Guest Posted October 1, 2012 Share Posted October 1, 2012 HI Does anyone do self planning of self initiated activities and if so how do you monitor and keep track? We're really want to set up a system in our nursery but have no idea where to begin! Any advice would be most welcome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_79 Posted October 1, 2012 Share Posted October 1, 2012 Have you thought about the highscope "plan, do, review"? I observed once in a dedicated highscope nursery and the children had a session at the beginning when they planned, the newest and youngest children talked to their teacher about what they were going to do using a tray of toys representing different areas. They later, at the end of the session, used the same prompts to talk about what they had done. The older children, recorded in books with appropriate help their plans and their responses. Staffing levels were high to enable this and sessions were clearly defined. Within their group times, children had areas and equipment use modeled to them so that they could be independent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_2418 Posted October 2, 2012 Share Posted October 2, 2012 We do a similar thing using a 'highscope' plan do review type setup. Instead of a tray of toys ( which actually I like and will suggest to staff) we have a keyring with laminated pictures of each area , the children choose an area from the pictures and talk about what they might do in that area. We have also just introduced large floorbooks to plan, so the older children can record their ideas in this too - we also put in photos of children into the book - it's like a 'running' plan and helps remind the children of things they have done and enjoyed ( or not as may be) :1b . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_19802 Posted October 2, 2012 Share Posted October 2, 2012 Wow, that sounds super calm and organised. Dont know anything about Highscope so how many children redjayne would you be doing the choice thing with and is that how they start the session? Love to know a bit more about how thats done...age groups etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_2418 Posted October 2, 2012 Share Posted October 2, 2012 All of our twos/threes and fours are split into 5 key groups with two key workers per group, so the most in a group is about 8 children at any one time, and key person time is about 20 minutes for plan -at the beginning of each session (AM and PM) and at the end of each session we do review which again is about 15-20 minutes. We aren't an official High Scope setting but I am lucky enough to have two of my senior staff who were High Scope trained so we adopted some of thier 'best bits' :1b Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 Wow that sounds extremely organised! Thanks so much for your ideas. We are in nursery and had the idea of train carriages, one carriage being assigned to each child. the children then choose an activity they want to do, attach a picture to their carriage, we quickly review at snack time, then they do the same again after snack. We seem to be trying to pack so much into a morning session we were just a bit afraid this would take longer than we plan for, and also how do we monitor that the children are not selecting the same picture every session?! I'm sure we'd remember with some, but unless we write down what they choose, will we remember? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnonyMouse_41997 Posted October 3, 2012 Share Posted October 3, 2012 Wow, that sounds super calm and organised. Dont know anything about Highscope so how many children redjayne would you be doing the choice thing with and is that how they start the session? Love to know a bit more about how thats done...age groups etc. I did highscope in my last setting with 2 yrs old! The room was super calm! I loved it their little imaginations were fab with all those open ended materials! Oh I'm a little sad now oh I miss those wee guys! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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