Planning Again!

[Guest]

Hi! I'm still on my hunt for a suitable planning format but it's not really working! I don't know what I am supposed to be doing as I think our current set up is rubbish. I have literally been chucked in at the deep end. Half of our staff are only level 2 qualified or else are training to level 2 and they don't see why they should help with the planning.

 

Added to that, we don't have such wonders as planning meetings! Nobody (except me) does any observations on the children so planning for their needs and interests just isn't happening. My manager is more concerned with keeping the paperwork pristine for when Ofsted finally turn up. Nothing matches or links in together and lucky for me (!) it's all been dumped at my door! I am slowly losing the will to live. This is the 3rd night I've been up trying to put something together. I need something that will meet the needs/interests of the children whilst keeping Ofsted happy and I'm expected to do it on my own.

 

I know it sounds like I'm feeling sorry for myself, but I just don't know what to do. I would be really, really grateful if someone can offer me any advice. I know I'll probably stand a better chance with all you lovely people than with my managers/colleagues.

 

Thanks for listening to my ranting!

 

Clare x

[Guest]

Hi

What sort of setting are you?

I took over the pre-school i worked at 2 years ago, they had no planning in place whatsoever and no observations. None of the staff new how to observe and none of the staff had heard of the foundation stage. It has been an up hill struggle, we now have the planning in place.

I have a Long term plan listing topics to be used, medium term plan split into areas of the learning and listing the activities we are going to use. short term plan outlining the day to day sessions. We also have one focus activity a week where we concentrate on a particular area of learning and staff record what happens, then evaluate activity afterwards.

I have given each member of staff post it notes, to note down anything they observe and pass on to the childs keyworker.

It has been a hard struggle, i still don't think we are there yet.

I still do all the planning. I have a staff meeting but they just put forward ideas for activitites to do with the topic, i then collate this into the planning sheets.

I do wish you good luck, and get some sleep its the middle of the night!!!!

[Rea]

Loupylou, can I echo what simcity said? Get some sleep. Over the years I used so many planning formats it was rediculous, and I was never happy with any of them. The format you use doesnt matter to ofsted, so long as the information on it can be read and understood. If your manager isnt happy with what you produce ask her for a format she likes witrh an explanation on how it provides everything it needs to. I used to struggle with being able to supply beautifully written plans and plans based on observations, I could never get the two to gel. Now I would say this, plans arent written in blood (sweat and tears, yes, but not blood ) they can be changed. Write what you would like to happen and how it is to be achieved but be prepared for the children to change it and use their changes in your evaluation. Dont beat yourself up when plans 'go wrong'. Write out the overall plan for the year as a pointer on things you would like to cover, a topic is useful for this. Decide on the goals for the term and how they can be achieved through activities. Write a weekly plan based on the childrens play from the week before. You know that all the equipment and activities you offer can cover all aspects of learning, so if your plan to learn number names with the building bricks doesnt work, chances are the train track will have provided the same opportunity. With inexperienced staff your activity plans might need to be written really clearly, the aim of the activity is... The adults role is... etc. Take a couple of days away from it and then start with a blank piece of paper. Good luck

[Deb]

Clare

 

You're not alone, judging by the replies on here, lots of us are trying to get observations, planning and assessment right. If it's any consolation we're in a muddle. At least there we are all trying to work out a system together. In some ways are situation is the reverse, we have one person doing the planning, with some input by us but not enough, and we want to be more involved from the point of view of making the job even more fulfilling and hopefully ultimately more varied for the children. We are trying to work out how to do this.

 

Is there a course you can all go on together about observations and assessments?

 

From what I understand, the short every day observations (on a post it note) should be done by all the staff on all the children, and passed to the key worker. This might get staff involved, some of our staff seem to find it more difficult to remember to do them. We now have post it notes on clip boards around the room. Also we are planning to do an individual observation for 10 minutes on our key children once a half term, planned into the morning. We will have to discuss them in our weekly staff meeting (in our own time).

