Example of literacy planning and resourcing 7

What we want children to learn (Development matters)

Use talk to organise, sequence and clarify thinking, ideas, feelings and events

Related Early Learning Goals

Count reliably up to 10 everyday objects - Mathematical Development (MD)

Use language such as 'greater', 'smaller', 'heavier' or 'lighter' to compare quantities - Mathematical Development (MD)

Possible contexts

• Use everyday experiences such as cooking, constructing models, drawing and painting.
• Ask children to think in advance about how they will accomplish a task. Talk through and sequence the stages.
• Provide opportunities for children to retell events that are important to them.
• Provide opportunities for children to reflect on and develop their learning experiences.
• Share the ideas and experiences represented in books and encourage children to relate them to their own experiences, ideas and feelings.

Example of adult-led activities

Context: Making models

Celebrate the children's model making or constructions.

Ask the children to show each other their models, telling each other if they are something in particular, if they do something and how they do it, and how they made their model.

Start a display with the children showing the smaller models. The children could photograph others for including in the display.

Encourage children to mark-make or photograph the different stages of their model making. Share their results and provide opportunities for them to explain to visiting children and adults to the classroom what they did and how their model works.

In construction and model making encourage the children to explain to each other how they made their models or parts of their models so that others can be helped by their ideas. Model, following their explanations and helping them to clarify the process for others to follow.

Adult role

• Provide opportunities for children to communicate thoughts, ideas and feelings and build up relationships with adults and each other.
• Provide time and opportunities to develop spoken language through conversations between children and adults, both one to one and in small groups, with particular awareness of, and sensitivity to, the needs of children learning English as an additional language, using their home language when appropriate.
• Scaffold children's spoken language, recasting sentences, providing models, extending ideas, etc. to help children clarify thoughts, ideas, feelings and events.
• Help children to structure tasks individually and collaboratively.
• Help children to organise their thinking by using pictures, photographs, story boards, etc.
• Involve children in planning, recording and reflecting on experiences, for example through the use of video.

Opportunities for children to explore and apply

• Provide opportunities for children to retell events that are important to them. Scaffold their language so that they are able to describe the event, their thoughts and their feelings.
• Provide opportunities for the children to reflect on and develop their learning experiences both at home and in the setting; use photographs, talking photo albums, slide-shows to share with families as they arrive or depart, made books, drawings, video, etc.
• Share the ideas and experiences represented in books and encourage the children in relating them to their own experiences, ideas and feelings. Use stories to focus children's attention on predictions and explanations, for example 'What will she have to do now?' 'Why did the boat tip over?' and general patterns, for example what generally happens to 'good' and 'wicked' characters at the end of stories.
• Encourage children to talk about events from home and prompt hem to tell their families about things they have done in their setting.
• Ask children to think in advance about how they will accomplish a task. Talk through and sequence the stages.

Adult role

• Make a language and literacy rich environment. For an audit see Early Reading Audit.
• Provide opportunities for children to communicate thoughts, ideas and feelings and build up relationships with adults and with each other.
• Provide time and opportunities to develop spoken language through conversations between children and adults, both one to one and in small groups, with particular awareness of, and sensitivity to, the needs of children learning English as an additional language, using their home language when appropriate.
• Provide story and rhyme sacks with books, objects, tapes, CD-ROMs, etc. Model uses and make available for play. Extend into puppetry, 'small world' or role-play.
• Scaffold children's spoken language, recasting sentences, providing models, extending ideas, etc. to help children clarify thoughts, ideas, feelings and events.
• Help children to structure tasks individually and collaboratively.
• Help children to organise their thinking by using pictures, photographs, story boards, etc.
• Involve children in planning, recording and reflecting on experiences, for example through the use of video.

Look, listen and note

• How do children use talk to reflect upon, clarify, sequence and think about present and past experiences, ideas and feelings?
• Can they link one thing to another to explain and anticipate things? For example: We won't play outside today because it's too windy...you might get blown away. Last time some branches got blown off.
• How do they use talk to plan and organise an activity?

Assessment opportunities

• Observe how children use talk to reflect, for example recalling personal events.
• Are children able to sequence an idea or event?
• Observe how children are able to describe how to do something, for example to get to the top of a climbing frame or to make a tape play.

