open minded planning ok?

[samkeddy]

Hi,
Sorry for yet another planning post, my question is, i plan to do an activity expecting it to relate to one area of L&D but then the children may play completly different to how i expected so it then has related to something else,
E.G. i plan to hide objects in sand and want the children to find and collect them (KUW, exploring) but children prefere making patterns and castles (CD, PD). So is it ok to just have a basic plan E.G sand play then link it to the EYFS after saying what the children got out of it rather than trying to link all my weekly planing to EYFS?

just for background info, the children are 2 2yr olds and a 1yr old, and i do a weekly group plan (this is what im referring to) and i do individual plans weekly that are linked to interests and eyfs areas.

Thanks again for any help x :)

[FussyElmo]

I think that planning should be open ended. Yes you may set up an activity to see a particular area but if the child goes off on another tangent you are following the childs interest.

My weekly plans tend to have alot of scribbles and changes on it:)

[Leanne59]

I think that planning should be open ended. Yes you may set up an activity to see a particular area but if the child goes off on another tangent you are following the childs interest.

My weekly plans tend to have alot of scribbles and changes on it:)

ofsted like this!

[sarah707]

My planning is very loose and much of it is written up after the event when I've seen what the children have enjoyed / wanted to do etc. :D

[TheBTeam]

My planning is very loose and much of it is written up after the event when I've seen what the children have enjoyed / wanted to do etc. :D

I can see why you do what you do, but isnt the point of 'planning' that it is before the event, do they still call it planning when it is retrospective iyswim:panic: :confused:

[huggableshelly]

planning doesnt work for me mainly due to anything i put out the mindees ignore and select their own toys so all i do is make a rough note such as:

mindee A: colour recognition, sizing, counting and balancing
mindee B: counting backwards, pattern recognition, role play, story telling
mindee C: settling in period, what does child do? any goals achieved yet?

how we do it is up to the kiddies not me, its their planning with my imput but they are far too young to help with "real" written planning.

afterschoolers again basically do what they wish too afterschool. I tried planning for them too but they never want to do what is planned or they are tired after school and want to chill with paper and pens rather than a trip to the park etc.

Ofsted didnt like my approach to planning but didnt state that I needed to change it either. it works for me so sticking with it :D

[samkeddy]

My planning is very loose and much of it is written up after the event when I've seen what the children have enjoyed / wanted to do etc. :D
Thanks sarah thats what i wanted to hear, especially from u seen as most my research is based on ur ebooks! So if i do a plan of activities then figure out what they got out of it from the eyfs after that should be ok?

[sarah707]

I can see why you do what you do, but isnt the point of 'planning' that it is before the event, do they still call it planning when it is retrospective iyswim:panic: :confused:

For the older children (over 3s mostly) I have my 2 ways of planning - individual and themed planning...

I've posted lots of different themed ideas in the activity ideas section of the forum and that's what I'm talking about here.

It gives me a base from which I can work.

Sometimes I do it as continuous provision planning, sometimes following the 6 areas of L & D like a spider gram. At the moment I am favouring CP as it is working well for me, but I still do the other type too.

Then I introduce the theme and some ideas to the children and we sit and brainstorm what they might enjoy doing... usually over snack.

I then incorporate their ideas into the planning too... that's why I said it was loose, because it's my writing, not theirs in the initial stages.

With their ideas (and shopping lists for resources / making and doing ideas etc) in place, I update my planning sheets as I go along.

So I suppose it's a bit of an amalgam of adult led and child initiated... which is what the Eyfs is all about.

The retrospective bits come in again when the ideas are developing and the children are coming up with new ideas, all of which I might find useful next year or the year after with different children (or might go into a future e-book), so I write them down.

Does that make sense it's been a long day :o :D

[margaret]

I do something similar to Sarah and its worked for me ,was graded outstanding for 2nd time today ,inspector was with me and 4 mindees for 3hrs,time flew by and thankfully it was a warm day in garden,I can relax now this weekend and then start again on paperwork next week.

[Chell]

I was wondering if what I am doing is ok. I have a table with the days marked and the time the child is with me. I have typed in brief plans (very brief as we are settling in) and then typed in a different colour font when there has been a change eg for example the little girl spoke about blossom the other day when out walking. The following day we made blosson pictures.

I have two mindees but they are never here together so their plans are seperate.

[sarah707]

I do something similar to Sarah and its worked for me ,was graded outstanding for 2nd time today ,inspector was with me and 4 mindees for 3hrs,time flew by and thankfully it was a warm day in garden,I can relax now this weekend and then start again on paperwork next week.

CONGRATULATIONS! :clapping: :jump for joy: :clapping:

[sarah707]

I was wondering if what I am doing is ok. I have a table with the days marked and the time the child is with me. I have typed in brief plans (very brief as we are settling in) and then typed in a different colour font when there has been a change eg for example the little girl spoke about blossom the other day when out walking. The following day we made blosson pictures.

I have two mindees but they are never here together so their plans are seperate.

That sounds lovely!

We used some pussy willow for painting the other day and stuck blossoms that had fallen from the tree next door into the paint :D