 

I understand that plans are there to be altered, scrawled over, and amended to respond to the needs/interests of the children. So the messier the better!

 

I think the advise given to take a break, then come back to it is very good advise and something I should do too cos with all this work of one sort or another I am up to here with it all!

 

The stupid thing is we know we do a good job, the children are happy, we have very good relationships with them, we do great things at Pre-School. Why do we have to have so much paperwork?

 

Anyway I will watch with interest what others do to see if it can help us get organised.

 

Deb

[Guest]

Just want to say thanks to all of you who have read and given me some advice. Like you said, I have taken a break (albeit a small one) and I think I'm now on my way! Hooray!

 

Have devised a focus activity sheet which I think will work well, especially as there is a bit to record children's responses! I am hoping that it will encourage the less experienced staff to make notes on the responses from the children. I have also come up with an observation sheet to be used during the focus activities which gives staff opportunities to note responses, how the children handle the activity, ways in which we can develop their learning and ideas for extension activities.

 

The short term plan that my manager wants to use seems better now, now that I have made up these other sheets to coincide with it. It was simply an activity plan before but I have now added the areas of learning to it, by colour and number coding. Plus these other things will help me to plan more appropriately based on levels of development and children's interests.

 

As for my long term and medium term plans, I found a really nifty booklet idea (thanks Nic!) on here and I have decided to use that. I am hoping that all these ideas will cut down on my ever increasing stress levels and the non-stop amount of writing I need to do at the moment.

 

I'[m off this week with flu, so I'm going in on Monday with my ideas and I'm going to sell them to my manager. I think she'll go for them because they cover everything we need to do.

 

Thanks again to everyone for your help and support. It's so good to know I'm not the only one struggling with this!

 

Clare x

[Guest]

Yep, the age old question of trying to beat the system and get something succinct, easy to follow, takes little time to prepare and still get across what we want and meets the requirements of Ofsted etc. The way I started was to:

 

look at the year and look at the number of weeks I provide

I know I have got to cover all areas in this time, I then break down the aspects of learning and then look at dividing these up over the terms so that each aspect appears at least twice - some I may do more if I want to focus on it.

 

Generally some of the aspects are covered in the normal routines of the day so if you have any routines, e.g. registration time where you count, large circle time/story timie/music time/preparation of fruit etc I create a separate planning for so that it shows that these are done every day e.g.

mathematical development during register time and highlight several aspects that might be covered on a rotational basis. My Ofsted inspector said that whilst she could see that we do these things every day we should include them in our planning so that she can see. So I create a separate one for routines of the day.

 

Once you know you have got everything covered then your topics can be posted in to the relevant sections. For instance if you cover a topic say All about Me, what emphasis do you put on it - is the main emphasis on physical and PSE, if so what aspects do you cover. We all have favourite activities and know what generally works, so place these into your planning and then work around the things you know you do and then look at what you need to cover and how you are going to do it.

 

This makes sense for me but there again may not for you - but gives you an idea of what I do - there is no right or wrong way.

 

Perhaps you could take the printed version of all the stepping stones posted somehwere here on the foundation stage forum that someone kindly posted and cut and past them for your planning.

 

I am sure others will tell you how they tackle it and I am sure they will all be very different - so just do what works best for you. Likewise I will be looking at what other people do to see if there is a better way

 

Good luck and remember once you have it in place then you really only need to tweak it every year.

 

 

Nikki

[Guest]

Thanks for that Nikki! I'm quite careful to include things we do on a daily basis on the plans, such as circle time. There is a space on our short term plan for that, so Ofsted will be able to see that it is being done.

 

I'm still looking out for other ideas, but thanks again for your help!!

 

Clare x

[Guest]

On a slightly different slant...it appears that part of your work overload is that some of your staff are still learning. I had this situation last year with my team, so what I did was to concentrate on the planning circle a step at a time.

