AnonyMouse_33615 Posted February 23, 2011 Posted February 23, 2011 I have been reading the whole thread with interest too, it sounds fantastic! I'm just interested to know Biccy if you still do this, as I notice the thread is from 2008?
Guest Posted February 23, 2011 Posted February 23, 2011 Long story but I'm afraid not but not because it didn't work just a change of personal. I still strongly support the approach and hope to bring it back when I go back into nursery in September.
Guest Posted February 23, 2011 Posted February 23, 2011 Children have an input but it is adult led themes, we plan like this but with ideas for topics from the children, we could have a couple on the go at any one time. Good for child to have a voice though
AnonyMouse_13453 Posted February 23, 2011 Posted February 23, 2011 Our two best learning walls have been child led, totally - the only adult input was the scribing and physically sticking pictures up where they were out of a child's reach. It was the children's idea to find out about cats - I thought they would go to dogs after that and prepared for it, but they didn't - they went on to big cats and we all learned all kinds of amazing things. The same with sharks - that came from a group of children arguing about sharks biting and they asked me if there was a book in our bookbox about sharks. None of these were planned, we don't have one on the go all the time, and that's what makes them special when they DO crop up
Guest Posted February 23, 2011 Posted February 23, 2011 Children have an input but it is adult led themes Ideally the themes would be totally child lead but unfortunately in school we are expected to follow a full school theme plan so this was our way of balancing being pulled in 2 directions. We managed to reword the 6 themes we were given to be more open ended eg.'Houses and Homes' became 'Through the Keyhole...' Recently when we were exploring Polar animals (reception) we were told by Year 1 'don't do penguins' as we do that with Barnaby bear!!!
Guest Posted February 24, 2011 Posted February 24, 2011 (edited) browneyedgirl-i'm sorry I've not replied but i need to find time to answer in detail. Don't be sorry for the delay at all - you've been very helpful We used one wall with scribed sheets from each session. Slight differences in session interests but didn't cause a massive problem.Same principles applied to both sessions eg Role play being vets but as staff we knew that am children were interested in being the vet and medical side and afternoons in being the animal patient and adjusted our involvement accordingly. We did have a rough idea of a weekly overview. We used to forwarn the children before a holiday'After the holiday we will be thinking about the animals you might have in your home' Requests to parents usually had a leader on weekly newsletter 'Next week we will be talking about pets the children have at home. If you have a photo of a pet you child could share we'd love to see it and add it to our learning wall' Each term we tried to have a home involvement activity. When we did pets it was a pet show. The children took home an entry form with a few questions and a space for a picture. We had a 'show' and each child brought a soft toy pet and everyone got a certificate. Thank you for some super ideas! Edited February 24, 2011 by Guest
Guest Posted February 24, 2011 Posted February 24, 2011 (edited) Having read some more of this post , i can tell you how we plan with our small children (2 1/2 - 4 1/2 yrs) the children have an input by being asked what they want to do. We tell them what we are thinking about, this will be taken from observations of the children ,so eg some children had been playing fireman, we based our topic around fireman. so during our welcome time we asked if they would like a theme of 'fireman'? yes they said the children are then asked what they would like to do suggestions where:- make fire trucks from junk, paint a fire engine, turn on the alarm on the fire engine, make fairy cakes with pink icing and glitter on it - we did this all including the pink cakes, no not anything to do with fire man but it was where some of my children are at that moment in time and their contribution is just as valid and important We took lots of photo's of the activities and paintings these were made into a display on a board (which incidentently hangs from hooks on the radiator, so at child height) and other photo's taken of other activites including the visit from the fireman and engine (yum men in uniform..... sorry getting waylaid there) are cut and glued out by the children and placed with post it note comments from the chidlren as they were cutting and sticking into a 'talking book' - this is a scrap book which we fill with photo's of activities or adventures we have had. The pictures are often completely cut up stuck in the wrong way etc but the children love it and it is their own work Edited February 24, 2011 by Suer
Guest Posted February 24, 2011 Posted February 24, 2011 (edited) Thank you for some super ideas! This maybe useful for your pet topic Dog week I found a couple of photo's- pet show, display of returned pet show entry forms from home and our bear working wall which show things from home, photo's, scribed sheets from class discussions. The teddybear shapes are ideas and comments from specific children.Also the form the children took home for the pet show! Edited February 24, 2011 by Guest
Guest Posted February 25, 2011 Posted February 25, 2011 I have a wonder wall - children tell me what they already know about a topic and then we think about what else we could find out (explore/investigate). Throughout the topic the wall informs my planning. Questions raised are typed and placed on the wonder wall. At the end of the topic we revisit the wall and add what we have found out. It's amazing to see in print/pictures what knowledge the children have gained and the skills used in finding out become embedded in each new topic.