Related Profile scale points

LCT 7

Example of literacy planning and resourcing 5

What we want children to learn (Development matters)

Sustain attentive listening, responding to what they have heard by relevant comments, questions or actions

Related Early Learning Goals

• Travel around, under, over and through balancing and climbing equipment (PD)
• Understand that people have different needs, views, cultures and beliefs, that need to be treated with respect (PSED)

Possible contexts

• Through everyday experiences involving adults and peers.
• Use circle, group and story times.
• Share songs, stories and rhymes.
• Make and listen to music.
• Encourage children to use story and rhyme sacks with each other.
• Give instructions, for example when cooking, gardening and washing hands.

Example of adult-led activities

Context: Songs and rhymes

Introduce the 'Copy me do' song or another action rhyme. 'Copy me do' can be viewed on www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies or www.kindersite.org where there are further action rhymes to listen to and join in with.

Break down the song and practise the actions. Ask different groups of children to be responsible for leading one of the actions. View again or recall using prompts from pictures, words or the practitioner. This time a group of children lead the others in their action from 'Copy me do'.

Ask each group to think up a new action. Remind them not to make the action too complicated and that it needs to take about the same time as the first one they performed.

Repeat the 'Copy me do' song. This time each group adds in their new action after the one they are responsible for leading.

Record using photographs or video and add to a song tape for children to listen to and recall the actions. Add the website link and video to the desktop to be viewed again and joined in with or add the photograph to illustrate the song in a class book of favourites.

Adult role

• Model listening attentively asking questions and making comments, encouraging children to listen to the speaker.
• Provide opportunities to share and enjoy a wide range of rhymes, music, songs, poetry, stories and non-fiction books. Encourage active listening by involving children through questions, feedback, etc.
• Play games that require turn taking and active participation.
• Use puppets to model active listening at circle and group times.
• Link language with physical movement in action songs and rhymes.
• Provide time and opportunities to develop listening through conversations between children and adults, both one to one and in small groups, with particular awareness of, and sensitivity to, the needs of children learning English as an additional language, using their home language when appropriate.
• Scaffold children's communications, supporting children's speaking and listening to each other.
• Use visual supports, for example visual timetables or picture/photographic prompts, to support following instructions.

Opportunities for children to explore and apply

• Encourage children's listening: ask them to listen to each other when talking, play music to signal times, for example tidying-up time, play 'guess the sound' from a tape of sounds, and record sounds together, for example cars, building sites and birds, either by mark making what they hear or capturing on tape.
• Use circle, group or story times to introduce topics, recall events or share discussion around a story. Encourage children to initiate the topics. Demonstrate how we listen to each other and can find out more through asking questions and adding our own comments.
• Share music making using call and response to encourage children to listen carefully for particular beats or order of instruments.
• Support children's listening to instructions by providing props where necessary, for example visual timetables or tick lists.
• Provide music as a means of signalling parts of the day, for example tidying-up time; encourage children to listen and to remind each other what to do when they hear the music.

Adult role

• Model listening attentively asking questions and making comments, encouraging children to listen to the speaker.
• Provide opportunities to share and enjoy a wide range of rhymes, music, songs, poetry, stories and non-fiction books. Encourage active listening by involving children through questions, feedback, etc.
• Play games that require turn taking and active participation.
• Use puppets to model active listening at circle and group times.
• Link language with physical movement in action songs and rhymes.
• Provide time and opportunities to develop listening through conversations between children and adults, both one to one and in small groups, with particular awareness of, and sensitivity to, the needs of children learning English as an additional language, using their home language when appropriate.
• Scaffold children's communications, supporting children's speaking and listening to each other.
• Use visual supports, for example visual timetables or picture/photographic prompts, to support following instructions.

Look, listen and note

• Can children concentrate on what others say? Note their responses to what they have heard.
• Can they listen to a story and make relevant comments about the characters and events?

Assessment opportunities

• Are children able to retell stories or parts of a story?
• Observe when children make a comment about what an adult or child has said?
• Can children listen to and carry out simple instructions?

