Using Characters and Themes to Inspire Early Learning
A Practical Guide
Jo Ayers, Louise Robson
- 136 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
Using Characters and Themes to Inspire Early Learning
A Practical Guide
Jo Ayers, Louise Robson
About This Book
Offering an approach that is tried, tested and proven to work, this book supports practitioners in planning and resourcing a series of topics based around popular themes and interests in the early years. Each topic is open-ended and introduced in the form of a problem that the children have to solve and can be led by their knowledge, thoughts and ideas.
Using Characters and Themes to Inspire Early Learning aims to nurture children's natural curiosity and imagination, encouraging them to become the facilitators who are empowered to solve problems, explore solutions and take ownership of their learning.
There are links throughout to the seven areas of learning in the EYFS and practical guidance on how to document the children's learning. Features include:
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- An exciting range of characters, themes and objects to inspire children.
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- Photocopiable pages and online resources to use in the classroom.
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- Session breakdowns to set the scene and make planning easy.
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- Creative ideas and activities to prompt children's thinking and develop discussions.
Packed with ideas for extending learning and practical resources that can be printed out for use in the classroom, this book is essential reading for all students and practitioners who want to provide inspiring learning opportunities for the children in their care.
Frequently asked questions
Information
Chapter 1
Sammy the Sports Car
Setting the Scene
Scenario plot
Session 1
Session 2
Session 3
Session 4
Session 1: Starting Points
The spark!
- ★ This is a good opportunity to introduce talk partners. Can the children listen to others and take turns sharing ideas?
- ★ Encourage the children to think of reasons for their responses. This encourages critical thinking and reasoning skills to be developed.
What next?
Create awe and wonder!
And then …
Planning with the children
Session 2: The Flood
The spark!
- ★ Planning for child-initiated learning can be daunting and requires some elements of freedom. You may not cover every area of learning every day, but across the topic all areas will be covered.
How can we Help?
Physical development
- Large-scale obstacle course to negotiate. Can the children find their way across to get to Sammy?
- Make bikes, trikes, etc. available for the children to explore.
Literacy
- Write messages to Sammy.
- Label maps and designs.
- Make list of what the children need to help Sammy.
Expressive Arts and Design
- Create a garage or car wash in your role-play area for the children to explore.
- Design and create their own models to get rid of the water (e.g. a giant vacuum to suck up all the floodwater).
Understanding the world
- Make maps to show Sammy the way home – add on points of interest.
- Find out more about flooding and how the children could prevent it happening at Golden Park raceway again.
- Use programmable toys to follow a journey around Golden Park.
- Create their own news reports using video cameras, microphones, etc.
- Investigate floating and sinking and how the children can get the across the flood safely.
- Investigate waterproof materials to keep Sammy dry.