AnonyMouse_13453 Posted February 25, 2011 Posted February 25, 2011 Yes, that sounds exactly the same as my Learning Wall. They are really great and I'm always sad when we take one down! Such 'visible' learning is wonderful!
Guest Posted February 25, 2011 Posted February 25, 2011 Can i just mention one thing....... you have some lovely learning walls but could they be at child height, children cant see them so well from so high
Guest Posted February 26, 2011 Posted February 26, 2011 Can i just mention one thing....... you have some lovely learning walls but could they be at child height, children cant see them so well from so high Totally agree! but sometimes you are restricted to whats available and room layout. Because we wanted to involve parents the first ones were on the cloakroom display boards ie above the coats. The later ones were in the main room because the parents knew what they were about and interacted with them. It did however make the children notice these boards so there were discussions from the children among themselves as they got ready for outdoors. Our headteacher has brought in a whole school rule 'only within and on a display board and no blutac on the walls' once we are redecorated. Foundation stage is the last in the whole school to be re-decorated and when asked 'Easter or Summer?' we opted for Summer so in September we will be even more restricted . The tardis worked ok so I'm already thinking of portable ideas.
AnonyMouse_26037 Posted February 26, 2011 Posted February 26, 2011 Biccy re. your portable displays - start saving any big bits of thick cardboard from deliveries. It's easy to cover with backing paper, very portable and I used it lots when I was in exactly the same situation as you last year. With any luck the powers that be will realise that it just doesn't look like a FS classroom without things on the walls and will be encouraging you to cover them soon - mine did!
Guest Posted February 27, 2011 Posted February 27, 2011 (edited) Having read some more of this post , i can tell you how we plan with our small children (2 1/2 - 4 1/2 yrs) the children have an input by being asked what they want to do. We tell them what we are thinking about, this will be taken from observations of the children ,so eg some children had been playing fireman, we based our topic around fireman. so during our welcome time we asked if they would like a theme of 'fireman'? yes they said the children are then asked what they would like to do suggestions where:- make fire trucks from junk, paint a fire engine, turn on the alarm on the fire engine, make fairy cakes with pink icing and glitter on it - we did this all including the pink cakes, no not anything to do with fire man but it was where some of my children are at that moment in time and their contribution is just as valid and important We took lots of photo's of the activities and paintings these were made into a display on a board (which incidentently hangs from hooks on the radiator, so at child height) and other photo's taken of other activites including the visit from the fireman and engine (yum men in uniform..... sorry getting waylaid there) are cut and glued out by the children and placed with post it note comments from the chidlren as they were cutting and sticking into a 'talking book' - this is a scrap book which we fill with photo's of activities or adventures we have had. The pictures are often completely cut up stuck in the wrong way etc but the children love it and it is their own work This maybe useful for your pet topic Dog week I found a couple of photo's- pet show, display of returned pet show entry forms from home and our bear working wall which show things from home, photo's, scribed sheets from class discussions. The teddybear shapes are ideas and comments from specific children.Also the form the children took home for the pet show! I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have access to the expertise on these forums! Suer, thank you for sharing how your learning wall works. You've really clarified the process for me a bit more. And I really like the talking book idea! Also thank you to biccy for the photos - it always helps me to understand if I can see something in practice. (I love the story sack and your pet show entry form too - I can see some idea-stealing going on! ) I'm looking forward to getting back to school tomorrow and making a start on our wall! I've planned some activities for Mon, Tue and Wed, but I'm waiting to see what ideas the children come up with tomorrow before I plan any further in advance. Edited February 27, 2011 by Guest
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