Long Term Plans
Our Long Term plans help us to catalogue and develop each of our areas of constant provision e.g. sand, construction, book corner etc. and show learning opportunities for each area. These plans also help us ensure that we cover all areas of the curriculum over time. When we decide to do a spontaneous activity or put something different into our sand tray or go for a walk to the local park, this will usually have already been written into our long term plan and thus gives us the freedom to follow children’s interests without being concerned about the need to write everything down on a daily basis. From time to time we add things to our long term plans to make them more effective which helps them to become working documents, not inflexible plans which could stunt our creativity.
Medium Term Plans
Our medium term plans last for around six weeks although as with everything we do with children, this is flexible. If children wish to develop their ideas either in ways we had anticipated or on a tangent we had not considered, we do our best to ensure that time, materials and where appropriate, staff support is provided.
By using a medium term 'topic' we are ensuring that children are introduced to new ideas, knowledge and skills in appropriate ways, sometimes focusing on their innate curiosity about the world around them. This may take the form of topics on the weather, growing or mini-beasts. Sometimes we bring in popular culture such as when developing a topic on 'Houses and Homes' we will bring in 'Bob the Builder' a popular cartoon which most of our children have watched at home. This ensures that we are starting from a point where our children are comfortable and have some current knowledge. we always try to build on what our children already know and use our record keeping and key person system to ensure that our children's interests and needs are met when deciding which activities to use from our medium term plan.
The medium term plan is a working document. We make changes as we move through the project, sometimes following the lead of the children when we can spend far longer on an activity than we had planned, sometimes abandoning activities which do not meet the children's needs.
Short Term Plans
By using our short term plans to show staff deployment we ensure that all areas which have long term plans are assured of adult input over a period of time.
All our planning is available for review in the Blue Room behind the door at Linslade Childcare. Along with the children's scrapbooks.
