adult led/child initiated

[Guest]

Hello we are currently in the process of changing our planning and possibly the routine! At the moment we do child initiated activities inside until 930-rolling snack with a staff member starts at 915 and we open the garden at 930 and so the child initiated activities continue till the garden closes at 11- at 1110 we have a tidy up time and then do a ten-fifteen minute group time (older/younger children split) which leads into lunch- the grouptime tends to be focused on counting or phonics but isn't necessarily an activity as such due to the time of day! Within the child initiated times we currently have planning in place but its not really a working document. We have discussed it a lot and are quite torn about what adult led entails! Do people generally do an activity in a set time period where you have planned what the activity is and what you wish the children to get out of it? Is this then evaluated? Or do you have an ongoing activity throughout the free flow session that a member of staff is responsible for? If so do you have set outcomes for this or have a starting point e.g. Trains in paint and see where the children take it! Again do you evaluate it? Do people have the same activity out everyday for a week?- we have different children doing different sessions throughout the day/throughout the week but also have children who are in everyday! Sorry for so many questions-just interested to see what other people do! Our staff team are all highly qualified which is great but it also means we all have very strong views on how/how not to do things

[Guest]

Should have probably said that after lunch the children currently sit down for a story or songs-we have to clean the other room etc, then we start child initiated again before snack starts at 145 and garden opens approx 2pm- staff lunches take place 11-2 which is why we do it that way at the moment

[Guest]

You have already to some extend explained what Adult led activities entail. It could include all aspects of those you have described. with some adults doing an activity in a set time period where you have planned what the activity is and what you wish the children to get out of it? and then evaluated? Or having an ongoing activity throughout the free flow session that a member of staff is responsible for? Surely how you balance these is going to be dependant on how many children you have, and when, and how old they are and what you have planned to cover? I think most settings that keep activities out over a week , do so to enable all the children to access this activity, or because its popular and has masses of learning opportunities. Most vary activities on a daily basis, with one or 2 activities set up for the whole week, but it needs to be managable.

 

I think most effective settings will be using all of these. With some adult led activities linking closely into things like role play and stories, and working directly with children in these areas, some adult led activities linking into childrens play indoors and outdoors with things like small world and construction toys and of course sand, water etc...And some adult led activities on more directed things like an art experience or a cookery or tasting experience.

 

Your planning is going to need to reflect on the fact that some adult led activities are going to be more intensive than others, so you will need some adults available for less directed interventions. So I would say you need a bit of everything, and all different sorts of adult interventions.

 

As for assessing and evaluating, thats such a hard one, you need something like an annotated tick sheet or a photo of the children doing an activity, but surely the important thing is for the child to be involved in the activity in the the first place.