Planning in the Moment with Young Children: A Practical Guide for Early Years Practitioners and Parents

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The book explores ways of maintaining a strong link to practice, providing examples of how practitioners can integrate spontaneous planning and rich adult-child interactions into their everyday practice. It also makes clear the obvious points that if you are planning and responding, adapting and treating each child as unique, while working within the foundation stage, then surely each child has the best chance possible of achieving good levels of development." Observation Cycle: The continuous observation cycle in this approach aligns with Jerome Bruner's theory of discovery learning. It emphasizes the importance of observation and responsiveness in fostering children's natural curiosity. It seems obvious that a teacher would plan ahead to ensure children have a direction for their learning, and to allow them to prepare resources in advance. In turn, this enables teachers to feel more confident and organised, as they are already looking towards the future.

The Teachable Moment – The teacher notices this interest and approaches the child. This gives the teacher the opportunity to extend the child’s interest by asking open ended questions and thinking of ways this interest can be applied to other areas of teaching.Knowledge of Child Development – In this particular type of planning, sustained, shared thinking and extensive knowledge of how children develop are the core elements that help the skilled staff in uncovering a child’s interests more precisely. an informal term for words and phrases aimed at creating an impression that something specific and meaningful has been said, when in fact only a vague or ambiguous claim has been communicated”. Omar is drawing a dinosaur but doesn’t know what the feet looked like. ‘T’ explores ideas with him and provides a tablet for Omar to use. Omar finds an image of the dinosaur and uses this to complete his drawing accurately.”

As one of the most effective types of learning, this taps into a child’s natural instincts. It ensures children are at the centre of their own learning and teachers simply facilitate this. They should not distract or lead the child away from activities they choose for themselves. I remember I felt two things when I first met Anna Ephgrave and Ruth Moore, who jointly coined the expression ‘ in the moment planning’, through their training and work in schools. Firstly, I felt that I’d known them all my life as our approaches were so aligned. But secondly, I wished that I’d met them years earlier…The Documentation – The practitioner would document the observation at a later date. It must include details of the spark; what happens in the teachable moment and what the practitioner did next. This step would help a practitioner in mapping out the interests of each child, and in planning an environment that supports them. One of the core principles of the EYFS framework is positive relationships. By having more time to interact with children, nursery practitioners can form a closer bond with them, and gain a deeper insight into their perspective of the world. But what happened to the children? Whilst this type of planning might work for much older children who have honed their thinking skills from a variety of life experiences, the youngest deserve that we offer the sky as a limit to their thinking. There is no prepared planning document that will enable this as these proforma are all about what the adults have decided is important to learn. Habits of Mind: The focus on fostering critical thinking and problem-solving skills aligns with the Habits of Mind framework, emphasizing the importance of cultivating adaptable, thoughtful learners. The Teachable Moment – The practitioner will take notice of the child's interest and approach the child. At this moment a teacher would try to extend the child's interest, by considering ways to apply the child's interest to other options within the environment and by asking open-ended questions.

Over the years the word ‘ planning’ has become what I call a ‘ weasel’ word in that it is somewhat elusive and difficult to pin down. Wikipedia defines such words as Any early years setting is a highly complicated organisation and everything has to be in place to achieve an outstanding outcome. I would like to give all the information at once. Each piece of information forms part of the whole picture and although you can dip in and out of each chapter, I hope you will read the whole book to ensure that you understand the complete rationale. Jenna wants a turn on the rope. ‘T’ models the language and encourages Jenna to repeat the phrase ‘Can I have a turn please?’ Jenna does this and the pair then took turns independently” Entries on the learning journeys are often accompanied by a photo. The sheets are gradually filled up over the course of the week and become a wonderful individual record. Staff meet with the parents of the focus children in the week following their focus week. The discussion revolves around the completed learning journey – a truly individual picture of the child’s experience. Child Development Knowledge – Sustained shared thinking, schemas and a broad understanding of how children develop will help practitioners to find a child’s interests more precisely.

Planning in the Moment (or In The Moment Planning) is based on the principal that children learn best when they are following their own interests. In this article, Anna Ephgrave, child-led learning advocate and author, shares her 10 things to consider when…Planning in the Moment. 1. “Planning in the Moment” is more than just an approach to planning. An enabling environment is critical. I use the term “ workshop” to best describe what is on offer. When children arrive, nothing is set out but everything is available and accessible. The doors to the outside should be open immediately as some children can only become deeply engaged outdoors. From day one, the children should be supported to explore the environment to see what is available, to select the resources they would like, to use them appropriately and to tidy the area when they have finished. Ground rules are essential when so much freedom is given – all the children need to feel safe. Clear and consistent expectations are key. For example, indoors the children will walk and use quieter voices – running and shouting can be done outside. To offer positive learning experiences, the instinctive practitioners are recommended to carefully listen to and observe every child that they are focusing on.

First of all, children are not storing up their questions for tomorrow. Being in the moment means you are more likely to be ready with answers when and where they are relevant. It is important to remember that in the moment planning can have a profound effect on the way interactions play out between child and teacher. To ensure organic implementation, both adults and children should understand the new policy surrounding child behavior management. Furthermore, those involved in implementing in-the-moment planning should demonstrate their commitment and enthusiasm for it through active role-modeling of positive adult/child interactions.The nursery school practitioners must always go to the children. If the practitioner would ask children to come to him, he may disrupt the flow of children playing with the provided nursery resources. I will give some general points as to the way the environment is organised, what the adults do and what the paperwork looks like. The ideas have been adapted in various settings to suit their needs. However, in all cases, the aim is to organise the setting - including the time, the resources and the adults - to ensure that the majority of the children display deep level engagement for the majority of the time. If that happens, then we can be confident that they are making good progress. Nearly 40 years of observing children has taught me that the best levels of engagement are seen when children have autonomy, when they truly have choice as to what they will do. Therefore, I would advocate that children are able to initiate their own play for as much time as is possible. Keep the documentation simple, and make a note of the spark, the teachable moment, and the next steps you took to support this. It should be an accurate account of the interaction between you and the child and how you’re tailoring the environment to suit their needs. The Environment Is Key