People & Communities

[green hippo]

Hi,

I'm finding that we are often short of observations for People & Communities. I'm evaluating whether we need to include further resources to encourage this area of development. When we do get observations, the children are showing progress but we are often having to focus on this area to 'find' the observations during our interactions. Any ideas?

Thanks

Green Hippo x

[Guest]

OOh I have just done my tracking and this has also been highlighted for us in that we do not do enough obs in this area..but then when I read the 30-50 months for this they do seem a bit similar and it seems to be all about talking about family etc. Will be interested to see what others say. Again I am looking at my provision but not sure I can add things to get those particular obs.Sorry no help to you at all but just to say me too! :1b

[finleysmaid]

had a lovely one this week ...child in garden

"the suns getting in my eyes"(rather crossly)

"yes I know it's lovely isn't it"(perhaps a bit sarcastically from me!)

"Yes...do you know, Jesus made it for us!"

[Panders]

Ours was about death - "Do you know,............ when I'm 67 my mum and dad will be dead!!!" another one then said, "we're all going to be dead". I asked if they know what happened after people died and they said they went to heaven and it's a nice place.

[finleysmaid]

Ours was about death - "Do you know,............ when I'm 67 my mum and dad will be dead!!!" another one then said, "we're all going to be dead". I asked if they know what happened after people died and they said they went to heaven and it's a nice place.

we had two Mums die last year...I could have written everyones obs on death...it became a bit of a hot topic! :wacko:

[lsp]

We are also low in this area. We find it particularly difficult with children with low levels of speech and language. We use their learning stories and all about me notes to try and 'spark' conversations about home life and family.

[Panders]

Anyone do "my treasure" type activities, where they take home a small treasure box and bring something back from home to talk about which they consider to be treasure

[Panders]

we had two Mums die last year...I could have written everyones obs on death...it became a bit of a hot topic! :wacko:

 

I remember that, Finleysmaid, a tough year for you all

[Guest]

It's like PSED really; I know where they are at but don't always have evidence, but could talk about the child.

Yes agree they need to be talking about their family and family friends.

We have a birthday sheet so when it's their birthday, we record what they said they'd got/what were they doing to celebrate etc and that is put in their learning journey, along with a photo of them with the birthday hat on.

We send home a toy after Easter and parents can fill in what he gets up to, and children can draw a picture/write something too. Parents can add photos too!

Different occupations/ways of life could be covered by 'people who help us' topic/visit to shop/visitor to you etc

We classify special times/events as things like going to zoo/for a meal/going on holiday/ or just shopping if a child doesn't do anything special - not fair to penalise them because they never leave our village .....

Unique- can talk about what they are good at - not usually hard for most children! Sims/diffs - comparing how many siblings they each have etc. Topic/mini topic on families would support this AOL.

And my main problem is HAVING TIME to just play and chat to children!! What with EYPP/WellComm/SEND/closing the gap etc etc interventions. Tend to do this outside where we are not on adult activities and just facilitating.

[green hippo]

Thank you for all your replies!

We send a 'Chatterbox' home and although the children do sometimes bring in things about their family/home experiences they most often bring in toys! We have a teddy that goes home too, so again we do get some obs from this. I suppose it's often conversations that are initiated by an adult so don't always feel as good quality as hearing children speak amongst themselves. (Apart from birthday parties of course and whose NOT going!!)

We often ask parents to send in photos of their children doing different things e.g. sharing a story at home/playing in the snow etc and displays these in places where the children might have a little chat about it.

I class most experiences that the children want to share with us as 'special' - whose to say that a walk in the woods is less special that a trip to Disneyland!!!

Thanks again

Green Hippo x

[lsp]

We send home a sheet after holidays eg What I Did in Christmas Holidays. We probably get 50% returned. We ask parents to write, add photos, stick tickets or draw pictures -anything! These are put into learning stories (we still use scrap books). OK, it's filled in by parents but again it's a way into the conversation with a child. We also do the bear home.

Edited February 26, 2016 by lsp

[manor]

We too were low in this area of development, so we have given the children a Home diary which they can write/draw pictures of what they do away from the setting. Then at group time we help the children to talk about what has been written down. Some of the children are quite egar to give you their dairies when they arrive in the morning ready to read later You also find out quite alot about the child's life which you would never have known, which in turns helps you know more about the child's interest. This info may in turn be useful for your planning for that child within the session. This activity I also feel covers PSE as the children gain self esteem/ confidence standing infront of their peers as they talk about what they have been doing and feel valued for being listened to.

[gillpen]

We have 'WOW' sheets which are really popular and we seem to get loads back. The parent fills in something that the child has done, it could be an experience such as a place they have visited or a family occasion (they will often send in a photo too with this) or it might be something that the child has achieved. We share these at circle time with the whole group but the key person will always sit down and chat to them about it beforehand too, to get the child talking about home experiences.

[green hippo]

We have a 'wow' wall too but most of the wows are about sleeping in their own bed, eating their breakfast etc. Some are about swimming/dancing achievements which I think we may need to chat to them a little more.

Thanks

[Guest]

We have a 'wow' wall too but most of the wows are about sleeping in their own bed, eating their breakfast etc. Some are about swimming/dancing achievements which I think we may need to chat to them a little more.

Thanks

We're the same Green Hippo. We suggest wow's as an incentive to give up bottles/dummies or toilet-train etc. And to be fair this is a good use of wows. A bottle of coke in a mouth all day is definitely something to get rid of. Particularly as the news is mentioning under 5's and tooth decay.

[gillpen]

All our children's 'WOW' sheets go into their Learning Journals as this is a good way of proving partnership with parents as well as forming part of the child's journey

[PenelopeBaxter]

We go into small circle time in the morning for a quick conversations in our colour groups, we start off with a good morning around the circle, passing Mog the cat around, which means its their turn, in the other groups they have special jar called the talking jar which they get a shiney when its their turn to talk. I then ask what they had for breakfast, now I'm beginning to ask whose in their family, brothers, sisters, mum dads etc. Its been working really well. They also now have been asking me questions like Mrs Baxter would did you have for breakfast who do you live with. Great not only for PSED and knowledge and understanding but for Communication especially those with another language and SEND