garrison Posted April 9, 2014 Share Posted April 9, 2014 I have noticed a lot of gaps in 'why things happen and how things work.' I would appreciate any ideas for activities to cover this - if they can be linked to nature and the environment then even better Thanks in advance of your fantastic help that we always get on here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
finleysmaid Posted April 9, 2014 Share Posted April 9, 2014 30-50 months The world (can i make a suggestion that if anyone is posting about LO's that they put the 'section' of the early learning goal in the title!) If you are working in the environment then you will be talking about this often...it is really about the children's observations...(IMO) so do they describe how animals are born or how metamorphosis occurs or how the seasons pass and change and notice the difference in the leaves. If you look at the ELG you are working towards then it makes it clear what the 'end objective' is....to be honest this would be a difficult one to do if you were NOT going outside! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catma Posted April 10, 2014 Share Posted April 10, 2014 (edited) Absolutely. This aspect of the statutory educational programme requires ongoing opportunities to develop the vocabulary needed to observe, contrast and compare. I don't think this learning is embedded just through adult directed activities to be honest. Children need things to explore and reconstruct, have things they can control (it links into technology too), things they can wonder at...regular continuous provision should provide lots of opportunities for this to happen. In my experience gaps in UTW often occur because the adults don't recognise the children's responses as being about these skills. Have you reflected on what you are actually listening out for in your discussions with children instead? Cx Edited April 10, 2014 by catma 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
green hippo Posted April 10, 2014 Share Posted April 10, 2014 That's exactly what we found, Catma - we are often so focused of the SAL, PD and PSE side of things that we were finding less observations of the other things. But when we looked back through the observations there was quite a lot that also linked with UTW - I spoke to all the staff about this - to make sure that we are picking up on other areas of learning even if at first that didn't appear to be what the observation was about. Sometimes it's a good idea to get 2 people to look through the observations to see if they pick up on other skills or understanding that the children is showing. Green Hippo x 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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