have 3 groups, 1 group is mainly for children at around the age of 2 - 8months, who will only sit down if they have an activity they can feel touch and become involved - another group are able to sit but again they need to be in a group of around 7 at the most and the other group are mainly around 3 1/2 - 4.

 

All activities have a learning aim and are linked to either an aspecp of our learning or linked to our focus activity - we do have circle time outside as much as we can as well. However, we do use this time to re-enforce learning rather than treating this time as a "focused activithy time".

 

For story time, we only have two adults available, as other staff are having to move tables - we ensure that big books are used and puppets. Our continuous provision and focused activities are available to all children throughtout the session no matter what age they are and the adults adapt and extends.

 

 

We are also using the planned "focus Activity sheets" found on the EYFS CD - just started to try these out this week

 

Hope this helps a bit. Dot

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We have a Key group time, when the key person takes their group and does an activity. The key groups are sorted so that children going to school the following year are together and the younger ones are together. We have 6 key groups, 4 older, 2 younger. The key persons pair up and take both groups and do one of the planned key group activities, this is one of the following every day:

 

Circle time

Music (in the music room)

PE

Letters and sounds/Listening

Out and about (in big play ground/adventure playground/wildlife area/allotment

 

They are alternated so you don't do the same thing twice per week and you don't do the same activity on the same day ie if you do music on the Monday, the following week you do it on a Thursday, to ensure all children get a go at everything as some of ours only come twice a week.

 

I hope that make some sort of sense!!!! As for planning, I am currently using a format that just isn't working for anyone (me staff or children) :o so am trying to devise a new one. Will let you know how I am getting on in a few weeks when I have tested it!!!!!!

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We have a Key group time, when the key person takes their group and does an activity. The key groups are sorted so that children going to school the following year are together and the younger ones are together. We have 6 key groups, 4 older, 2 younger. The key persons pair up and take both groups and do one of the planned key group activities, this is one of the following every day:

 

Circle time

Music (in the music room)

PE

Letters and sounds/Listening

Out and about (in big play ground/adventure playground/wildlife area/allotment

 

They are alternated so you don't do the same thing twice per week and you don't do the same activity on the same day ie if you do music on the Monday, the following week you do it on a Thursday, to ensure all children get a go at everything as some of ours only come twice a week.

 

I hope that make some sort of sense!!!! As for planning, I am currently using a format that just isn't working for anyone (me staff or children) :o so am trying to devise a new one. Will let you know how I am getting on in a few weeks when I have tested it!!!!!!

 

hi

I am interested in how this works in practice, do you have a set time in the day (morn or afternoon?) when you do the activities, do you have anything written down to say what you will be doing for each activity? how do u ensure all children get a chance at taking part in each activity as u say u rotate it each week but im just thinking in my setting some children do one or two afternoons or mornigns only.

 

im starting new preschool role next mon and am wondering how to fit everything in, would like to have as much interupted free play time as possible but am aware have to have some cirlce times and do letter and sound activities.

 

can anybody share a routine with me???

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We too have trouble fitting everything in!! Only today did we have a conversation at work about best we can fit things in.

 

This is what we are currently trialling:

9am open and registration

9.15 - free play + activity continuous to 10.30

9.30 - snack bar opens

10.30 - snack bar shuts

10.30 - 10.50 key group time

10.50 - 11.15 free play

11.15 - tidy uptime

11.25 - Song time and story time

11.40 - book bags

11.45 - home time

 

I say that everyone gets to do the activity, what I mean is the key groups do the 5 different activities each week, the following week they do them in a different order. So if 'Jimmy' comes in only on a Monday it would take him 5 weeks to do all the 5 activities.

 

The activities are different every week and we do have a written plan for each one, but they are flexible, and there is a large section to evaluate and loads of crossings out etc. All the activities are differentiated so they are suitable for 21/2 - oldest child. They are planned for every Friday when looking at next step observations and evaluations of previous weeks.

 

I feel at the moment that children are getting enough free play 1 hour 40 mins per day. Which is a lot more then they were getting, probably about 1 hour 10 mins. But it is all about what works for you and your setting. This is working quite well at the moment, but it will be much harder in september with the new intake!!! There again everything is much harder with the new in take! :o

Hope this makes a little sense!!

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makes sense! thanks for sharing

 

do you have other focus activities as well or just the key group activities?

 

we plan 5 activiites per week based on observations of children, 3 or 4 directly from observations and childrens interests and one or two adult inititiated, so to then plan more activities based around pe, music and the others u listed would be too much paperwork.

 

im sure il figure it all out and what works best for me n my staff n children

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What i can get my head around is how do we how this planning on paper? I have a box file of paperwork - we cant seem to get it right!!!

Can anyone just list the planning forms they use monthly weekly termly whatever! and their purpose please!

 

Do you have learning intentions for all activities out?

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exactly, we can say that things just happen as we go along and things like the letters and sounds are met during everyday but im sure ofsted and parents would want to see where and how, thats were im getting confused as to what to record/plan for

 

we have a mid term plan which we write our adult led activities on that we would like to do and fesitival ideas

a weekly learning opportunities, which lists what activities we are to do for that week, usually 5, based on observations.

then for each of the 5 activities we have a short term plan which states how we will differentiate and resources needed as well as evaluation for after activity

 

is quite alot of paperwork to do, so would not want to plan for "keygroup" time too but it does sound like a good idea to have some kind of small group time to do the l&S activities or music or cirle time.

 

confusing!!

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