Overview of learning 6

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.