Documenting planning part 2

Since January 2012, I have taken over the role as room leader in Nursery One. One new aspect I have introduced has been the new format of documenting our planning. Because I have two co-workers who, in the scheme of things, are relatively new to the profession (both are still in training, hopefully beginning their third year soon) and I know this format has worked well with me and others, I thought it could help us as a team to be consistent. I explained how I felt it was really important that children, especially the under twos, need to be provided with lots of opportunities to practise new skills that they are developing, and I always feel really stink when we have a cool activity for them, but the next day it's gone and some will miss out on rehearsing what they have experienced. Allie and Ksenia both agreed, saying that with our part-time children, they sometimes don't even the chance to experience things for the first time. So we were all in agreement that we would allow an activity/ set of resources to be available over a whole week, if not longer.

Now that the form has been in action for a few months, we're all getting the hang of making any notes, observations, ideas, children who participated in, etc directly onto the form. They are very easy to use, and very time efficient as we don't need to wait for some time to type things up formally. Plus, when we have release time, there is a whole stock of notes for us to use for individual and group stories. Our displays on the walls have been able to change as well. Instead of overstocking the wall with learning stories, we are displaying large photos of the children in action. A lot more parents are stopping to just look and comment on what they are seeing. Even the children are approaching the walls, looking at the photos and pointing. I wonder if they are recognising themselves, familiar people, or if they are recognising things that they can recall doing themselves. Either way, it is really reassuring to see the children acknowledging our displays in such a positive way.

By repeating experiences with the children, I am demonstrating knowledge of appropriate teaching objectives (dimension 04), and by being able to easily link the planning documentation to our daily journals and learning stories, I am establishing high expectations which value and promote learning (dimension 08). I am also helping to manage student learning processes through providing opportunities for children to build on their experiences (dimension 09).

Documenting planning

As a team, the nursery one staff discussed our planning wall and the next steps (and the possibility of changing our approach to displaying it). One suggestion I had made was to implement a new format to the way we documented our group activities. It was an example I had seen in action when I worked at a nursery school in London, and I felt that it worked really well for getting information and observational notes written down quickly and efficiently. At the top of the front page we could write what the intended learning outcome is, and at the bottom, we evaluate the session and write what the next step is. The form was designed in A4, and was four pages as it was intended to use over four sessions. This way, the activity was able to be either continued over four consecutive days, or else extended over the four days. I sometimes find that we set up an activity one day, but the next it has gone and something else has replaced it. I am of the opinion that if we introduce something (a resource, a set of skills required, a game, etc) then we also need to provide plenty of opportunities for those skills to be rehearsed over and over).

I will look through my storage boxes at home for an example of it, otherwise I will recreate the form to introduce to my team, see what they think, and alter it to best meet our needs.