Help with planning please!

[hannah1986]

Hiya

I am getting a bit confused with the planning side of things. I have done my long term plan for the year of what themes I want to look to at / festivals etc. for medium I have looked at the topic of the month then listed activities relating to that. However with short term plans Im not too sure how you do them- do you choose a few activties from medium plan and then say how that activity fits into the eyfs?

Also how do others do their planning- in terms so spring/autumn etc or by month??

Thanks
Hannahx

[moggy]

Goodness, you do a lot already! What ages do you have? I only have 1-2.5yr olds so I do minimal planning and keep it all flexible and child-led really- weekly plan is just a Mon-Fri sheet with places we go like 'toddler group', 'toy library' etc, and a note like 'playground' or 'painting' but if they don't fancy it that day we do something else. Long term plan is just festivals and seasons. I do not link my planning to EYFS as I know what the activities link to in my head and I know I cover everything and my obs also show I cover all areas, if you are new to it all it helps to link if you want. Some do retrospective planning where you write what you did and evaluate rather than trying to plan ahead. If you have older children in your care you probably want more structure to your planning. There is no right or wrong- find system you like and tweak it if it does not work for you. One person's planning system will not work for another person, it is very personal- depends on you, your style, your children, your home...

[hannah1986]

Thanks for your reply. I have only just started up so at the moment I only have 1 little girl who is 2 but I am just trying to get it organised so that when I do take on more then I at least have a better idea of what im doing!!

Do you have a separate folder with your planning in?

Hannahx

[VeggieSausage]

I have a planning folder that is divided into months. I have long term planning - calendar of the years festivals etc I want to celebrate and note of children's birthdays. Then I have some activity ideas for a theme a month and then each child has a monthly planning sheet that I put in their learning journey. I fill this in as I go through the month and on it I write things like - mum says Child X likes cars at home so I got all the cars out to play with, or I noticed child x was interested in slides at toddler group so we will go to the park to play on the slides, I write on it outings we have been on eg toddler group and then on the back I stick a couple of photos showing children doing said activities. Don't spend lots of time on group planing as with little ones it is meant to be led by them....their interests and their development....

[moggy]

Thanks for your reply. I have only just started up so at the moment I only have 1 little girl who is 2 but I am just trying to get it organised so that when I do take on more then I at least have a better idea of what im doing!!

Do you have a separate folder with your planning in?

Hannahx

No, I don't like getting folders out! I have a wall planner for CMing where I write who is here and festivals, birthdays, holidays etc. I have a A5 sheet with Mon-Fri on my wall by the door where I put 'library' 'toddler group' 'baking' or whatever (just one thing a day usually) so parents can see it too and I keep them in a folder so I can refer back to them and add notes if I want. Then I might make more specific notes in my diary like a particular craft/art thing I want to do. Apart from that I make it up as I go along!

[chezzagriff]

After reading this Im still confused.lol. I was going to do a weekly plan with maybe one or 2 set activities for each day, These activities would be more to link with next steps from my observations. Whats all this about monthly and yearly too?