How to program?

[gracewfurley]

Hi Lorina,
My apologies for sounding stupid, but I'm very confused...
I've just started a Cert 3 position in the 0-2 room.
We have just done our goals and now starting to program.
My question is, I have 2hrs programming time. What do I do in this time?
I've already got lots of planned experiences in my head, and written some up on the programming board. But now I'm lost, what do I do now? I've still got time left and I'm not sure if I'm "programming" right.
What do people do in their programming time?

I would love if you could shed some light on this for me!

Thank you!!

[Lorina]

Ok, so with your planned experiences that you have thought of, these will be your intentional teaching, what you want to implement in the room. Having intentional teaching in the program is good! You will also need to add experiences based on the children's needs, skills and interests, which can be done through observations. So, once you complete your observation the follow-up activities should also be added to the program. Now, you should also include any parent input - for example since you are working in the baby room a lot of them will be developing their gross motor skills, fine motor skills such as walking, crawling, etc. If a parent mentions to you that their child is beginning to stand up then you will come up with an experience for this and add it to the program as parent input. So for program experiences, you got:

- Intentional Teaching (what you have thought of)
- Follow Up Experiences (from observations)
- Parent Input (what they have told you)

Are you writing daily diaries? Evaluating the experiences against your goal and whether they have been achieved or not. For some of the experiences you evaluate or depends on what happens during the day you will also have activities to extend upon. So, as far as programming is concerned you have a lot of experiences to add to complete your programming.

In your programming time, you should be completing observations, linking documentation together, completing portfolios (if you are doing these). The program is only one part of it...

Let me know if you have any further questions!

,
Lorina

[gracewfurley]

Thanks Lorina,
My planned activities are based on the children's interests and goals.
Example: _____ had a interest in transport and his family input has been that they want to develop ____'s interest in art and crafts.

So I'm going to set up a truck and paint play experience for ____ etc

Obviously I have gone into a bit more detail, but is this what I am meant to be doing?
How am I meant to come up with 100's of new planning ideas!!??

I haven't started any real observations, so I will do that.

RE: portfolios, we are using kinderm8 now, so that's suppose to lessen the work load about making portfolios.

Can you please give me some ideas on programming? I've used Pinterest, that's where I got the truck and paint idea from.
I'm also going to do edible slime for a girl that loves feeling paint and sponges through her fingers.

I hope I'm on the right track...

[Lorina]

In regards to programming ideas, as you do your observations and you get family input and follow up on interests you will begin to come up with a lot if ideas yourself. Look at the resources you have available and think of ideas from there itself. Searching Pinterest etc. is really good for inspiration but it can waste a lot of time because there are so many different ideas out there. If you have an idea you thought of, stick to it or if you decide to search just limit your time so you don't waste it. Also, are you doing a weekly program? Always have the following week's program readily available so you can always add experiences on it throughout the current week. That way you're not left to fill in the blanks come Friday. Are you writing the parent input on the weekly program and then the follow-up experience on the following program? You need to be able to show links as to where the activity has come from the original source.

For the girl that loves feeling paint and sponges through her fingers has this been documented through either an observation or daily dairy. That way you can link the edible slime experience to the original source of that child's interest.

Are you doing daily dairies?

Have you come up with an observation plan?

,
Lorina

[gracewfurley]

RE: the girl feeling paint between her fingers etc was documented through a daily diary.

Yes we are doing daily diaries and weekly programs. We have just started a new program out lay which is quite confusing... what do you mean by observation plan?

Thanks for your help!!

[Lorina]

Ok, so an observation plan is a calendar that assists you in keeping track of your observations by writing the names of the children of who you'll be observing each day, throughout the month. It's a simplified way to ensure that each child is observed and focused upon during the month and lets you keep track on who'll you be observing on that specific day.

,
Lorina