Spring term, I gave staff in service training on observation and assessment, record keeping and really understanding the purpose and value of observations. They spent the term really focusing on developing these skills. ( I continued to do weekly planning and just asked them for ideas for activities)

 

Summer term- We did in service training looking at all the learning potential in each area of play (not area of development) ie: what learning can occur in the role play area? We did this over a few staff meetings with 1st thoughts exercises and discussion. Then each member of staff was allocated an area of play- they were then responsible to plan for that area- as we know all areas of development can be met in all areas of play. So over a period of six weeks we focused on each development area. Identifying resources, adult role, possible learning. week 1 the staff planned for PSE Aspect 1&2 in their area of play. Week 2 CLL aspect 1&2 in their area of play. etc etc, after six weeks the staff had planned for all 6 areas of development in just one play area. They were encouraged to consider resourcing for child initiated play and had to do 1 adult led activity for the week. I collated all this info and produced the weeks plans on one A4 sheet.

This really helped with their knowledge and confidence, I was able to support them and they had ownership of what happened in their area and could see how children developed relevant to their plans. We then extended this to include information from observations. This was for training purposes only, too much paperwork for each member of staff to do one area each a week seperately, so we now do the same process but only using one sheet of paper plus adult led activity plans ( we do 2 of these a week)

We can now do planning together because the staff have been through the process individually and now understand it more.

 

It is hard work but does ensure all are thinking in the same way, can include their ideas, no one person can think of everything ( as deb says) all staff need to "feel" involved.

 

Good luck, take one step at a time, and take account of the learning needs of your staff.

 

Peggy

[Deb]

Thank you so much Peggy for detailing the process you went through so clearly, I do find it very helpful.

 

I really like the idea of 1 sheet of paper, and I think my colleagues would too!

 

You mention 2 adult led activities per week, is that in total throughout the setting or two per area?

 

How do you offer the adult led activities? ie one activity for 2 days, then the other for 3 days or do you alternate?

 

Thanks

Deb

[Sue R]

It's great to see so many useful ideas and support here, well done everyone!! Sorry I haven't been able to be around to contribute, though! I do sympathise, we seem to always be tinkering with ours!

 

Sue

[Guest]

Thank you so much Peggy for detailing the process you went through so clearly, I do find it very helpful.

 

I really like the idea of 1 sheet of paper, and I think my colleagues would too!

 

You mention 2 adult led activities per week, is that in total throughout the setting or two per area?

 

How do you offer the adult led activities?  ie one activity for 2 days, then the other for 3 days or do you alternate?

 

Thanks

Deb

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Hi Deb, to answer your question....

We have 2 adult led per week in total. I'll give you this weeks plans as an example Our Focus area is KUW Aspects 1 & 3. Our topic focus is normally based on a story book, but this week we planned to teach a worm poem.

 

Monday is for child initiated play throughout the day, settling back in after the weekend ( continuous provision and routine cover some parts of all 6 areas of the curriculum)

 

Tuesday Adult Led activity- small groups outside to dig up worms KUW 1. Show curiosity and interest by facial expression ( nothing like worm to encourage this!!!) differentiation: Examine living things to find out more about them. Older children shown how a wormery works.

 

Wednesday Adult led activity - KUW 3 Information and communication technology- we don't have use of a computer very often ( unless we borrow a laptop now and then) so we try to encourage children to do data recording by mark making- Older children were encouraged to find some worms from a tray of earth within a certain amount of time ( sand timer) They then recorded on a graph how many they had found, by drawing the correct number of worms ( wriggly lines), younger children took part by exploring the dirt and worms and some drew wriggly lines with crayons.

 

Thursday repeat of Tuesday

Friday repeat of Wednesday

 

We chose these days to do repetition because it suits the attendance patterns of our children, other settings may choose to do each adult led activity over 2 consecutive days.