Related Profile scale points

LCT 1, 4, 9

Example of literacy planning and resourcing 4

What we want children to learn (Development matters)

Listen with enjoyment, and respond to stories, songs and other music, rhymes and poems and make up their own stories, songs, rhymes and poems

Related Early Learning Goals

• Responds to significant experiences, showing a range of feelings when appropriate (PSED)
• Express and communicate their ideas, thoughts and feelings by using a widening range of materials, suitable tools, imaginative and role-play, movement, designing and making, and a variety of songs and musical instruments (CD)

Possible contexts

• Share stories, songs, rhymes and poems as part of everyday experience.
• Use collections of favourites stories, songs, rhymes and poems.
• Use story/rhyme sacks; include props, tapes and CD-ROMs.
• Use story boards.
• Encourage children to make up their own stories.
• Listen to and make music.
• Use storytelling in play.
• Engage in role-play, 'small world' and creative play.
• Provide quiet places to share books, storytelling, rhymes and songs, both indoors and outdoors.

Example of adult-led activities

Context: Change familiar stories

Read and share over time On the way home by Jill Murphy.

Make props using a photocopier or scanner for retelling the story using a story board or an interactive whiteboard. Encourage muddling up the story: Shall we have Claire tell Robert she ran from the ghost? Record some of the children's retelling with a microphone or the recorder in the interactive whiteboard tools. Share with each other.

Discuss with the children which story they think really happened; could the others have happened? What would they pretend had happened to them if they had a bad knee? Share some ideas.

Draw pictures of their stories, using divided paper to encourage a story board as modelled by the book, or/and use a simple piece of software like 2Publish into which the children are able to draw and write.

Encourage children to share their stories with each other and keep them as a collection in the book area for re-reading.

Adult role

• Provide opportunities to share and enjoy a wide range of rhymes, music, songs, poetry and stories from a variety of countries.
• Model pleasure in using spoken and written language, for example using voices of book characters in play; retelling stories, songs and rhymes through puppetry or objects; listening to tapes together.
• Encourage active listening through games, sound tapes/walks, call and response, etc.
• Provide story and rhyme sacks with books, objects, tapes, CD-ROMs, etc. Model uses and make available for play. Extend into puppetry, 'small world' or role-play.
• Extend dramatic play by modelling on storybooks.
• Encourage children to retell experiences through 'small world' play, role-play, construction, etc. Use as a basis for storytelling.
• Use ICT to record children's recitals or made-up songs, rhymes and stories. Share with audiences, including families.

Opportunities for children to explore and apply

• Make sharing stories, songs, rhymes and poems part of everyday experience. Make collections of favourites for re-reading and learning some off by heart. Make story/rhyme sacks, include props, make story/rhyme/song tapes/CD-ROMs readily available, use talking books on the computer or make your own, make props that can be used on story boards or with the interactive whiteboard. Encourage retelling by providing microphones, listening back to stories or scribing children's own stories.
• Encourage children's storytelling in play through scaffolding and modelling. Find opportunities in role-play, 'small world' play and creative play; there are opportunities right across all areas of experience for children.
• Provide quiet places to share books and storytelling both indoors and outdoors; blankets on the ground, benches under trees, portable tape recorders, baskets to put books and objects in, etc.
• Tell children stories about simple things from your life; how your car broke down or what happened when you visited the vet for example.

Adult role

• Provide opportunities to share and enjoy a wide range of rhymes, music, songs, poetry and stories from a variety of countries.
• Plan an environment that reflects the importance and pleasure of stories, songs and other music, rhymes and poems, and that celebrates children's retellings and made-up collections.
• Share stories, songs, rhymes and poems from a variety of countries.
• Model pleasure in using spoken and written language, for example using voices of book characters in play; retelling stories, songs and rhymes through puppetry or objects; listening to tapes together.
• Encourage active listening through games, sound tapes/walks, call and response, etc.
• Provide story and rhyme sacks with books, objects, tapes, CD-ROMs, etc. Model uses and make available for play. Extend into puppetry, 'small world' or role-play.
• Provide an environment where there are opportunities for children to be quiet and reflective, for example a rug and tape recorder left on a bench, a cushion for two in a reading area.
• Extend dramatic play by modelling on storybooks.
• Encourage children to retell experiences through 'small world' play, role-play, construction, etc. Use as a basis for storytelling.

