Involving and encouraging children in planning

[AlliG]

Hi Lorina,
So far I have answered that at group time encourage children to share their suggestions of what experiences they would like and discuss these suggestions with the children. Observe the children while playing and note what they especially enjoy and extend on this such as if they like to dig in the garden bed or like role playing as construction workers, then incorporate these into the program. Then I thought maybe have show and tell and the children can talk about something they did on the weekend and enjoyed???
thanks so much

[Lorina]

Yeah show and tell is a good way of getting to know what the children's interest are. They could even bring in a special item from home that they can talk about and share with the group. It could be something they had since they were little or even something they bought when they went on holiday etc. Anything that encourages them to talk to the group. From this you can gather the child's interest and include it into the planning.

Another idea that I do with my group is in the afternoon have a quick discussion of basically the overview of the day and how it went etc. During this I have a big piece of chart paper with a mind map "What I Learnt Today" and I write down each child's comments in black marker. Then in red I'd add the Learning Outcomes the comments link to and follow up experiences etc. This chart is put on display for parents to see as they walk in and add their comments as well... Something like this can also encourage children in planning as well...

Hope this helps,

,
Lorina

[AlliG]

Hi Lorina,
Thanks so much, we do a mind map but don't ask the children after rest time what they enjoyed learning during the day we always ask them what they would like to do at group time in the morning, so I think this is will cover both child involvement in programing/reflections and parental input,

[Lorina]

[mane]