 

We then plan a whole list of what we call "complimentary activities" these cover all play areas, and are linked to the theme, they are not planned for any particular day or time, they are listed on our plans within their relevant play area, and discussed at the planning meeting as to possible learning or development (PLOD), the PLOD is likely to cover other areas of the curriculum as well as KUW 1&2, thus providing a balance across all learning areas. We then list and collate resources.

We set up (am and after lunch) with with one or more of these activities, and other play areas are left clear for children to self select as they arrive in the morning or finish lunch.

The list of activities are used to suppliment the childrens free choice time, for example if jigsaws are out and no children are showing an interest then the staff either initiate one of the complimentary activities or just put out resources linked to one of these activities and observe how the children respond to them. On our daily activity evaluation sheets we record how children respond to or change any given activity, thus showing their interests and self initiated learning.

 

for example this week we planned: ( I'm doing this by memory, haven't got plans in front of me)

 

Art / creative Area: Spaghetti painting. Making worms ( tights and tube foam and thread to bind)

 

Construction Area Small bricks to make enclosures ( representing a wormory 2D)

 

Role Play- Home corner Noodles and chopsticks ( still a favourite since chinese new year) + playdough to roll into worms and cook

which leads me to the poem

 

Nobody loves me, everybody hates me, so...

I'm going down the garden to eat worms.

Long thin slimy ones,

short fat furry ones,

ooey, gooey, ooey, gooey Worms

Long thin slimy ones slip down easily

short fat furry ones don't.

Short fat furry ones, stick in my teeth,

and the juice goes ssslurp down my throat.

 

this was repeated at mat time and all the children reassured me that they loved me aaah. I pretended I ate worms to make me feel less sad, to cheer me up. When I asked the children "What do you do to cheer up they all said " I go down the garden and eat......flowers, grass, spiders, but no-one would admit to eating worms - I digress.......

 

Physical Area ( gross motor) - we laid out rope to define a curvy path for the children to ride the bikes and scooters along.

 

Writing / Office area I do not agree with using worksheets but we do have as free choice, made available within the writing area laminated sheets used with drywipe pens, which encourage pre-writing pencil control, basically they follow a wriggly line from left to right on the page, for example we have one that has a bird drawn on the left and a worm drawn on the right. The older children do choose to access these, along with all other "Stationary" available in this area.

 

Messy / Malleable area We changed the sand to compost and bark with access to garden forks and spoons for digging.

 

Discovery area Wormery, magnifiers, non fiction reference books about worms and we added ribbons, pipecleaners and string to do worm dances with.

 

Sorry, long reply but I am still really enthusiastic even after 20 yrs, when I see how much the children got involved and were motivated to try so many new and different things in just one week........next week the dirt goes on the floor, lots of it for Bob the Builder story topic

( as the owner I spend most of the week at the home/office doing paperwork, but I went in to preschool for 3 sessions this week, so I am sure lots more than what I have said above happened, It is all recorded in our planning and evaluation book)

 

This does look a lot but as far as planning is concerned we do 2 adult led plans and then 1st thoughts on resourcing all the areas, we then just follow the childrens lead, but have an activity in mind should they show little interest in the continuous provision, self select opportunities.

 

bet you wish you hadn't asked now

 

Peggy

[Inge]

This sounds so similar its a bit spooky!!

 

Only real difference is we have an adult led activity each day diffrerent, most of the children attend 5 days a week.

 

we have great problems with free choice so are developing a book or resource file of pictures for children to access and choose from...(under construction) ..... or we do find they choose the same every day as they they have favourites and forget what else is available.

 

we vaguely plan around a topic there is one each term but are finding more and more that this is left behind in following the children and thier responses as well as their needs.

 

Inge

 

oops...sorry not written in the best english .. reverting to a second language!!

Edited February 24, 2006 by Inge

[Guest]

Hi Peggy.