Look, listen and note

• Do children concentrate on what others say? What are their responses to what they have heard?
• Do they know rhymes and songs off by heart?
• Can they make up their own rhymes or alternative versions of favourites using their phonic knowledge?

Assessment opportunities

• Observe how children are able to recite favourite rhymes and songs.
• Do children listen actively to stories being told?
• Are children adopting the behaviours of a reader when looking at or sharing books?
• Are children able to retell familiar stories using props?
• Observe how children incorporate book elements into play, for example characters.

Related Profile scale points

LCT 4
LCT 5
R 5, 7

Example of literacy planning and resourcing 2

What we want children to learn (Development matters)

Speak clearly and audibly with confidence and control and show awareness of the listener, for example by their use of conventions such as greetings, 'please' and 'thank you'

Related Early Learning Goals

• Have a developing respect for their own cultures and beliefs and those of other people (PSED)
• Form good relationships with adults and peers (PSED)
• Work as part of a group or class, taking turns and sharing fairly, understanding that there needs to be agreed values and codes of behaviour for groups of people, including adults and children, to work together harmoniously (PSED)
• Be confident to try new activities, initiate ideas and speak in a familiar group (PSED)
• Have a developing awareness of their own needs, views and feelings and be sensitive to the needs, views and feelings of others (PSED)

Possible contexts

• Give children responsibility for taking objects around the setting, for example registers, notes and messages.
• In everyday experiences, encourage children to use conventions such as manners at a table.
• Engage in role-play, stories, puppetry and plays of shared meaningful experiences.
• Encourage children to develop positive relationships with adults and their peers.
• Use everyday conversations that are given time and where there are opportunities for developing children's confidence and control over language.
• Give children opportunities to speak and listen to each other, for example in circle/group times.
• Provide positive models through stories, videos, etc., that can be used as a basis for discussion.

Example of adult-led activities

Context: Making books 'All About Me'

Make an 'All About Me' book about yourself in a thin folder with plastic wallets so it can easily be added to. Use photographs, drawings and small objects. Keep it simple, with not many wallets used.

Show/read it to the children, modelling speaking to an audience clearly as you introduce yourself, your name, where you live, if you have children/pets, what you like.

Start children off on making a similar book by drawing a picture of themselves or taking a photograph of each other for their first page.

Encourage children to share their books with each other, supporting them in telling their name and showing the picture of themselves. They could also introduce themselves on video and play back on a screen or interactive whiteboard; the need for speaking audibly will become apparent.

Involve families in taking the book home and helping their children to add pictures and photographs that tell more about themselves.

Give children opportunities to continue to share these with each other as the audience, and support moving from simple statements to comments and questioning.

Adult role

• Provide opportunities for children to communicate thoughts, ideas and feelings and build up relationships with adults and each other. Develop spoken language through conversations between children and adults, both one to one and in small and large groups, with particular awareness of, and sensitivity to, the needs of children learning English as an additional language, using their home language when appropriate.
• Give importance to both the speaker and listener, modelling an awareness of both positions. Where appropriate, recast sentences, modelling conventions of speech.
• Provide opportunities for children who use alternative communication systems to develop communication skills. Support children's communications by incorporating the use of sign and a variety of languages where appropriate.

Opportunities for children to explore and apply

• Give children responsibility for taking objects around the setting, for example registers, notes and messages. Talk to them about how they greet the person and how they are going to say what they need to say. Let them rehearse.
• In everyday experiences, encourage the children to use conventions such as manners at a table. Respond by making it overt how nice it can feel when someone talks like that.
• Extend role-play and stories of shared meaningful experiences into short puppet shows and plays for each other. Use photographs or video to capture and retell. Point out how some things helped: It was so nice that you looked at us; I could tell what you were saying better then.
• When children have problems together, rather than just tell you, encourage them to tell each other. Help them to explain to each other what they need or what happened that they did not like.

