Planning

[MissTinkerbell]

Being an ex Early Years teacher this is going to be a really stupid question and one that I really should know the answer too (and probably do!) but wanted to gather other's opinions.

How do you set out your planning for those of you who have started EYFS?

When I was teachimg we had the following:

Long Term Plans - our focus for each area, for the whole academic year

Medium Term Planning - more detailed planning for each area for a term

Short Term Planning - the weekly/daily stuff

Now I want to do something similar but not in the same amount of detail as for teaching. Do you all have long, medium and short term plans and how do you organise it?

I was thinking of the following:

Long - the focus for each month, and then each mini theme for that month - just a heading/question

Medium - more detailed weekly plans with activities, the developmental matters from EYFS, adult role and resources

Short - my daily activity record - activities split into adult led and child-initiated, a space for which ares of learning and a space to make general obs (as opposed to the more detailed ones that form part of the Learning Journey).

Is that similar to what everyone else is doing?

I really should know all this and have some confidence in my own abilities but although I've been a teacher for 12 years this is all new.

[sarah707]

My long term plan shows festivals, celebrations, seasons, special events in our lives, special days etc for each month...

My short term plan shows individual planning for each child each day... it doesn't run longer than a week and it is based on observations that I have done the day or few days before.

I don't do a medium term plan any more because it rarely happens (we are too busy doing other things) and it is unnecessary duplication (the stuff is already written down on my short and long term plans).

Hope this helps!

[JOANNE]

I am baffled at "How" to document my planning- do you do it for each child or do you just write it down at random?
This is the part of the EYFS that is really freaking me out, any suggestions would be gratefully recieved.

[sarah707]

Personalised / individual planning

Child A... age 2.3... observations - suggest she is showing evidence of an enveloping schema... next steps - provide bags and boxes; go outside and collect leaves in a basket for a collage.

Child B... age 4.6... observations - suggest he is starting to make marks that have meaning to him... next steps - make marks using playdough, different coloured sand, various pencils & pens.

Group planning

Tomorrow is xxx day. Plan a cooking activity to celebrate the festival. Look at the ages of children and differentiate the activity. So child A will enjoy helping to stir etc. Both can be involved in weighing and measuring but Child B will benefit from looking closely at the scales and doing some estimating.

Evaluate the cooking activity by thinking what you might do differently next time. Ask children what they liked best. Involve parents by sharing the goodies / recipe in your newsletter. Get parents to feedback about what the child said s/he enjoyed and make a note.

Hope this makes sense.

[Monkey1]

Sarah always has the best advice on this subject, there are also lots of planning sheets/ forms etc on the Bromley site.

[miffy]

Interesting reading - thank you for sharing your thoughts ladies

miffy xx

[JOANNE]

Thanks for the reply, it has helped alot x

[Tatia]

I've just tucked into my planning with a gusto, now the dread NVQ is out of my hair.

I bought Sarah's multi-cultural pack and in it is a calendar for each month of the year with festivals and celebrations already there. I've printed those off, added my own specal dates (birthdays, Sabbats and other days that are relevent to my setting) and popped them into the binder as my long-term planning (thanks Sarah for the idea and the oh-so-helpful e-book - am I starting to sound like your PR rep? ).

My medium-term planning will be half-termly and will be selected activities, planned out more fully. I'll do an individual plan for the focus activities of the upcoming 6 weeks, ummm, say Beltane (also known as May Day). I have a planning sheet I created that lists resources I'll need (streamers for Maypole, materials to make paper flower garlands, music to dance to, a cd player, all the bits you might otherwise forget about); which children are (likely to be) present (I know that LW, LR and SS are all likely to be there and what ages they are); links to EYFS (PSD, PD, CD); next steps (enjoyed making paper flower garlands, perhaps make birthday crowns next), that sort of thing. I always add an evaluation to these activities after wards.

Short-term planning is individual for each child and these, along with observations, go into their learning stories. I'm already doing this part. This is weekly or more likely, daily, as I follow the child's interests. So while their short-term planning will include an activity I've planned for everyone, it will be personalized as to their age and ability.