Planning Using The Children's Interests

[Guest]

I think this topic is very interesting and has come up in a variety of ways in different threads. As I work on my own I am always very grateful for the advice I get on here. I think it would be very helpful maybe if you were all kind enough to give some examples of what you observe and then how you plan for that. I think it would be really great to share ideas.

 

Home corner was turned into a cinema - so we made popcorn, talked about favourite films, characters, made tickets.

 

Cars - different types of travel, sang the song come for a ride in my little red sports car, travel agents, looked at the globe then this linked in with holidays.

 

Pop up house -mum and dad role play, hotel, campsite, packing travel suitcases.

 

Get the baddies seems very popular - police role play going to extend this into a police station, finger prints. Blow up police car (bargin £2 Asda) became a magic bed- magic bed story, whatever next.

 

Different colours in water tray especially pink and blue were popular great fun estimating with lots of different containers into a very big container, full, empty, half full, how many more,

 

Rainbow fish -feelings, (Peggy's idea with the real fish to look at, touch, draw)

 

I am sure we observe similar things but just would be great to see what others do. I will keep adding

 

Have a great half term everyone. Ger

[Cait]

Thanks for this!

We had children suddenly start playing hairdressers in the home corner this week and this led to using stethoscopes! Whilst a child had her head tipped back to be 'shampooed' in the kitchen sink another child observed her collar bones and asked what they were, so out came the skeleton and we looked at all the bones and they had a good feel of what was where, looking at 'Albert' and then wanted to know where their food went, so we talked about intestines, and after lunch out came the stethoscopes so they could hear their dinners going down! Hairdressers was kind of abandoned for the day! But we got some great PRN from children who aren't normally interested in that kind of thing, counting heartbeats and bones, some KUW obviously and lots of CLL as well as PSE as they showed care for each other! All from some CD roleplay!

Now I just have to write it all up! Ho hum 'have a nice holiday!' the parents always say!

[Guest]

Thanks for this!

We had children suddenly start playing hairdressers in the home corner this week and this led to using stethoscopes! Whilst a child had her head tipped back to be 'shampooed' in the kitchen sink another child observed her collar bones and asked what they were, so out came the skeleton and we looked at all the bones and they had a good feel of what was where, looking at 'Albert' and then wanted to know where their food went, so we talked about intestines, and after lunch out came the stethoscopes so they could hear their dinners going down! Hairdressers was kind of abandoned for the day! But we got some great PRN from children who aren't normally interested in that kind of thing, counting heartbeats and bones, some KUW obviously and lots of CLL as well as PSE as they showed care for each other! All from some CD roleplay!

Now I just have to write it all up! Ho hum 'have a nice holiday!' the parents always say!

 

 

hi ya

 

the other day the children were talking about when they went to the beach- one of the children said his grandad looked like he was floating in the sea. this then led on to an acivity- getting the water tray on the floor- discussing floting and sinking- children had to guess which objects around the class would float or sink and why. children then had this activity out for the rest of the week- finding different objects around the class that may float or sink and writing them on a whiteboard under the correct heading. children loved this activity. we then spoke about filling bottles up with water to amke them sink also.

 

one child said they loved dinosaurs and then all the children said they liked them too. we all planned to make a dinosaur- we discussed what we would use and why and what we wanted it to look like. we planned a sketch on the IWB with everyne's ideas mixed in togther. children then made the dinosaur out of boxes etc and painted it. the dinosaur is now a permanant fixture in our classroom- he has a hole in his belly where the children post letters to him which we read at the end of the day. if the letters are scibbles the dinosaur spits them out but if they are written correctly thining about sounds in words the dinosaur keeps them. this then also led on to my hubby finding dinosaur eggs in the garden at night- paper mache balloons- in a nest. children described the eggs and guessed what the dinosaur would look like when it hatched. a week later the eggs hatched and bits of toilet roll eaten was found round the class- children then spoke about the baby dinosaur- excellent activity which all loved! we then grew cress in cotton wool to be a jungle for the dinosaurs to hide in- children loved this. children were then given playdough to make dinosaur eggs with to put into the jungle x

[Cait]

what do you find best to stick 'junk model' boxes together with? We're currently using masking tape because it gets a more instant result - pva takes soooooo long to stick and things move and frustrate the children. It can also be painted over

[Guest]

Thanks for your replies, it is interesting to see what goes on in other classrooms and how to take their learning forward. One favourite activity recently was when we tied a few boxes together, painted it to make a train and then it became a truck to collect all the animals for the vets. It is great to see the excitement it creates.

[Guest]

We had one child who drew a map to Africa so the home corner became a travel agents we sorted animals into sets looked at patterns on the animals coats, got the globe out and a big world map, filled the tuff tray with sand and animals, glued colourful birds which the names of i forget and played musical instruments.

 

All this came from one little drawing and comment covered lots of development matters for the individual children to

[Sue R]

Your posts are very interesting and illustrate perfectly why it is so important to use the children as your guide.

 

Stick with it!!

 

Sue

[HappyMaz]

There's an excellent article in today's Nursery World about this - haven't read it all but it does give some good case studies about how practitioners have extended and developed children's learning by starting with what the child was interested in. There was a really interesting one in which practitioners realised they weren't looking at the right things when trying to find out what a child was interested in (which turned out to be people and not things!).

 

There's also a good demonstration of how a PLOD planning sheet was used to underpin the setting's use of a child's interest in trains!

 

Maz

[Cait]

Hi Maz!

 

Woo I'll open mine and have a look! Workmen have gone so i'll have a bit a peace! Put the kettle on chuck!

[Guest]

We had a few children who made the community play blocks into a stage - that led to making posters/selling tickets for the shows they're putting on, making masks and costumes. It also led to a musical instrument shop set up, and a refreshments stand.

Of course, I have to sit there in the audience from time to time, smile, nod and clap a "beat" to some rather strange versions of well known songs...