Adult role

• Make a language and literacy rich environment. For an audit see Early Reading Audit.
• Provide opportunities for children to communicate thoughts, ideas and feelings and build up relationships with adults and each other.
• Give importance to both the speaker and listener, modelling an awareness of both positions.
• Provide time and opportunities to develop spoken language through conversations between children and adults, both one to one and in small groups, with particular awareness of, and sensitivity to, the needs of children learning English as an additional language, using their home language when appropriate.
• Provide consistent adult models throughout the environment.
• Create opportunities for encouraging conventions of speech, for example visits and visitors, snack times, moving around the setting.
• Provide opportunities for children who use alternative communication systems to develop communication skills.

Look, listen and note

• Do children speak clearly and confidently and show awareness of the listener?
• Observe how children concentrate on what others say and their responses to what they have heard.

Assessment opportunities

• Notice when children are developing confidence in speaking to adults.
• Notice when children are developing confidence in speaking in a group.
• Are children using conventions of speech, for example at snack time.
• Observe how children listen attentively, for example to a story.
• Observe how children listen to each other, for example in role-play.

Related Profile scale points

LCT 8

Example of literacy planning and resourcing 1

What we want children to learn (Development matters)

Enjoy listening to and using spoken and written language, and readily turn to it in their play and learning

Related Early Learning Goals

• Recognise numerals 1 to 9 - Mathematical Development (MD)
• Find out about and identify the uses of everyday technology and use information and communication technology and programmable toys to support their learning (KUW)

Possible contexts

• Provide a context for encouraging spoken and written language by setting up role-play based on shared experiences.
• Share stories, rhymes and songs and provide opportunities for children to imagine and recreate experiences both inside and outdoors. Provide props for writing, for example clipboards, labels, sticky notes and charts.
• Encourage children to share their experiences by using 'small world' play and role-play, sharing photographs and videos, making books, using slide shows on the interactive whiteboard or in a screen saver.
• Use tools to encourage children to reflect on their learning together.
• Encourage mark making for a purpose by making clipboards, mark-making tools and word banks available in many areas.

Example of adult-led activities

Context: Role-play supermarket

Plan a visit to a local supermarket or use an online shop. Model writing a list for shopping, for example fruit for snack time or a picnic. Ask the children for their ideas of what you need to add to the list and discuss the purpose of the list.

At the supermarket, help the children to follow the list to buy the shopping. Ask them how they know what is in the boxes. Tell them we could set up a shop like this. Encourage them to notice labels and to copy them through photographs or mark making.

Develop a role-play supermarket together: planning what needs to be in the supermarket, collecting, bringing things from home and making things.

Show the photographs and mark making of labels. Discuss the need for labels in the shop. Notice the detail on the labels: What information do they tell us? What would we want to know? From the collection of photographs of labels and from cereal boxes, etc., encourage children to write their own for adding to their shop.

Adult role

• Encourage children to communicate thoughts, ideas and feelings and build up relationships with adults and each other.
• Provide opportunities for children to see adults writing and for children to experiment with writing for themselves, for example making labels, signs, notices and lists, and writing phone numbers.
• Scaffold children's spoken and written language, recasting sentences, providing models, etc.
• Participate alongside children's role-play to model use of language, for example talking with customers, answering the phones.
• Extend the play by planning with the children and helping them to record and reflect on experiences through photographs and video.

Opportunities for children to explore and apply

• Provide opportunities for children to imagine and recreate experiences both inside and outdoors, for example: extend large construction blocks by providing a making basket of cloths, tape, string, clothes pegs, etc.; extend a story by making a story trail of objects from a book that can be found by the children and used in their play; encourage children to collect things from one area they may need in another, for example a suitcase of clothes from the home corner to take to their construction caravan; using playdough in a role-play kitchen.
• Help children to share their experiences by using 'small world' play and role-play, sharing photographs and videos, making books, using slide-shows on the interactive whiteboard or in a screen saver.
• Use tools to encourage children to reflect on their learning together, for example children taking photographs themselves to show a model they have made or something they particularly like or a game they were playing with a friend. Share with families.
• Share books, rhymes and songs and encourage children to remember while playing, for example use familiar rhymes and parts of stories during play.
  Encourage mark making for a purpose by making clipboards, mark-making tools and word banks available in many areas. Model uses, for example when children are waiting for a turn, or support them in making a register.

