Anna makes a tent village Scroll to learning area

After working with the teacher and looking at shapes, halves and quarters, five year old Anna has an idea of how to use the circles of paper with a triangle cut out. Her idea grows into a complex creative project.

Good for looking at

• COEL – Active learning, Creating and thinking critically
• Creativity
• Fine motor skills
• Communicating ideas
• Motivation
• Concentration
• Perseverance

After working with the teacher and looking at shapes, halves and quarters, five year old Anna has an idea of how to use the circles of paper with a triangle cut out. Her idea grows into a complex creative project.

Notice

• How is Anna learning? Which areas of development, engagement and characteristics of learning can you observe?
• Can you see evidence of any aspects of self-regulation?
• In what ways does the adult support Anna’s learning?
• What is valuable about the materials provided?

Reflect

What are your thoughts about:

• How Anna was learning? Did you see any evidence of the characteristics of effective learning?
• Anna’s level of development?
• How Anna affected other children in the class?
• The role of the adult in this interaction – how did she support Anna?
• The value of this type of creative process for Anna?

Respond

What would you do to:

• Support Anna’s creative ideas and interest in making things?
• Encourage other children to learn from Anna and support her leadership skills?
• Extend Heidi’s learning – e.g. supplying other materials to develop the game further?
• Model behaviours for young children and show how useful they are?

What next:

• Do you need to encourage children to take inspiration from concepts that you explain and model to them? Do children in your setting have the time and space to make sense of concepts you show them for themselves?
• Do you need to encourage children who have ideas to share them with others? How can you make this happen for your setting?