 

I was reading your earlier reply about focus activities and adult led activities and was interested in the idea of children choosing their own activities after lunch and so on.

 

Our setting is currently experiencing some difficulties in encouraging the children to listen at various times throughout the day. Our local early years team has been out to visit us and have given us some resources to use, such as behaviour cards and they introduced us to the idea of a treasure box. Unfortunately, there are only some members of the team who are not too enthusiastic about these methods and often refuse to try them. We are slowly getting there though!

 

Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that in order to encourage the listening skills of the children, we have started asking them to do good sitting and good listening etc and as a reward for doing so, the children are offered the opportunity to choose their own activities/equipment (after circle time mainly). I was just wondering whether this would be seen as a positive with Ofsted? Is this something they look for?

 

As I'm fairly newly qualified, I haven't yet been part of an inspection so was just wondering really.

 

Thanks, Clare

[Sue R]

Inge,

 

Funny that, we found the same with free choice, the children kept choosing the same stuff - we found it boring, never mind them, so we encouraged the children to have a sort in the store cupboard, taking photos of everything. These were mounted on A4 sheets and children wrote captions. The resultant file is now displayed in the main playroom for reference when we have a children's choice - each area at least once a week - it works really well and also helps us remember what we've got!!

 

Clare - I wouldn't get too het up about the big O and what they might like. They're far more likely to look at the big picture and if it works with listening, behaviour etc. it'll be OK. Why shouldn't they be rewarded for the good stuff, anyway??

 

Sue

[Deb]

Wow Peggy, so glad I asked! It's so useful when trying to evaluate our practice to see what others do and especially as you explained everything in such detail which is great for someone like me to really understand it.

 

Do you offer full day care? Have you any staff vacancies, I'd love to come and see all this in action for myself

 

It's interesting to read your comment about Mondays being a settling in time for children after the weekend, which we do too. We've got some lovely new equipment for the children to play with tomorrow so looking forward to that.

 

Armed with the knowledge of what some settings do, I can feel more confident about making suggestions about how we might work to best meet the needs of the children, at our weekly staff meetings.

 

Thanks you very much for taking the time to reply in such detail.

 

Deb

[Guest]

Hi Peggy.

 

I was reading your earlier reply about focus activities and adult led activities and was interested in the idea of children choosing their own activities after lunch and so on.

 

Our setting is currently experiencing some difficulties in encouraging the children to listen at various times throughout the day. Our local early years team has been out to visit us and have given us some resources to use, such as behaviour cards and they introduced us to the idea of a treasure box. Unfortunately, there are only some members of the team who are not too enthusiastic about these methods and often refuse to try them. We are slowly getting there though!

 

Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that in order to encourage the listening skills of the children, we have started asking them to do good sitting and good listening etc and as a reward for doing so, the children are offered the opportunity to choose their own activities/equipment (after circle time mainly). I was just wondering whether this would be seen as a positive with Ofsted? Is this something they look for?

 

As I'm fairly newly qualified, I haven't yet been part of an inspection so was just wondering really.

 

Thanks, Clare 

49024[/snapback]

 

 

Hi, Just to further explain, every area in my preschool is resourced with draws, boxes ( ie: with a variety of construction equipment), shelf units etc. So EVERYTHING can be independently self selected by the children. However, at set-up times, morning or after lunch, it is often the adults who will place resources out on tables or mats. What we do is leave the tables or mats empty, so that the children use their decision making skills to choose what they want from the draws, boxes etc. The content of draws are changed from our store cupboard ie: draw with jigsaws in are changed to enable renewed interest. We are in a hall and have to put everything away each day, so I bought wheeled units (luckily not too expensive second hand). We do our adult led activities alongside free choice, encouraging children to take part in the adult led throughout the session.