Adult role

• Make a language and literacy rich environment. For an audit see Early Reading Audit.
• Provide opportunities for children to communicate thoughts, ideas and feelings and build up relationships with adults and with each other.
• Give opportunities for linking language with physical movement in action songs and rhymes, and role-play and practical experiences such as cookery and gardening.
• Plan an environment that reflects the importance of language through signs, notices and books.
• Provide time and opportunities to develop spoken language through conversations between children and adults, both one to one and in small groups, with particular awareness of, and sensitivity to, the needs of children learning English as an additional language, using their home language when appropriate.
• Provide opportunities for children to see adults writing and for children to experiment with writing for themselves through making marks, personal writing symbols and conventional script.
• Plan opportunities for all children to become aware of languages and writing systems other than English, and communication systems such as signing and Braille.
• Provide opportunities for children who use alternative communication systems to develop ways of recording and accessing texts to develop their skills in these methods.
• Model pleasure in using spoken and written language, for example using voices of book characters in play, retelling stories, songs and rhymes, through puppetry or objects and listening to tapes together.
• Share stories, rhymes and songs and refer to them across children's experiences. Model using the language of books in play.
• Provide story and rhyme sacks with books, objects, tapes, CD-ROMs, etc. Model uses and make available for play. Extend into puppetry, 'small world' play or role-play.
• Provide an environment that supports individual, small group and large group play, inside and outside, with opportunities for children to be quiet and reflective, for example a rug and tape recorder left on a bench, a cushion for two in a reading area.
• Scaffold children's spoken and written language, recasting sentences, providing models, etc.
• Participate alongside children's role-play activities to model use of language, for example talking with customers, answering the phones.
• Extend dramatic play by planning with the children and helping them to record and reflect on experiences through photographs and video.
• Encourage children to retell experiences through 'small world' play, role-play, construction, etc.
• Use puppets to talk, discuss and ask questions with children.
• Use ICT tools to record, reflect on and extend children's play, for example video the making of a construction and share with the children, noting features of spoken or written language: That was a useful sign to make. Look how Sam knows what you wanted; you told her so clearly.

Look, listen and note

• Observe how children concentrate on what others say and their responses to what they have heard.
• Do they show pleasure in using spoken and written language?
• Do they know rhymes and songs off by heart?
• Can they make up their own rhymes or alternative versions of favourites using their phonic knowledge?

Assessment opportunities

• Observe when children listen attentively and with enjoyment, for example to a story.
• Are children able to recall in increasing detail, for example by sequencing photographs?
• When listening to suggestions or explanations, do children respond appropriately through actions or comments or by asking relevant questions?
• Are children often using language rather than action to rehearse and reflect on experiences and to clarify ideas and feelings, for example through 'small world' play?
• Observe how children use mark making in play.

Related Profile scale points

LCT 4, 5, 6, 7
W 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Example of literacy planning and resourcing 6

What we want children to learn (Development matters)

Interact with others, negotiating plans and activities and taking turns in conversation

Related Early Learning Goals

• Have a developing awareness of their own needs, views and feelings and be sensitive to the needs, views and feelings of others (PSED)
• Understand that they can expect others to treat their needs, views, cultures and beliefs with respect (PSED)

Possible contexts

• Provide a learning environment that facilitates interaction and small group play inside and outside.
• Use stories, dramatic play and puppetry.
• Record experiences, for example through video, and provide opportunities for planning and reflection.
• Engage on collaborative tasks, for example cooking, construction building, gardening, hunting for objects and tidying up.
• Exploit open-ended experiences that allow children choice and that encourage children to negotiate.
• Use shared problem-solving experiences, for example designing a wildlife area.

Example of adult-led activities

Context: Creating a nature reserve for minibeasts

Discuss what minibeasts do for our environment and about taking care of living creatures. Look at and handle minibeasts carefully; use small see-through containers, magnifying lenses and a digital microscope.

