‘To heighten or intensify or improve something of already good quality.‘ (Oxford Dictionary definition of the word enhance.)
In my last blog about childminding curriculums I wrote about continuous curriculum – the kind of things that you continually provide day in day out for the children you care for. Although children can learn an awful lot through your everyday continuous provision and by following their interests, there are some things which do not naturally come up through day to day play. There are also those children who have a very strong interest in one particular activity who may not stray from it if not gently encouraged. Yes, it is important to value children’s interests but is is also part of our job to expand their learning by introducing ideas, concepts and vocabulary that they may not yet have encountered.
In order to offer your children the best learning opportunities it is important to provide opportunities over and above what you provide as part of your continuous curriculum. This is especially important for children from deprived backgrounds who may not have access to these sorts of opportunities outside your setting.
Extending an interest and adding challenge
Enhanced provision can be things you add to your continuous provision to make it more challenging for the children. For example, I like to add different resources to my sandpit such as toy treasure or ‘dinosaur bones’ for children to discover. I rotate different sorts of loose parts with my playdough and add different materials to complement my building blocks to encourage children to try something new.
If these enhancements prove popular and the children continue to benefit from them you can add them to your continuous provision (I have troll figure from a Billy Goats Gruff kit which has made it’s way into permanent use,) but I find it beneficial to rotate the extra things I provide. It keeps things fresh and interesting for the children and helps prevent boredom.
Introducing something completely new
As well as extending on a existing interest I use my extended provision to introduce new ideas and concepts to the children. This is why I think exploring different themes or concepts with your children is important. It is also great fun and I find one of the perks of being a childminder is being able to explore things in this way with children.
The theme or concepts I chose can vary according to the children I have and things like their ages and backgrounds. For very young children, exploring and helping them understand different concepts is really useful. For example, knowing the differences between hot and cold and the words to describe them correctly. These things might seem obvious to you but do your children really understand this concept? Or, do they still get muddled, doing things like describing cold things as ‘hot’ because they associate that word with describing temperatures? (Careful observations can help you uncover misconceptions such as these.)
For slightly older children exploring a theme can be useful. This may sometimes be as an extension of a concept they have previously tackled, for example, exploring the idea of melting and freezing after learning about the concept of hot and cold. Themes can help children learn new ideas and vocabulary, expand their cultural capital and maybe introduce them to a new passion! For example, I recently discovered my vehicle obsessed child also loves volcanoes, something I would never have found out if I didn’t do themes.
You do not need to provide themed or concept based activities every day, (or even every week if your children are very young.) Themes do not have to be all encompassing, creating lots of extra work doing things like redecorating or redoing all your displays every time your start a new theme.
When planning any additional themes or concepts think about the following:
- What do you want children to learn or gain from your theme or concept? Try and be quite specific about what you want them to learn as this will make planning your activities easier. For example, when planning a road safety theme you might want children to learn to stop, look and listen when crossing the road as well as some of the safe places to cross. There may be different ways you help them learn this, such as outings, games or role play but your intent remains the same. (If you use the Toolkit themes this has all been done for you.)
- Are there any areas of learning that you think children need more support with? For example, if all of your children appear to be struggling with a particular area of learning it may be because you need to plan more input for that area across your whole setting. Using themes and concepts is a good way to help you and the children focus on this area of learning in a fun way.
- Are there any areas of learning that you need to cover with the children that you will not cover otherwise. For example, a theme about cleaning your teeth and visiting the dentist.
- What are your children’s interests and how can you extend these using a theme OR challenge the children to try something completely new and different!
- What are your own personal values and what is the ethos of your setting? You may want to have a very strong focus on outdoor learning, for example, meaning that the majority of your themes might be nature based or concerned with things like plants, animals or growing food. As long as you cover all the areas of learning I recommend being true to yourself and the sort of setting you want to run.
Make sure you use a range of themes across the year to provide a balance. Try to include the following:
- STEM (Science, technology, engineering and maths) based themes.
- Arts based themes.
- Diversity and British Values based themes.
- Literacy based themes.
- Health and self care based themes.
- Maths based themes.
Remember: Exploring themes or concepts are best used to enhance and extend the learning opportunities you offer children in addition to your day to day continuous provision, not replace it. Enhanced provision is there to enhance what you offer.
Please use the comments below to share your thoughts. How do you enhance what you offer on a day to day basis? Have you got any ideas for exciting themes or concepts to explore?
You may also like:
My Childminding Curriculum Part One – Continuous Provision.
‘Continuous provision is all the resources and activities that you continue to provide on a daily basis. In a small early years setting such as a childminders this may look slightly different depending on your children and the sorts of needs they have, but in general your continuous provision should cover opportunities for the children to work on skills and . . .’
Childminding Best Practice Club
As a member of the Childminding Best Practice Club you will receive a monthly toolkit containing a wealth of resources designed to make your life easier. Each toolkit has two main sections; a ‘My Learning section with training and CPD and a, ‘My Curriculum section’ with planning, activities, tools, and resources based around a theme. The themes covered in your monthly toolkits have been specially chosen to provide you with a careful balance of themes and will help your children acquire skills and knowledge across a range of subjects and learning areas.
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