 

Your idea for rewarding good sitting / listening is good but I'd like to add that children need praise for these skills EVERY time they do it (behaviour modification) not just after a certain adult led activity such as circle time, otherwise this may become a time when children choose to test their boundaries. A climate of constant praise ( and ignoring testing behaviour when safe to do so) will get the best results and the wanted behaviour becomes second nature to the children. ( sorry if I'm taching you to suck eggs). I personally feel that the use of behaviour cards may be useful in the short term, but they are not a method that can be experienced by the children in a consistent way ( ie: unless it is followed up at home) So in their real life context behaviour cards is a method only used at preschool. Much better that they learn through praise which is available in every part of their daily life ( if you see what I mean)

I agree that you shouldn't worry too much about Ofsted, just know your 14 Standards, the FSC and the 5 outcomes, and know why you do things they way you do, ( led by your knowledge of your children) and you won't go far wrong.

 

Peggy

p.s. I am extended hours ( registered as full day) term time only and always open to employing dedicated people like the people who use this forum.

[Rea]

It might also depend on what the children are being asked to sit for or to listen to. I get very bored on occassions when I have to sit on the mat listening to a story that goes on and on and on. I get bored and fidget when I dont understand the topic of conversation, for example last week the children were being asked individually on the mat what they had done during the holidays, most replies were 'I didnt go on holiday' ! I dont like to sit when I can see an interesting activity being set up or when I hear something outside the window and need to look at what it is. In short I dont like sitting. I'm 41 and have had many years to get used to it and learn it but I dont like it and avoid it when I can. I know its a skill we need to help the children to learn, so much of school life depends on it. But i really would rather make the sitting and listening fun than have to use cards or pointed praise. I've always worked on the premise that if the children are behaving badly they are reacting to what I have planned, and thats when I need to reflect on my plans and look at a different way of getting the message across.

[Rea]

Just reread that, it shouldnt have sounded so critical, blame the PMT

[Guest]

Just reread that, it shouldnt have sounded so critical,  blame the PMT 

49387[/snapback]

 

 

Would that be Prime Minister Tony??? for leading all the educational reforms???

 

Good point made, I think sitting should be banned, unless you need a rest from active learning.

 

Peggy

[Susan]

There's a lot of behavioural issues that could addressed in that way, Rea although sometimes of course, other issues do impinge!

 

I always encouraged my team, when complaining of childrens behaviour to look at their delivery etc and make sure expectations were appropriate and attainable.

[Guest]

I think you make a very good point, Rea. Double standards happen too often. Why should we expect children to do things that we don't do ourselves? Many adults are actually quite poor at listening to each other, & even worse, to children. And if we're talking to a colleague when someone reads a story, why should we expect them to be quiet?

[Rea]

Thats the worst, when adults are talking but the children are expected to sit quietly 'trying' to hear the story. We should never forget we are role models, I've seen a book on Amazon called 'you do' it's a little girls response to her mom when she's told not to do things. It's in my shopping basket.

[Guest]

Thats the worst, when adults are talking but the children are expected to sit quietly 'trying' to hear the story.    We should never forget we are role models, I've seen a book on Amazon called 'you do' it's a little girls response to her mom when she's told not to do things. It's in my shopping basket. 

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who is the book by, just done a search on amazon but i can't find it

thanks

[Rea]

Kes Grey and Nick Sharratt. Kes Grey also did 'eat your peas', 'Yuk', 'really really' and 'Billy's bucket' all of which have been given good reviews

[Guest]

Kes Grey and Nick Sharratt. Kes Grey also did 'eat your peas', 'Yuk', 'really really' and 'Billy's bucket' all of which have been given good reviews 

49476[/snapback]

 

Thanks just put it in my shopping basket!!!!!

[Guest]

The behaviour thing appears to be getting better now. We have finally established a consistent team of adults and one of the level 2 girls has been removed from the room because of the way she sometimes talks and interacts ewith the children. So things are finally getting better!