Look at books about minibeasts. Encourage children's comments and questions, and help them to find out through non-fiction texts and websites.

Suggest they could make a nature reserve for minibeasts that could give them homes and attract more to live in the setting. Help them find out through books and websites what conditions the minibeasts need to thrive. Encourage the children to work together, listening to each other and turn taking in conversation.

Find a place together outdoors that could make a nature reserve for minibeasts. Help the children to negotiate: Has it got shade? Could we provide shade? Clare thinks it might be too noisy here; do you have another suggestion?

Collect and ask children to bring from home: old earthenware flowerpots, straw, logs, logs with moss, old roof tiles, stones, watering cans and containers.

Working in pairs or small groups, decide what wildlife they are trying to attract, what materials they will need from the collection and how they should place them. Ask them to come up with a plan first so that they are all agreed. Support their negotiating, encouraging turn taking and listening. Point out ways they are helping each other.

Make their area together. Extend into map making, recording through photographs, time-lapse photography, mark making and researching and making books.

Adult role

• Involve children in planning, for example the setting up of a role-play area. Help them to choose roles and work together.
• Take part in child initiated experiences and support their plans and negotiations, modelling how to include each other's ideas and activities.
• Use ICT tools to record and reflect on collaborative tasks: what worked well, what did not work so well, what would we change for another time.

Opportunities for children to explore and apply

• Demonstrate listening, turn taking, initiating and sustaining conversation throughout the learning environment and encourage children to do the same.
• Extend stories into role-play and puppetry. Make a stage inside or outside. Encourage children's planning in small groups, ensuring that everyone has a part to play, not necessarily in performance but in the planning and the event. Explain the importance of listening to each other. Record the process with photographs and/or video. Look back at these with the children and show how well they worked together and how they helped each other, or what they did to overcome problems.
• Set up collaborative tasks, for example cooking or sending remote control cars through a particular track. Help the children to talk and plan together about how they will begin, what parts each will play and what materials they will need.
• Foster an environment that encourages children to initiate their own play, where their plans are valued and they can develop an independence in choosing and following through games and activities with other children.

Adult role

• Provide opportunities for children to communicate thoughts, ideas and feelings and build up relationships with adults and each other.
• Provide time and opportunities to develop spoken language through conversations between children and adults, both one to one and in small groups, with particular awareness of, and sensitivity to, the needs of children learning English as an additional language, using their home language when appropriate.
• Provide an environment that supports individual, small group and large group play, inside and outside, with opportunities for children to be quiet and reflective, for example a rug and tape recorder left on a bench, a cushion for two in a reading area.
• Involve children in planning, for example the setting up of a role-play area. Help them to choose roles and work together.
• Take part in child initiated experiences and support their plans and negotiations, modelling how to include each other's ideas and activities.
• Use ICT tools to record and reflect on collaborative tasks: what worked well, what did not work so well, what would we change for another time.

Look, listen and note

• Can children concentrate on what others say? Note their responses to what they have heard.
• Can they use talk, for example, to resolve disagreements?
• Do they speak clearly and confidently and show awareness of the listener?

Assessment opportunities

• Observe how children include other children in their play.
• Are children initiating and planning an activity with a friend or small group, for example in role-play?
• Observe how children contribute to group planning, for example in deciding what materials to bring from home to contribute to a role-play scenario.
• Observe when children listen and take account of another's ideas, thoughts or feelings, for example in discussing personal experiences.

Related Profile scale points

LCT 6

Example of literacy planning and resourcing 3

What we want children to learn (Development matters)

Extend their vocabulary, exploring the meanings and sounds of new words

Related Early Learning Goals

• Recognise and explore how sounds can be changed, sing simple songs from memory, recognise repeated sounds and sound patterns and match movements to music (CD)
• Find out about their environment, and talk about those features they like and dislike (KUW)

Possible contexts

• Take children on visits and walks, discovering new things and places.
• Use stories, poems, rhymes and songs. Investigate the meanings of particular words and share the pleasure of their sounds.
• Use word banks and labels for shared interests; involve the children in making their own and discussing meanings.
• Provide opportunities for children to share a variety of languages including sign language.
• Introduce and extend vocabulary in play.

