Short Term/weekly Plans

[Guest]

Hello there, I am new to the forum and was wondering if anyone could give me some advice on planning. I am teaching reception for the first time after christmas and am trying to find a weekly planning format that I feel comfortable with. I have looked at the schools weekly plans and they seem relatively easy to follow, however, I am not sure how much detail they need to have on them. During planned activities, should plans state which children/groups went where, and how detailed should descriptions of each activity be? If anyone has any examples of plans to share, that would be fab!

[Guest]

Hi - Welcome! I am trying out a different panning format after the holidays - at the moment I use daily plans and feel I am doing far too much planning - next term i intend to use a planning sheet that shows just the adult focus activities for the week on one sheet and refer to my cont. planning sheets for everything else. When I have decided what the planning will actually look like I will post it for you - sorry cant be of more help but I am sure someone else will be able to help you a bit more. Also do a search of forum posts as that will probably throw up lots of ideas and opinions.

Ems xx

[Guest]

Hi - Welcome! I am trying out a different panning format after the holidays - at the moment I use daily plans and feel I am doing far too much planning - next term i intend to use a planning sheet that shows just the adult focus activities for the week on one sheet and refer to my cont. planning sheets for everything else. When I have decided what the planning will actually look like I will post it for you - sorry cant be of more help but I am sure someone else will be able to help you a bit more. Also do a search of forum posts as that will probably throw up lots of ideas and opinions.

Ems xx

 

Thanks! I am sure I saw someone mention it in a post a while ago but can't locate it. That's what I am aiming for also, a weekly plan with activities for each day for the 6 diff areas. I want to make clear on the plan both the adult directed activities and also child led activities with differentiation. I will keep jigging them around until I come up with something that is both clear and workable! If anyone else has any suggestions, please let me know! x

[Susan]

Hi smiley24 and welcome.

Reception is a fun place to be! good luck.

 

Your plans should be flexible, to respond to children's needs and interests and they are a working document so you can adapt them and evaluate them as you go.

I would suggest that if your school has a planning format in place that you give that a go and see how you get on. You will find it easier to adapt something to your needs as you use it. It may be that you head likes planning to be uniform across age groups anyway?

 

The detail that you put on your plans is up to you, I always find it easier to work from an idea but some people prefer to plan every minute detail.

 

You cant plan for child initiated activities, if you do they are not child initiated but you can plan to enhance your continuous provision to respond to the the children. This might be shown within your evaluation initially.

 

Hope that helps.

[HappyMaz]

Can't really help you because I'm in pre-school. Just wanted to welcome you to the Forum, smiley24!

 

Maz

[Guest]

Hi smiley24 and welcome.

Reception is a fun place to be! good luck.

 

Your plans should be flexible, to respond to children's needs and interests and they are a working document so you can adapt them and evaluate them as you go.

I would suggest that if your school has a planning format in place that you give that a go and see how you get on. You will find it easier to adapt something to your needs as you use it. It may be that you head likes planning to be uniform across age groups anyway?

 

The detail that you put on your plans is up to you, I always find it easier to work from an idea but some people prefer to plan every minute detail.

 

You cant plan for child initiated activities, if you do they are not child initiated but you can plan to enhance your continuous provision to respond to the the children. This might be shown within your evaluation initially.

 

Hope that helps.

 

 

Yes it does help, thanks! with the child led, can you put out materials for the children to use in their own way? in my school the other reception teachers send different groups to the different areas of the classroom with resources set up- e.g. maths table-beading and small world area-puppets etc. There are 6 groups- 1 or 2 groups might be doing an adult let literacy and numeracy activity and the other 4 groups would be in different areas (role play, creative, construction, writing area etc). This is where I am confused as this isn't giving the children a free choice of where to go, but at the same time the children could lead their own learning using those resources put out. Do the children need a free choice session on top of these activities where they can play and learn freely in the classroom? I have 30 children and a full tiem TA. I am happy with the learning through play idea but want to make sure that I am including enough child initiated learning and doing all the right things! The EYFS is a big change for me from teaching ks1 and ,as you can propbably tell, but I am eager to do the job well

 

Smiley x

[Susan]

Now that sounds like the dilemma I have with the parallel class I have worked alongside!

 

I prefer not to direct the children in any way, choosing means choosing without direction although I might ask children to choose where they are going and what they are going to do before leaving the carpet, in a sort of high scope type approach and I do ask children to move on if I dont think they are using the area/ materials efficiently.

 

I find it it quite difficult to manage the sort of situation you describe and have been horrified watching the other teacher spend hours monitoring her groups to make sure everyone had been everywhere!

 

I didnt have a big enough room or the resources available to work with to work in that way to my satisfaction either. But now I have moved to yr1 the children I have inherited form her are not as independent as the children I took with me. They wait continually to be told what to do and for equipment to be given to them etc. Conversely when they show any initiative they dont follow anything through, cant wait for instructions and generally make a mess and then walk away!

 

Others may have other ideas!

[Guest]

Now that sounds like the dilemma I have with the parallel class I have worked alongside!

 

I prefer not to direct the children in any way, choosing means choosing without direction although I might ask children to choose where they are going and what they are going to do before leaving the carpet, in a sort of high scope type approach and I do ask children to move on if I dont think they are using the area/ materials efficiently.

 

I find it it quite difficult to manage the sort of situation you describe and have been horrified watching the other teacher spend hours monitoring her groups to make sure everyone had been everywhere!

 

I didnt have a big enough room or the resources available to work with to work in that way to my satisfaction either. But now I have moved to yr1 the children I have inherited form her are not as independent as the children I took with me. They wait continually to be told what to do and for equipment to be given to them etc. Conversely when they show any initiative they dont follow anything through, cant wait for instructions and generally make a mess and then walk away!

 

Others may have other ideas!

 

Fair point! What do you do if some children stick to the same type of activity each day? do you encourage them to move to another activity? Also, did you keep a record of which activities the children chose each day?

Does anyone else on here do things differently?

 

Thanks!