Guest Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 Hi everyone, I was just wondering, does anyone still fill out activity plans for their adult - led activities??? We have a box file full of them, and since September the lid has stayed firmly shut. Do you still use them but adapt them to suit individual childrens interests, or do you use enhancements to your continuous provision. ?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 Funny that this should come up as I was on here looking for examples of activity plans. I had a visit from my EYA last week and she said that I should be doing Activity plans for the adult led activities - something I have never done before even before the EYFS!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 Funny that this should come up as I was on here looking for examples of activity plans. I had a visit from my EYA last week and she said that I should be doing Activity plans for the adult led activities - something I have never done before even before the EYFS!! 2 great minds daisydoo!!. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trekker Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 Currently I just have a very short outline of what I plan to do, why I plan to do it and What happened. If I happen to become involved in an activity spontaneously I'll write it up after the event on the same sheet. Doing it this way you always have a record of what was done. We have definitely cut down on / simplified activity plans as we are still trying to get to figure out how / if to do them while still going with the flow. Lots of times we don't actually do the activity we planned in the week its planned but I keep it on file as Ive found that usually it will get done and then I'll date it and evaluate. We focus on about three keychildren per week and any written plans are basically just a way of considering options for them...and almost always you will do that activity with those children at some point simply because they are based on their interests. Each week our activities are planned to fit in with a specific area of learning and I keep in mind how my key children would be encouraged to explore that area...eg a child with an interest in worms might like to address physical aspects by moving like a worm, crawling through tunnels and might address problem solving reasoning and numeracy by counting worms found in the garden, measuring / comparing worms etc I guess this is really alot like enhancing provision...something that we are struggling to record in a way that works. Not sure if this makes sense but in short yes we do try to keep a record of adult-supported activities planned or otherwise but we keep them very simple and flexible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marion Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 The advice from my LA is only complete those boxes for areas where you are going to enhance provision Record new experiences that are being added to each area Don't include focused activities as these are on your focus planning and you would be duplicating the information... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 Yes we still complete activity planning sheets for forthcoming activities that are in addition or enhancements to continuous provision. Sometimes they are not used and filed away for future. More enphasis is placed on a complete weeky evaluation showing what went well and what didn't get done, what to repeat and with what enhancements etc. That evaluation along with keyperson's observations forms the basis for future plans. Gosh i hope that makes sense, forgive me if i ramble. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icklehels Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 Hey I'm uploading an example of mine - don't know if this is right as I'm copyong what the lady before me did Any advice would be great! I would rather not have to do these, as they take ages and I have to do them in my own time upload_activity_planning.doc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 Thanks everyone for your replies and thanks icklehels for sharing your document. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 Yes, we do activity plans for adult led activities although we now call them adult focus sheets - have attached our form. They are used to ensure that the adult is clear on what learning is being sought and are written using IEP information and name children who we would like to take part for key person planning. We use them to also support less knowledgeable members of staff. Hope this makes sense I have just read it back to myself and not sure it does!! Focus_Activity_Planner_2.docx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 10, 2009 Share Posted March 10, 2009 No way on earth would we complete one of these. not enough room to keep pieces of paper that wont be looked at again children are different all the time so why would you need these! we write ideas down on a sheet and i provide evidence by putting photos of what we have done attatched on the back Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue R Posted March 10, 2009 Share Posted March 10, 2009 I would suggest that they would form part of the child's learning journey; thus would be very useful in planning next steps and mapping a child's progress. As part of each child's documentation this kind of record can be helpful to both the current keyworker and when passed on in transition documentation. I think when they are personalised, as these have the potential for, they are useful tools and reflect the individualisation of planning in settings. I accept not everyone has the access to photocopiers and storage, but nonetheless they shouldn't be dismissed. Sue Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 10, 2009 Share Posted March 10, 2009 (edited) No way on earth would we complete one of these. not enough room to keep pieces of paper that wont be looked at againchildren are different all the time so why would you need these! we write ideas down on a sheet and i provide evidence by putting photos of what we have done attatched on the back I can see what you mean Suer, and I think it all comes down to which authority you come under. As daisydoo says her EYA has said she should definitely be doing them. I can't help feeling that maybe they should be put in place by keypersons, in the event that if they are away from playschool for a length of of time, another member of staff can take over and follow the activity plan. Edited March 10, 2009 by Guest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
