Planning From Children's Interests

[finleysmaid]

just along the floor book theme this is something that happens often in forest school settings - for big book formats we have found a-level project books work well as they are A2 and have plasctic pockets which makes them more durable and re-usable (we skip dive for ours after the local school has finished with them!! )

[emmajess]

Mindstretchers have a great and very detailed book going into this method of planning in lots of depth - Talking and Thinking Floorbooks.

[Rufus]

I agree with many of comments on this thread, it's about getting the balance right.

I start the first topic without the children's input and the floating adult will follow interests where possible.

The adults in the room are always verbalising what we mean by planning and following their interests

"Look children, Max was interested in painting so we looked at different things to paint with"

"ooh look what Jessica is doing she is playing teachers in the hairdressers, maybe we could change it into a hairdressers for her".

"ooh, look at that caterpillar, maybe we could learn about caterpillars next week?"

 

By doing this the children then have more of an idea of what we expect and how they can inform the adults.

 

Then when I do sit and plan with the children, sometimes they tell me themes they want to do, like Thomas the Tank or Ben 10, sometimes they say "I want to cook/paint" etc.

 

I take their comments into account and if I know they would be engaged by a space topic we begin that topic with Ben 10 - always start a topic with a hook to get them really engaged. That could be finding an egg, receiving a letter etc, I'm a big believer in this.

We started our transport topic with Thomas and then moved onto the 'Naughty Bus' book which I knew as a teacher i could get lots of skills out of - the children loved it and it became very much their topic.

 

As teachers it is our job to make sure we teach the children skills and widen their general knowledge but I do think this should be linked to their interests where possible and like I said before, their interests are always a good hook.

[Froglet]

Hope I didn't offend

 

Not in the slightest - just wanted to reassure anyone else as I'd been the person who originally asked the question.

 

Another thought on the subject of floor books. A couple of years ago I went on a scientific enquiry course for KS2 (I was science co-ordinator at the time) and the course leader was recommending floor books as a way of recording an investigation so that the children concentrated on the investigative skills rather than 'writing it up'. He had a book per group and they stuck their own post-its in, diagrams, notes etc. very informal and informative. Just thought it was interesting to see how this approach could work throughout a school.