Targets (and A Few Other Questions)

[green hippo]

Hi everyone,

My head's been spinning this weekend with our Nursery planning etc since I went on that planning course on Thursday. I have a few questions which I'm sure someone can help me with (not sure whether I should include them in the same thread?). I apologise if I've asked these questions before but I'm still unsure if I'm doing things completely 'right'!

 

1. Currently, I am planning in the medium term, choosing learning intentions which relate to the whole class (the next steps for the class in general) and include any gaps from last half-term I have no pre-set coverage of aspects. Right or wrong?

 

2. I then plan weekly - I tend to plan 1 focus per day but change as necessary. The learning intentions (for focused activities) are then decided upon from a mixture of what was identified in the medium term plan and what our observations from the previous week show us (and sometimes from the next steps from a child's learning journey). Therefore, the learning intentions from the medium term plan are not always covered and of course, MANY others are! I make a record of the aspects covered each half-term. Ok? (I sometimes feel that when you look at my planning the LI seem random? but most weeks I cover all areas of learning)

 

3. Our focused activities are always offered to all the children, although some children do not choose to join in - again is this ok? I'm aware that there are going to be some children who will always shy away from focused activities (e.g. our autistic child) and some children who are always joining in? (we keep a record) We also plan our focused activities with a small group/large group or whole class in mind. Sometimes they are initiated by one child's next steps but nearly always relate to more children in the class (and we try to make sure that the focused activities offered would be suitable for at least a small group of children) ok or should we be individualising the learning more?

 

4. We have to have 3 targets for each child (a whole-school thing) which are shared with the parents - how could I show that we're helping the children work towards their targets? Should we maybe 'work towards' (for want of a better phrase) these in the child's target week? My problem with this is that this is all we would have time to do and it would really narrow the learning down.

 

5. (Not planning this time!) What are your feelings about your small world area? I started with most resources out on the shelves (people, farm animals, wild animals, trees and signs, vehicles, dolls house, dolls house people, hospital, post office, etc) and felt that there was too much and that the enhancements were not quality. I asked my EYAT who said in her setting they just have one set out e.g the farm and use the small world around the classroom so I changed to this. However, I'm still not sure this is the way to go as I feel like I've chosen the resources for the children (although they always come from their ideas/interests) and that I'm limiting their play? What do you do? how much would you have out - e.g. I chose not to put out dinosaurs and pirates to keep these 'special/exciting'? How do you enhance area?

 

I'm sorry for this long rambling thread but I feel I need to decide on a way of working and stick to it as all my energy and time is being taken up thinking about how to do things?

 

Thanks so much in advance

 

green hippo

[Guest]

Hi,

hope this helps We set one pse target and one numeracy and literacy target for each child. Regards the small world we always have cars and garage out and what we have our small world is based on our topic at the time if we can . This usually works, if the children start to loose interest then we swop it. 0258 x

[Guest]

Hi green hippo

 

am by no means confident that i am doing it right either but will share what we do!

 

1. we have no set coverage of aspects either I have long term planning in the form of continuous provision sheets and a very loose outline of the three terms showing progression of skills e.g. for letters and sounds we work broadly on everyday sound discrimination in term one, rythm and rhyme in term 2 and alliteration, segmenting and blending in term 3.

 

2. learning outcomes come from what i know chidlren need next e.g. in literacy and numeracy and from next steps identified through obs.

 

3. focused activities may be planned from a specific child's obs but would be offered to all at the start of the year not all take them up but by the end the expectation is that everyone takes part.

 

4. we too have 3 targets - PSE is so embedded in everything we do i feel we are working towards these all the time. literacy and numeracy are worked towards through focus activities and small group time - when i would pull children together with similar targets.

 

5. we had many but not all of our swp kits out (in labelled boxes on shelf) as part of the cont prov. some weeks we would specifically set one out e.g. in tuff spot. and special sets would be planned in as they linked to chidlren's interests or mini-themes.

[green hippo]

Thanks so much for your replies so far.

With regards to small world I think I'm going to go back to offering some basic provision e.g. some animals, vehicles, people, train set, trees and signs etc and continue to provide a tuff spots themed play where I can (but not always) use the more specific resources e.g. space, pirates, dinosaurs, airport, hospital, mini-beasts (are these the sorts of resources you save for specific times?). Currently the dolls house is pushed to the side as no room to put away in shed and everyday there are always 2 or 3 children playing with it - I'm thinking of offering this resource all the time and changing e.g. put Christmas decorations up etc, like we would with our home corner (I think it supports the same ideas as the home corner does) what do you think? Could anyone please list their small world resources to see if we are lacking any (my head has his "ask if you need anything" hat on at the moment so I need to get in there quick!) Thanks

 

nsunshine: do you have a medium term plan? How does this look?

 

Robinson0258: how do you insure that you work towards these targets or do you just make sure you cover them in your day to day focus activities or enhancements?

 

Thanks so much,

Green hippo x

Edited November 17, 2008 by green hippo