Example of adult-led activities

Context: Sharing stories and rhymes, for example Rumble in the Jungle by Giles Andreae and David Wojtowycz

Read Rumble in the Jungle by Giles Andreae and David Wojtowycz.

Play at being some of the different animals. Ask the children to listen carefully to the words to see how the animal is described. Use highlighting pens on a scanned or photocopied page, or scan into the interactive whiteboard and enlarge or colour the adjectives. Ask the children what some of the words mean; when they are not sure use dictionaries (can be web-based) to find out.

Make a collection of other things that that word could describe, for example what else could shine?

Act out the chosen animals, again with strong intonation on the adjectives.

With the children's help, make a display that shows the animal, uses the text for the animal and labels the animal with the adjectives.

Children could make their own animals, using a variety of media. Encourage the children to have a go at writing words that describe their animal using models, the labels in the display or books as above, and word banks with picture support.

Read and share their descriptions of their animals with each other.

Adult role

• Share and enjoy a wide range of rhymes, music, songs, poetry, stories and non-fiction books.
• Give opportunities for linking vocabulary with physical movement in action songs and rhymes.
• Provide time and opportunities to develop spoken language through conversations between children and adults, both one to one and in small groups, with particular awareness of, and sensitivity to, the needs of children learning English as an additional language, using their home language when appropriate.
• Provide opportunities for children who use alternative communication systems to develop vocabulary.
• Scaffold children's spoken and written language, recasting sentences and providing new vocabulary.
• Participate alongside children's role-play activities to develop use of language, for example talking with customers and answering the phones.
• Connect children's vocabulary development with their growing phonological awareness.
• Use visits and walks as a base for vocabulary development.
• Introduce specific and accurate vocabulary across all areas of learning, for example the vocabulary of mathematics.

Opportunities for children to explore and apply

• Create word banks and labels for shared interests, involving the children in making their own and discussing meanings.
• Provide opportunities for the children to become familiar with stories, poems, rhymes and songs. Investigate the meanings of particular words and share the pleasure of their sounds, with the children.
• Encourage the children to share their languages and bring in others by naming and, where appropriate, labelling or listing familiar items such as food.
• Introduce and extend vocabulary in play, for example positional vocabulary in 'small world' play and the language of quantity and measures in cooking.
• Recast children's sentences positively to increase use of vocabulary. For example: 'I did it' can become 'Oh well done, you took the register back to the office, thank you.'
• Use visits and walks to see new objects and gather new vocabulary.

Adult role

• Make a language and literacy rich environment. For an audit see Early Reading Audit.
• Share and enjoy a wide range of rhymes, music, songs, poetry, stories and non-fiction books.
• Give opportunities for linking vocabulary with physical movement in action songs and rhymes, role-play and practical experiences such as cookery and gardening.
• Provide opportunities for sharing languages and using vocabulary from a variety of languages in the environment, for example in signs, notices and labels.
• Provide time and opportunities to develop spoken language through conversations between children and adults, both one to one and in small groups, with particular awareness of, and sensitivity to, the needs of children learning English as an additional language, using their home language when appropriate.
• Provide opportunities for children who use alternative communication systems to develop vocabulary.
• Scaffold children's spoken and written language, recasting sentences and providing new vocabulary.
• Participate alongside children's role-play activities to develop use of language, for example talking with customers and answering the phones.
• Connect children's vocabulary development with their growing phonological awareness.
• Use visits and walks as a base for vocabulary development.
• Introduce specific and accurate vocabulary across all areas of learning, for example the vocabulary of mathematics.

Look, listen and note

• Do children display an increased use of vocabulary?
• Do they make up their own rhymes or alternative versions of favourites using their phonic knowledge?
• Do they take pleasure in using language and trying out new words?
• Are they curious about words and their uses?

Assessment opportunities

• Are children developing confidence in speaking to adults?
• Are children developing confidence in speaking in a group?
• Observe how children use specific vocabulary, for example in cooking.
• Do children show an interest in words and language through comments or questions, for example in listening to songs, stories and rhymes?
• Observe how children use new words, for example in play.

Related Profile scale points

LCT 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9
LSL 2