Onions

A group of five year olds are in the garden helping to cut vegetables for making soup. They ask questions and give their thoughts.

Good for looking at

• Sustained shared thinking
• Communication
• Knowledge and understanding
• Science

A group of five year olds are in the garden helping to cut vegetables for making soup. They ask questions and give their thoughts.

Notice

• How are the children learning? Which areas of development, engagement and characteristics of learning can you observe?
• In what way does the adult support the children’s learning?
• How does the adult led activity support the children’s learning?
• What is valuable about the materials provided as learning resources?

Reflect

What are your thoughts about:

• How the children were communicating?
• How the children are learning during this practical task?
• The role of the adult in this interaction – how did she support the children’s thinking?
• The value of this type of adult initiated task?
• How effective were the materials and resources for the task?

Respond

What would you do to:

• Support the children’s enquiries about the food they are preparing?
• Further encourage the children’s independence with skills for preparing food?
• Model behaviours for young children and show how useful they are?

What next:

• Do you need to encourage more of this kind independence and real life tasks and skills in your setting? How do you make sure the task is safe enough for the specific age children you are working with?