Recommended books for planning?

[Guest]

Hi all, haven't posted in here in a long while but have started my Early Years PGCE (which I am loving! ) and am starting my block placement on Monday for 4 weeks in a Reception class within a FSU (have already done 4 weeks of preparatory days to get to know class, routine etc) and was wondering if anyone could recommend a list of planning books for various topics/ themes etc. I have a long wishlist in Amazon and in my basket waiting to be ordered but would love any firm recommendations that are/were valuable to you in thinking for creative, inspiring activities that stay true to early years philosophy and ethos.

For instance, I have several books from the 'Classroom gems' series but unsure whether to go ahead and order. Any more recommendations would be fab!

Thank you muchly and hope everyone is well (I hadn't realised my subscription had lapsed until today so promptly renewed!) :1b

[Guest]

Hi it's tricky to answer your question as planning needs to be inspired from children's interests and needs and if you don't yet know the children's interests then you can't really 'plan' Activities. I find the 'little books' from feather stone press really useful and have gradually built up a collection over the years eg 'the little book of tuff spot activities'. Other than those books, I would say that you can find all the inspiration you need from the net and on here so I would save your money. The way I plan is by identifying the objectives that I want the children to achieve week by week in each area of EYFS - that's my medium term plan. My weekly plan is meeting those objectives through the children's interests ie they inspire the context.

Deb

[Guest]

Yes I have plenty of the Little Books series but wanted some general themed planning books to have in my bank to draw on for inspiration based on their interests-ones that people would say 'oh this book was brilliant for learning about xxx' etc

Am currently planning and teaching the majority of the adult-directed activities for the class (phonics, maths, SEAL, etc) through games and activities so I am having to plan, incorporating interests and needs as much as I can- more so the more time I spend with the ch'ren

Yes,finding here and TES brilliant for ideas and resources so far, thank goodness. Thank you for your recommendations Deb, would you recommend any other websites in particular?

[Guest LornaW]

http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/anna+ephgrave/the+reception+year+in+action2c+revised+and+updated/9301047/

[Guest]

Thank you LornaW!

[SueJ]

I have been using ideas and the format from these for a while now and find them great for making you think differently about planning and encouraging children's creative and divergent thinking.

 

First Hand experience - What matters to Children (written by Diane Rich, Denise Casanova, Annabelle Dixon, Mary Jane Drummond, Andrea Durrant and Cathy Myer) and Learning - What matters to children (written by Diane Rich, Mary Jane Drummond and Cathy Myer).

[Guest]

Another great book I dip in and out of to get inspiration is Sue Palmers - Foundation of Literacy. It is easy to use with lots of ideas.