Child friendly planning - article quote
 

From page 2 of the Planning through winter book published by Practical Preschool - on amazon.co.uk this excerpt promotes the right of children to be involved with their own learning, have adults organise the environment with their best interests as the core reasoning, to play and be enabled in coming together to communicate with others.

Child friendly planning

The purpose of planning is to make sure that all children enjoy a broad and balanced experience of learning. Planning should be flexible, useful and child friendly. It should reflect opportunities available both indoors and outside. Plans form part of a planning cycle in which practitioners make observations, assess and plan.

Children benefit from reflective planning that takes into account the children's current interests and abilities and also allows them to take the next steps in their learning. Plans should make provision for activity that promotes learning and a desire to imagine, observe, communicate. experiment, investigate and create.

Plans should include a variety of types of activity. Some will be adult-initiated, that focus on key skills or concepts. These should be a balanced with opportunities for child-initiated activity where the children take a key role in the planning. In addition there is a need to plan for the on-going continuous provision areas such as construction, sand and water, malleable materials, small world, listening area, role play, and mark-making. Thought also needs to be given to the enhanced provision whereby an extra resource or change may enable further exploration, development and learning.

The outdoor environment provides valuable opportunities for children's learning. It is vital that plans value the use of the outdoor space.


Outdoor 'warmies' for staff! black hats and coloured gloves