Details and Planning

Sometimes Planning Time feels like kids saying whatever pops into their heads first so they can escape the table and go play.  But the play ends up being not very prolonged, lacking depth, inappropriate for the environment, and/or without direction.

To avoid getting in this rut, we have recently focused on quality planning.  First we identified when Planning Time happens in our daily schedule.  (It always happens right before Work Time.)  During our Greeting Time, we talked about what is supposed to happen when we make our plans, and sorted good plans from not.

• For example, if I want to spend my time painting, a good plan would be to go to the Art Area, put my paper on the easel, and use the paints and paint brushes there.  
• If I want to spend my time painting, a bad plan would be to go to the Alone Table where there is no paint.

*Plans should help us decide the correct Area to go to.  Planning helps us to identify what we want to work with.*

There seemed to be a growing trend to play house in the Toy and Puzzle Area with friends becoming upset that they did not have the correct materials for the plan.  This conversation in Greeting Time addressed this planning problem.

After talking about planning generally during Greeting Time, we put the concepts into practice.  We set a timer for two minutes and drew out ideas of what we wanted to do.  Then we all took turns talking about our ideas to see what our friends wanted to do and where they wanted to go.  

At Harmony's House, the classroom Areas are spread out between a few rooms.  This means that we have to divide our time between one end of the house and the other for supervisory reasons.  

Sometimes this means that what a child has planned to do must be postponed for a short time if the majority of children made plans for the Areas at the opposite side of the house, but because it was planned, it was definitely accomplished before Work Time was over.

All in all, the quality of play has improved in correspondence to the quality of the plans.  In the picture featured with this post, you can see how hard the children worked to build this "house" with cardboard bricks and blocks, and all of the things they moved in.  They prepared sleeping areas, seating, television, food, toys, and even floral decorations.  After such careful work, they then assigned roles and played family.  :)

Frogs on a Log

These frog friends have been super helpful with sorting, patterns, and counting.  Today we used them as a planning tool.  Some children made patterns with the frogs, and then decided what they would do next with their time at Harmony's House.  Other children focused on the fine motor activity of putting one frog on each bump to fill the log, and chose the colors that they most enjoyed.  These children were asked to count the frogs before they moved onto their own plans.  Some of the conversations between the children during this activity were:

• "I'm going to make a pattern with purple and blue."
• "I am going to do orange and red.  I changed my mind.  I want to add green and yellow too."
• "I have three green frogs."
• "Mine is a rainbow log.  My mom told me all the colors of the rainbow but I forgot what comes next."
• "A pattern has parts that happen over and over."

Writing a Plan

Some followers have recently read about how students at Harmony's House make plans prior to play.  One of the other planning methods included "writing a plan."  The children of Harmony's House range in age from two to five.  How does a child, who likely cannot spell or even know many letters, "write a plan?"  Can they?  Yes.  Here's how we do it!

An important pre literacy skill is to be able to hear separate words in a sentence.  So, although most of the students in preschool cannot write words with letters, they do have the fine motor ability to draw a line.  They practice hearing and writing by drawing one line per word as they say it.  In the plan featured above, the child (age 5) wrote one line for "Toy and Puzzle Area."  She then listened to her own words and wrote the first letter that she could hear: 'T' 'a' 'P' and 'A.'"  When she returned to her plan at Recall Time, she added a picture of herself doing the plan in the Toy and Puzzle Area.

Below is a plan written by another school friend (age 3).  He wrote, "Art Area."  Because he cannot write letters yet, he simply drew the lines to represent each word.  Then he added a picture of himself with a paint brush.  When he returned to this picture at Recall Time, he described the colors he used and how they mixed together.  He also detailed his painting method of doing quick sweeps with the brush called "scribble scrabble!  scribble scrabble!"

Here is a sample of another child's plan (age 4):  she drew lines to represent "work with balloons" and Ms. Harmony wrote the words beneath the lines.  She drew the balloons that she wanted to play with.  When she came back to her plan at Recall Time, she colored the balloons, added letters to the "words" that she wrote, and talked about what she did with her friends.

Did she follow her plan?  Absolutely!  And she wrote about it too!

Mapping a Plan

Using a "map" of our school has been a fun way to make plans and do recall recently!  During Planning Time, the children will take turns talking about where they want to go and what they hope to do during Work Time.  Some days the plans described are more detailed than other days.  :)  Ideally, the child will develop language and cognitive abilities to think about and describe a future activity.  They might plan to use specific materials, or work with certain friends.  Sometimes they might choose to go to the Alone Table first.

After they've thought and talked about their ideas, they place their name on the map in the Area that they'd like to visit first.  If a child has chosen the Alone Table, having the name filling up the Area helps other children see that the table is full.  (Most of the Areas in Harmony's House are not limited to a specific number of friends, but the Alone Table by definition is a place where only one friend can work at a time.)

At Recall Time, we come back to the map and check to see if we followed our plans.  We remember what we planned to do first.  Then we move our names to different areas and review what else we did during Work Time.  It is exciting to retrace our steps from the morning and see how friends moved on to new plans.  Hearing ideas about plans from our friends helps us get new ideas to try next time.  We also use this time to remember different ways we solved problems: wanting the same toy as someone else, not having enough materials or the right kind of materials, not having enough time, etc.

These are other favorite Planning/Recall Tools:

• camera (take a "picture" of the work we want to do)
• hula hoop (chant "It's planning time, it's planning time, it's planning time right now!  Where do you work?  Where do you work?  Where do you work and how?" while turning the hula hoop.)
• draw a picture of it
• write it down with letters or words
• talk on the phone
• type it out on a keyboard
• use a computer mouse to click on the Area card
• wear a Planning/Recall hat
• use a puppet
• play a game (whoever gets the next BINGO makes the plan next)
• pick an object (use toys/tools from different Areas to represent each one- the child chooses the object s/he wants to use and describes the plan)

There are SO many ways to get kids talking about what they'd like to do with their time!  It is fun to hear their ideas, and also to see them advance in their abilities to foresee their plans before actually doing them!  And with this Plan-Do-Review sequence that we do EVERY time the kids come to Harmony's House, they begin to develop the habit of working intentionally on plans and remembering how they spent their time.  Working memories and executive functioning are important skills for now and later in school.