Following on from children's questionnaires

[Guest terrydoo73]

I posted here a few weeks ago looking for an idea to find out more about children's interests in terms of a questionnaire. We have now received all the questionnaires returned and there are so many different things on these that we cannot really follow a specific interest as such. However after attending a cluster training event this past week when we were dealing with how to help children settle in terms of their personal social emotional development, I want to use these replies effectively.

 

I thought of doing a collage of pictures from favourite tv characters - Peppa Pig, Postman Pat, Fireman Sam, Octonauts etc making it into a poster and then perhaps putting pictures around the wall of all the children with little speech bubbles simply saying "I like Peppa Pig because ... " or even for the little ones simply saying "I like Peppa Pig".

 

What do you think?

[Guest]

Hi,

Instead of you making the poster and just adding comments on from the children would it be more appropriate to involve the children in the display. I am guessing that most of your questionnaires will have been filled in by the parents and not the children.

If it was me I would print out an assortment of the characters which the questionnaires have indicated that the children like. For my more able children who can cut I would encourage them to choose their favourite characters to cut out and stick on a collage and for my less able cutters I would have a selection already cut out or be ready on hand to help those wanting to have a go at cutting. They could either make a collage on some colored paper or I may make some bus templates for them to stick their favourite characters on to. While doing this activity I would be writing down some comments the children say about the characters and what they like to put on the display in speech bubbles. These comments and observations can then lead into future planning. When putting up the display i now have small photos of the children to attach to their pictures so they know and so do all the other children exactly who made which picture.

We also add lots of photos to our displays which also help show what the children enjoy doing in nursery with comments from the children next to them. This is the first year we have been doing our displays with the children and they are so much more engaged in it and it is great for their self esteem and settling into nursery. We often find them dragging parents in to look at their displays and also chatting about them in session time which never happened before.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Clare