Planning for Ofsted

Today Ofsted came to visit me to check my suitability to be a childminder. I was successful. Mega!

One of the questions that she asked me to do was to think of an activity (or activities) that I could with a one year old and a four year old which would support all seven areas of learning.

I have copied what I said below. She was impressed. She told me that she agreed that many early years professionals have far too many toys which can overwhelm children. She said that children should not be inside all day and liked my ethos of using natural resources. Such a relief!

Anyway, here’s my response to her question.

I planned an outing to our local green to investigate the trees.

One Year Old

Before we went on the walk, I would talk about trees and that we were going out to look for trees. I would teach the children the song I had a Little Nut Tree. During the walk, I would point out all of the things that we saw, talking about colours and using positional language such as up, over there and in front. This would help to support the child’s communication and language development. By talking about the world around them, this also helps them to develop their understanding of the world.

Once we arrived, I would set up a blanket area but allow the children to explore the trees in the area, coming back to me for reassurance or to show me things that they have found. This would promote the children’s personal, social and emotional development and their physical development. When looking at the trees, I would use language such as bigger, biggest, smaller, smallest and count the trees aloud to promote early numeracy development. I would point to the branches of the tree and say they are like arms – can you point to your arms, promoting their self-awareness.

We would read stories about trees (see below for the list of books I have about trees) which would primarily promote literacy skills and by sitting together to share the stories, this would again support their personal, social and emotional development and their communication and language skills.

Finally, we would collect some leaves to create land art and leaf rubbings appealing to their creativity.

Four year old

Older children also respond to singing and learning new songs to develop their language and communication skills. To further develop their understanding, we might discuss some of the words in I had a Little Nut Tree and talk about what the song means. Whilst exploring the trees, we would make bark rubbings and I would introduce adjectives such as rough and smooth to describe the textures of the bark. I would explain that things that are made of wood are made from trees to develop their understanding of the world. This could be extended once we arrived back to the setting asking the child to decide which furniture is made of wood. We would also identify the parts of the tree comparing them to our own bodies to create self-awareness and promote personal, social and emotional development.

The children would then be able to explore the area, picking up interesting branches and leaves and studying them carefully using magnifying glasses to aid their physical development.

We would read stories together but I would also model how I use a non-fiction text by using a tree identification guide to identify the local trees, promoting literacy skills. To support mathematic development, we would collect leaves, looking for shapes and arranging them into size order. We would then use the leaves for some land art or leaf rubbings to develop their creativity.

Books about Trees:

-          The Lorax by Dr Seuss

-          A Tree Is Nice by Janice May Udry

-          The Curious Garden by Peter Brown

-          The Great Paper Caper by Oliver Jeffers

-          Stuck by Oliver Jeffers

-          Percy the Park Keeper: After the Storm by Nick Butterworth

-          Tess's Tree by Jess M. Brallier

  Stick Man by Julia Donaldson