Learning Intentions

[Guest]

We are a pre-school offering sessions for 60 children between 2 and 4. We have been trialling an child led system of planning, whereby we only plan according to the children's interests but we are finding that this really isn't working. The observations that are being written are repetitive and not really focused enough.

 

In September we are going back to having loose themes for planning and we would like to introduce learning intentions for specific observations. In September, we are going to be doing "Marvellous Me!" and I have lots of learning intentions in mind, but was wondering how many LI's you would look for in each area for the half term? I have identified LI's from the 22-36 month age group and the 30-50 month age group to ensure we are meeting the needs of both younger and older children. We are still going to cater for children's interests, but we don't want to do this alone.

 

Any thoughts??

[Guest]

We do not look for a specific number but will get as many as possible from looking and observing a child.

But we go with child led and follow their interests

 

I dont understand why you cant find LI from child initated interests? Is it the lack of staff knowledge?

 

I do not think you can have a set amount because it would depend on what each child would gain from activities

[louby loo]

This is an interesting topic, and as Suer says many can be observed from watching a focused child doing the simplest of activities/daily routines.

 

To be honest sometimes I think we 'over think it', and I think again Suer has hit the nail on the head when she says 'is it lack of staff knowledge' - which could include lack of confidence in the knowledge they have.

 

My staff joke that I can find observations from anything a child does and link it many areas- which is how I think it should be for a child that is developing along the normal lines. (A child with identified/suspected SEN may have a different line of observations etc)

 

I try and emphasies the need to look and what the child does - then link it back to the DM rather that say 'well today we are going to look for...'

 

Although we do have 'background planning' and we will have a lot of extra enhancements to allow plenty of scope for impromtu observations that may lead to new interests.