Guest Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 hello am in need of a bit of help! Does anyone still do adult focused activities and complete an adult focused activity sheet, i am finding in my setting as the planning is coming more and more from the childrens interests this side of things has ceased to exist, is there still a place for it? Would someone help me and if they do have they got a copy of an adult focused activity sheet for me to look at please, getting a bit worried about this. We as a setting do plan from childrens interests, the children are offered choices from a choices board and keyworkers advise as to what resources they would like to be made available for their childrens 'next steps' all of this goes onto a weekly planning sheet, which is updated daily and as we progress through a session but still unsure about adult focused activities, at the moment the only thing being done with much adult intervention is any craft we may do for any displays. Hope i am making some sort of sense and someone can help me. Thank you in anticipation of your words of brilliant wisdom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 (edited) I think this varies depending on what county you are from. I've seen thats lots of people still do these adult focused activities however in my local area we have been advised not to do these. As you plan from the children's interests that is paramount and in my setting it had been said that adult focused activities comes in the form of song time, story times, snack etc. etc. Thats not to say we don't do craft activites with them or other such activites. We just don't have to do a specific plan. I'm sure someone will come along and say the opposite but I guess you have to work with what works for you. samfrostie Edited May 22, 2009 by samfrostie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_19782 Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 Hi, don't have any words of wisdom, but share concern! We are all so wrapped up in playing with the children, doing what they want, what we have observed they need and have planned for, no one is available to do much adult focused activities, unless, you change your routine and set up something out of child initiated play time, so we have 5 minutes on the mat before handwashing and snack time - we do an adult led activity then, which a member of staff could observe their children at, after snack time we have a 10 minute P.E. slot again adult led. We used to have a small groups time - not exactly Key Worker groups, you could try to work that into your routine. The planning for any of these activities can get into such time consuming things that was one of the reasons why we gave that up, but if you have very supportive staff who will plan for their own little groups that might work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 My understanding is that there should be about 50% adult led and 50% child initiated. The 50% adult led can include singing, story times etc and planned adult led activities e.g. cooking, showing a creative skill etc. These adult led activities can be related to children's interests anyway, rather than picking a topic which has little relevance for many children. If we have a circus in the town and many children had been to it, then we may plan some adult led activities round that rather than pick that topic 'out of the blue' when children have no experience of it. I'll be interested to hear if others have been told differently to the 50/50 split. Gruffalo2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 we have been told that it should be about 50/50 samfrostie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 Thanks samfrostie - glad to know we both have the same thinking Gruffalo2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 yep been told 50/50 split too 5o percent child initiated and 50 percnt childinitiated/child led although been told 80 percent of our observations should come from child initiatated learning ie through continuous provision!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 yep been told 50/50 split too 5o percent child initiated and 50 percnt childinitiated/child ledalthough been told 80 percent of our observations should come from child initiatated learning ie through continuous provision!! Who is telling you all this? I have found nothing official anywhere to back this up and have not been told any such thing. Are there any official publications/guidelines that actually state this? DDC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 From the EYFS guidance The EYFS requires providers to ensure a balance of child-initiated and adult-led play-based activities. Providers should use their judgement and their knowledge of the children in their care in deciding what the balance should be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 22, 2009 Share Posted May 22, 2009 From the EYFS guidance The EYFS requires providers to ensure a balance of child-initiated and adult-led play-based activities. Providers should use their judgement and their knowledge of the children in their care in deciding what the balance should be. There you go - use their judgement to decide the balance - not "it should be 50/50" - slightly different thing don't you think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_64 Posted May 23, 2009 Share Posted May 23, 2009 I think many people take it as quite a literal thing - balance, in more scientific/mathematical terms, must be 50/50. However, there is another definition of balance which is more to do with keeping things in proportion and harmony. The fact that this 50/50 isn't explicitly stated indicates to me that it wasn't supposed to be a literal interpretation, but rather about finding the right mix to suit the children and your setting. I always worked closer to 1/3rd's. 1/3rd adult led, 1/3rd adult initiated/supported, 1/3rd child initiated/led. During our 2 1/2 hour session no more than 3/4hrs of this would be adult led. However, when we had a much younger mix of children, or children who had shorter attention spans, the adult led time would be more like 1/4 of the session and the child initiated would be longer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 23, 2009 Share Posted May 23, 2009 I always worked closer to 1/3rd's. 1/3rd adult led, 1/3rd adult initiated/supported, 1/3rd child initiated/led. During our 2 1/2 hour session no more than 3/4hrs of this would be adult led. However, when we had a much younger mix of children, or children who had shorter attention spans, the adult led time would be more like 1/4 of the session and the child initiated would be longer. Now that sounds much more sensible to me and the key to the whole thing is flexibility - change your plans to suit the individual. Thanks for that Beau, was starting to think I was missing something glaringly obvious... DDC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 23, 2009 Share Posted May 23, 2009 Hi, We stilluse focus activity sheets and do about three a week. We decide what to focus on depending on our finding fromthe previous half terms results on the children's profiles...oki'mnot explaining this very well. At the end of each half term the key workers update the childrens profiles, look through and see if there are small groups of children that are aiming to achieve the same step, if so we arrange to do a focus activity based on that need so help that small grouop of children achieve it. Obviously with the children learning with different styles sometimes the activity needs to be adapted to meet all their needs but we find this way we get results and can see where children need more one to one help. It takes up just a few minutes each session depending on the activity and the amount of children yet helps the whole group move forward and progress. I don't know if its the best thing to door not but it works for us. Obviously this is just part of our observations and planning but this covers our adult led activities. Hope this is of some help Niki x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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