 

Went to work yesterday and showed my manager my new planning idea sheets. I was a bit nervous until she smiled (she doesn't often!) and said they were brilliant, particularly the booklet idea that Nic gave me (thanks Nic!) Thanks to my new sheets, I am starting to feel less stressed with the whole planning thing. It's actually becoming a pleasure! Never thought I'd hear myself say that!

 

In terms of the behaviour issues, the children are unfortunately asked to sit down quite a lot, but this leads back to a way of quieting them down. It's not an ideal situation, but we are slowly working towards a way of overcoming this. We do offer the children rewards in the forms of stickers and I have noticed that the children are getting bored with this so I have started to write on a piece of paper, the thing they did that was really good and I have started to stick their stickers onto this. This has been an advantage because I feel it is involving the parents a little bit more. When their child goes home with evidence of their good behaviour, I think (or rather hope!) that the parents are encourgaed to continue praising and rewarding them when they have done something really good at home too.

 

I agree with the card idea (about it not being carried on at home) and I also agree with the not being made to sit for ages. These are issues that are being worked on.

 

Just want to say a huge thank you, to everyone that has given me some advice on this subject. It's made me a whole lot happier in my job!

 

Clare

[Guest]

Glad to hear things are turning around for you, sometimes just sounding off makes things better ( off your chest and all that). Nice to hear you are having some praise yourself from the manager too

 

Peggy

[Guest]

Just a quick question...

 

When planning, I am filling in activities that are going to be set up within the learning areas around the room. However, I do not have sufficient room on my sheets to write down exactly how the activity is supposed to go. I know in my mind what I want the children to gain from the activity.

 

I have one focus activity per day going on and the intention is to cover all the areas within the room over the space of a week. This means that the other activities that are not focus activities are child initiated, using the equipment/resources I have planned for them to use. Therefore, the focus activities are adult-led. Does this sound about right??

 

Apologies in advance if I have confused anyone, but I'm beginning to confuse myself with it all!! I would really appreciate some help with this. If you're confused, I can attach this week's planning for you to have a look at and to maybe see where I am coming from!

 

Big, big thanks in advance!!

[Guest]

I think if you write on your planning how you think exactly how the activity is to go in each learning area, then this becomes adult led and not child initiated ( in a sense the adult choosing the resource has some influence on what the children will gain from the learning area).

 

In my preschool, each week we define an area of learning and a few aspects from this area of learning, this is the "focus" for the adults role. As we know all areas of learning ( pse, maths, kuw etc) can be covered in all learning areas ( art, writing area, books, role play etc, we call them play zones - so as not to confuse).

The staff know the "curriculum focus" and interact with the children accordingly ie: by the use of open questions, stating their observations ie: I see that you have painted three red dots and one blue one in your flower painting ( Area of learning maths, Aspect 2- play zone art)

 

However this should not stop the adults interacting and being led by the childrens own learning focus, ie: if the child who painted the flower said, "look at my flower, it smells nice" I wouldn't want my staff to be talking numbers of dots, I would expect them to focus on the childs interest in sensory awarness of smell and zoom off to the store to get a bottle of essence to add to the paint.

 

So to answer your question, especially as you are working with staff at different "trained" levels, I would suggest putting a prompt card ( A5), near each activity- I made some on laminated card- Name of activity ie Painting. L. Area focus - Maths -Aspect 2 ( if they don't know the aspect get them to look it up or they will never learn it if you keep writing it down for them all the time- trust me, I know )

Adult Role ie: Identify sets of numbers in childrens play.

Questions: Shall we add one more......? How many all together? One ...............is missing, how many left?

 

Eventually get the staff to write their own cue cards.

 

Does this help?

 

Peggy

[Guest]

p.s. It is the staffs evaluation of the activity which will show what children have learnt, (either through their own intuative ability to learn themselves or through adult interaction) this can be recorded in the planning book as "retrospective", from this information you can better plan what resources to place in the play zone next time those children are in.

 

Peggy