green hippo Posted March 10, 2009 Share Posted March 10, 2009 This has reminded me of a question I've been meaning to post for a while - how do you record which children take part in planned activities? Currently we have a class sheet which we record if and how well the children have participated using a key - we allow children to choose to do the activity. If a child has shown any significant learning then we would do an obs label for their learning journey. However, I was wondering whether we should be recording somewhere and somehow which focused activities they have been involved in and the main learning outcomes? Short of writing in up to 25 learning journeys everyday: "James joined in with the obstacle course today. He was learning to ..." I'm not sure how else to do it? Is there a quick way. Is it necessary to do this or is our class record enough as this informs our next steps?? Just think that the parents should have a record of the variety of activities the children have been involved in, in addition to their child-initiated play? Green Hippo xx P.S. I complete a weekly plan which is essentially a shortened version of the previouly posted activity plans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 10, 2009 Share Posted March 10, 2009 surely key person would be making observation notes and noting down learning and next step planning so i dont see why you would need to note this. what use would it be because you would not make a child do activity he was not intersted in? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 11, 2009 Share Posted March 11, 2009 surely key person would be making observation notes and noting down learning and next step planning so i dont see why you would need to note this. what use would it be because you would not make a child do activity he was not intersted in? I am doing an activity next week with one of my key children who loves both playdough and anything farms ...animals, tractors, farmyard. This has resulted from observations and notes. My child has an apparent lack of counting skills so I will be using his interest in farms and playdough to aid his counting skills. I'll transfer this info onto an activity plan beacuse, if for any reason I'm not there next week, it can be used to inform another member of staff what I would like my key child to achieve from this activity. Also, other staff can add their children to it too, if there's an interest. The activity would be accessible to other children, but certainly wouldn't make a child do the activity if he wasn't interested. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jam17 Posted March 11, 2009 Share Posted March 11, 2009 This has reminded me of a question I've been meaning to post for a while - how do you record which children take part in planned activities? Currently we have a class sheet which we record if and how well the children have participated using a key - we allow children to choose to do the activity. If a child has shown any significant learning then we would do an obs label for their learning journey. However, I was wondering whether we should be recording somewhere and somehow which focused activities they have been involved in and the main learning outcomes? Short of writing in up to 25 learning journeys everyday: "James joined in with the obstacle course today. He was learning to ..." I'm not sure how else to do it? Is there a quick way. Is it necessary to do this or is our class record enough as this informs our next steps?? Just think that the parents should have a record of the variety of activities the children have been involved in, in addition to their child-initiated play? Green Hippo xx P.S. I complete a weekly plan which is essentially a shortened version of the previouly posted activity plans. Hya, We made up a simple check list of all children's names/days of week and just tick it if they have taken part in focused activity during frr-flow! Most seem to participate! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 11, 2009 Share Posted March 11, 2009 we do adult activity plans daily we do take into account other aspects/ interests so are flexible to change but we find not only does it make sure areas of learning are covered but also that an adult is able to gather more information about all the children in the setting as well as their key children in fact i can think of many reasons that adult led activities are good, we include them into our daily planning folder along with photos etc, we look back at plans often for extending, evaluating and repeating etc. i have added our activity plan and a copy of our individual child obs notes. it may seem to be alot but we do it on the computer and only hand write the obs on invididual children. it works very well for us!activity_obs_for_key_workers.docMaster_copy_to_file.doc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
green hippo Posted March 11, 2009 Share Posted March 11, 2009 Hi, Our children are allowed to choose whether they participate or not in teacher-led/initiated activities and we use our tick sheet to record this - we find that most children do participate! However, the advice that I've always been given is that you should only write an obs sticky if the child has shown any significant learning and/or shown that there is something they need to practise etc - so not all children would have an obs to stick in their learning journey. This means that there is sometimes no record for parents of what the activities the child has been involved in (which is something they often ask). Just wondering if anyone recorded this in some sort of way in the learning journeys? Thanks Green Hippo x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cait Posted March 11, 2009 Share Posted March 11, 2009 Just wondering if anyone recorded this in some sort of way in the learning journeys? Thanks Green Hippo x We note it in their home diary, sometimes take a picture and put it in the learning journey with some notes such as 'I really enjoyed making a spider, first I.....' whatever, so it's recorded, but no criteria marked against it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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