Cheeky Question - Planning and Observations

[Rasharoon]

I'm being totally honest here to say that in the 4 months I've been minding, to a degree, I have let the children utilise the equipment/toys etc I have with no planning. (I have two 4 year olds and one 8 eight year old). I've got to a point now that I want to start planning and observing what they are doing so as I can record all necessary info.
Thing is - I don't know where to start and was wondering if anybody had any templates they would mind sharing to start me off.
Sorry if this sounds cheeky but I'm being honest in that I get bored watching them just scribble on paper all the time (even though this is what they want to do).
And Themes - what type of Themes do people do and how do you plan/prepare.
Thank you as ever for any help.
x
ps: noticed that I show as only 6 posts but in the forum I was hitting 100.

[Spangles]

Hi Rasharoon

I would pm Pauline about your post count to get it sorted!

I'll be back on later to answer this better hopefully but just wanted to advise you re. Pauline!

Byeeeeeeeeee!

[chez1373]

Hi can anyone send me a form to use for observation and with a little hint as to how to fill it in

thanks

[Wiggly]

I think it was Monkey yesterday who put a huge list of theme ideas on here.

Wiggly
x

[angeldelight]

was it in full members though Susan ? Not sure now

Angel xx

[sarah707]

My observation form is nothing special - if it's birth to 3, it's an a4 piece of paper split into 4, with each section headed up 'strong child', 'skilful communicator' etc. When I spot a child doing something I think needs to go on an obs, I add a note to the relevant section.... so little baby has just stopped screaming long enough to say 'mamamama' for first time here, I'll add that to 'skilful communicator - finding a voice' and when he moves across the floor to reach for a toy without falling over, that's a note in 'strong child' and if he eats his lunch using fingers for the bread, that might be worth a note in 'healthy child' ...

Same with foundation stage / eyfs - just a piece of a4 separated into 6, with headers again... so for eyfs baby saying 'mamama', that would go in communication, language and lit; baby not falling when reaching would be in 'physical development'. Only difference here is I would look in the learning and development notes from the eyfs and see if he's met a milestone with what he is doing... and see where else I could take his learning and development using the advice there.. then I would, of course, inform his parents how clever their little boy is :D

Hope this helps!