When to plan...

[Nicola]

Evening all.... I am new to this and desperate for answers, so I have had a good luk round but cannot find exactly the answers I need.
I have just started minding again after being on Maternity leave and so am having to put the EYFS into place now.
I am totally stuck with planning part, when and how often I have to do it.
My impression is long term planning can be done just to note things like seasons, festivals and b'days etc for the yr?, then medium planning this is whats happening within the wk, and then daily planning.
What I would do is a yr plan which is broken down into mths which records xmas, valentines day, seasons etc.
Medium plan, which breaks this into wks and then a daily plan for what happens each day.???
But if your long term plan is for seasons and stuff, when do you get this into your daily plan if your daily plan is the childs individual interests? or would you just for example do the seasons at the beg of the wk and then the childs interests the rest of the wk?
And the obs, do you do this as and when ya do something interesting and when they do something that stands out, like use scissors for the first time etc?
Sorry to go on but I need to get this straight in my head!:panic:

[sarah707]

FIRST come your observations... without them you cannot plan.

See what the child can do, what he says, how he learns, what interests him...

THEN put in place your individual planning for the child to build on everything you have seen and heard.

THEN with the rest of the time, have planned activities available that follow his interests and learning styles and relate to the seasons, special occasions from our multicultural and global calendar, birthdays etc.

Hth :D

[nannymcflea]

Hello,
I do not do any long term planning. I do mine monthly and even these change.
I look at my obs and see where the children need to go it the 6 areas of EYFS. I see what they like to do and plan around that.

eg. i have a child who likes to line things up, I have incorperated colours and counting into this activity,I do a colour a week and we sort out all the toys of that colour from the boxes at the beginning of the week,these we leave out and at the end of the week we line them up and count them then it's tidy up time.

Of course the child will line up other items as and when they want but this way I can make sure I cover different different areas by planning.

I try not to get too hung up by planning as some days are fantastic when the planning goes out the window and we spend a day in the snow or kicking leaves.

I think the main thing is to know your children, see what makes them tick and go with them, some activities can be bizzare but they work for the children

sorry to waffle!

[Nicola]

Thanku.
I am really struggling with it all, I think I am looking too deep into it and confusing myself, I went on the EYFS course but I was pregnant at the time and my head was like mush anyway so it went in one ear and out the other! Baby only 8 wk old and so find might still be mush! he he!

So my understanding now is obs first, plan wkly for each ind child around their interests and also around my themes that I have for each mth, then continue to obs to plan forward and move them onto the next stage.

How do you use the EYFS guidance book? or do you use it? eg. in the areas of learning there are sub titles, which one do you do work from first or does it not matter? thats confusing me.... it all seems so complicated in there!

[angeldelight]

Thanku.
I am really struggling with it all, I think I am looking too deep into it and confusing myself, I went on the EYFS course but I was pregnant at the time and my head was like mush anyway so it went in one ear and out the other! Baby only 8 wk old and so find might still be mush! he he!

So my understanding now is obs first, plan wkly for each ind child around their interests and also around my themes that I have for each mth, then continue to obs to plan forward and move them onto the next stage.

How do you use the EYFS guidance book? or do you use it? eg. in the areas of learning there are sub titles, which one do you do work from first or does it not matter? thats confusing me.... it all seems so complicated in there!


You will soon get the hang of it and it will take time

Take a look here and have a read it should give you some guidance

http://nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/eyfs/taxonomy/33689/33699/0/46384

If you are still stuck give us a shout

Angel xx

[Nicola]

Thanks Angel, it is a bit clearer on there!
I just cannot get to grips with which sub header to look at and when, I get the areas and the asge thing and this is the childs stage, but which sub area do you use?
God I feel soooooooo thick!? sorry!