Is this an observation and is it too depressing:

[Rasharoon]

On the way home from pre-school with one of my 3 year old mindees, we have to walk through a church which has headstones. Little C often talks about them and asks what happened so I've tried to link to the EYFS.
Does this sound OK?

"On walking home from pre-school through the Church, C asks about the headstones in the graveyard and why they are there and how the people have died. He states that they have gone to sleep for a longtime and mentioned how his nanny and granddad (daddy’s parents) have died. Also mentioned that he goes to Mass with Mummy & Daddy and that he says a prayer before going to bed". Also said that Jesus lives in the Church.

I was going to link to KUW and Place. Is this right?

As for next steps, a bit stumped really. Would you use this as an Ob?

[Mollymop]

As far as I am aware you can use anything as an Ob, anything that you observe the children doing, saying.

It would also come under PSE (how it made him feel), CLL (he was talking to you about it)and if he counted the headstones, etc, PSR&N, it would also come under P.D (walking).
Observations are all about looking at the "bigger picture" ( so they said on my EYFS training)
I have found that most with most of my obs I do manage to tick all 6 areas of learning and dev., if you look closely and at the bigger picture xx

[hbomb1]

Sorry not much help, difficult one though. Like you say, what would next steps be???

Hopefully, some one will be along to help you. I'm not very good with obs and writing them up etc!

[MissTinkerbell]

When deciding if something is an observation or just something to put in the daily diary ask yourself:

1. Does it show a specific area of development that the child achieved for the first time?

2. Are you observing a specific area of development to see if a child has reached and attained that milestone?

3. Does the observation relate to a skill, disposition or attitude that you have been working on with the child?

If you answer yes to any of these questions then yes it is an observation to include in their learning journey. However if you have answered 'no' to all of the questions then I would note it down in the daily diary and possibly on a post it note but not do it as a formal observation linked to EYFS.

We only need to do an observation if it is relevant and tells us something about the child's development.

[Rasharoon]

Thanks all.

It was something that was already in C's diary so I'm not going to use as an Ob.

I'm just struggling in trying to put a learning journey together for little C as he only comes before and after school.

[sarah707]

Does he look at the letters on the gravestones? You could develop that by spotting different letter shapes in the environment...

Do you ever stop and do rubbings? You could do an obs of the children comparing rubbings on the stones to tree trunks, paving stones etc.

Hth :D

[Pauline]

I don't think it is depressing at all, I think it was good that he felt able to talk about such matters which are often kept from children.

Next step could be looking at life cycles - perhaps frogs and frogspawn or even new baby pictures and how we grow old.

Remember you don't always have to find a next step, you could put 'continue to support 'c' in his understanding of life and the world around him.