Susan Posted December 5, 2004 Posted December 5, 2004 HI curly carly, I'm not working in an FS unit but always interested to see what others do. This looks really comprehensive to me and I could plan like this but how do you know when you are doing what. Your plans seem to be for 2 weeks so do you have a timetable that allows you to pace yourself through this or do you plan daily from where the children are?
Guest Posted December 12, 2004 Posted December 12, 2004 Hi Cazza and Susan, Sorry I haven't been on in a while...busy time of year and all that! The day is completely free flow play except for a short circle time at the end of each session - so once the children have tidied up we come together for a story or singing. Numeracy and Literacy sessions are done in small groups throughout the day in a quiet corridor we have away from the hustle and bustle! And as far as recording what the other children get up to we always have post-its handy for doing snapshot observations of the children - which we then transfer directly into their Record of Achievements and then use this to complete the Profile. Sporadically we also do a long observation of around 5 mins perhaps once each half term on each child. The adult then also marks down on the planning sheets which bit they have done that day, any extensions and a short evaluation if the children have had any bright ideas so that the next member of staff can either continue the activity (starting where they left off) or start a new one. We use comments from the previous day to inform what activites we make available the next, if the children have taken the activity off on a tangent then we run with it!!!! - making sure we mark it down on the plans. We try to get through as much as possible over the two weeks, but sometimes it's just not possible and it then gets carried over onto the next two-week block along with any child-initiated extensions or activities that have been noted. Hope that makes sense! Hope everyone is well and enjoying the festive frolics in their settings!
Guest Posted December 15, 2004 Posted December 15, 2004 Hi Curly Carly, I really like the idea of a 2 week cycle. Thanks for sharing your plans, I've printed them off to read when I have more time How long are your weekly planning sessions? We only have an hour with the whole team so we only ever scrape the surface. Do you type it there and then or take it home?
Guest Posted December 16, 2004 Posted December 16, 2004 We probably only spend an hour or so planning, there's four of us who do it together though and once the ideas start flowing we usually end up with more than enough to be going on with. We also try to make it as child-initiated as possible, so really try and draw on what the kids have come up with during the past fortnight and carry on with that! Myself and the other teacher jot down notes and then take it home and pad it out with extension activities and the like - one of us will plan for the CLL and MD Reception stuff and the other the supported activities in the main rooms. How do you do things at your place?
Guest Posted December 29, 2004 Posted December 29, 2004 I find planning the hardest bit-I really like the sound of how you do yours on a 2 week cycle CurlyCarly and the way you focus on child initiated-have you got any examples of how you use this in your planning? I'd like to work more like that. We have a weekly planning meeting for an hour with all staff where we decide what is going to happen in each area. I know we're supposed to start with the objectives first but we do it the other way around! Me and the nursery teacher then do our 'group time' plans at home. I'd prefer to just get ideas at the meeting and then pad it all out at home but its really difficult as there are so many variables. Because we have to stick to the rota of who is in which area (can't think of any other way of doing it) we have to take this into account when planning. I found it so much easier when I just planned for me and a TA. We haven't done our planning for the first week back so I just want to decide what the adults who work with the reception children will be doing. This is ok for areas 1 and 2 as only one adult is focusing at a time but in area 3 we have 2 adults focusing so I can't plan the literacy for definite as the nusery staff may need to use the writing area at the same time as us! I know the key is to be flexible when you work as a team but its really hard! Our other problem is that not all the team have their heart in it which can be really disheartening and 2 of the TAs have no qualifications and aren't used to planning and the need to write down objectives/differentiation Feeling a bit sorry for myself aren't I? Sorry-must be the post xmas blues!
SmileyPR Posted February 10, 2005 Posted February 10, 2005 So far the weekly plans are working ok, hopefully ofsted will like them! Hi Kavmar! At last I am able to become a FSF member and I am so happy! I opened the attachment you posted, but it only had the Nursery Teacher led-activity, not the Reception one. Could you kindly please post the one of Reception? Thanks in advance!
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