Guest Posted July 2, 2004 Posted July 2, 2004 Hi, I think this site is great. I am an Early years coordinator in charge of 2 pre school classes and 3 reception classes. We operate a free flow system for 1 hour each day. We are moving to a new school which is bigger and i would like some ideas on how we could use the central area. At the moment we have been using it as a construction area, but it gets very noisy and takes ages for the children to pick things up and put them back in the correct place. I want it to be an exciting area, any ideas would be great.
Sue R Posted July 2, 2004 Posted July 2, 2004 Hi there and welcome in, rocket! As for your query - um, will have a think! Sue
Susan Posted July 2, 2004 Posted July 2, 2004 hi Rocket, welcome aboard. Sounds like an exciting proposition. Could you make this your creative area with art, music, dancing, role play activities. Some things could be permanent (role play& music perhaps) but others could vary, art and dancing? I think it will actually depend on how and what you anticipate happening in your free flow time and how the rest of your provision is set up. Can you not increase the free flow time? That might help you utilise the area to its best. Also how big is it and what is the floor covering? You won't want to paint on a carpetted area or have sand and water there! Perhaps its not very big and doesn't lend itself to a variety of activities either? If the children free flow you are accomplishing quite alot. I couldn't get the children away from the security of the adults they knew or persuade the other staff to let go enough to let the children flow, there was a fear of not knowing what thaey were doing. We had 90 children in 3 large room with a connecting space between 2 rooms that also needed to be available for the rest of the school, so it was quite difficult. In the end we had to abandon the idea because children just weren't accessing enough variety and the provision rather than being enhanced was actually very limited, needlessly so!
Beau Posted July 2, 2004 Posted July 2, 2004 Welcome Rocket, Its great to see people plunging in with their first post when they've been lurking in the background for a while. You're in good company - we all think this site is great but I'm sure Steve and Helen never tire of hearing it said! I'm in a playgroup with 10 children so don't think I'll be of much use to you. Thats a lot of children 'free flowing'!! I'm sure others would be interested to hear how you go about managing the session.
Helen Posted July 2, 2004 Posted July 2, 2004 Hi Rocket and thank you for making your first post. I saw an infant school where they had set up the central area as the quiet section; lovely book displays, funky cushions and child-sized sofas. It had a beautiful high glass ceiling with loads of floaty mobiles which really gave an air of peace and tranquillity. It was a bit like a roundabout, with this area right in the centre, and a walkway all the way round, leading into the separate classes. That way, the children who were in the centre, sharing books, listening to tapes, drawing/colouring, using the puppets, etc, were not disturbed by the traffic. I wonder if that would work with pre-school and reception children? Your funds may not stretch to such an elaborate bit of architecture, but you might be able to take elements of the design.
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