Learning Plan (Early Childhood)

Topic:
Outdoor experience:
Date: 5/5/14
Age group: 3-5years
Title of experience:
Fairy garden
Outcome 2
Children are connected with and contribute to their
world.
Environmental literacy, fine motor skills;
Links to the Early Years
Content/concepts
2.4 Children become socially responsible and show
threading, sensory skills, critical thinking.
Learning Framework:
being explored:
respect for their environment (Department of
Education, Employment and Workplace Relations,
2009, p. 29).
Rationale: Why did you choose this particular experience? (Community event, child/teacher/family interest, identified as missing from curriculum etc.)
This experience is linked to childrens interest in the fairy garden situated at back area of the garden at Lebons Lane Child Care Center. The teachers and
children have spoken about a fairy garden where sparkles are left by fairies. The children show great interest in this area and are often searching throughout the
garden for sparkles, tree nuts and leaves. This interest has been communicated through both informal conversations with educators and children as well as
observation of play choices. Following on from both these interests, this experience develops each childs understanding of looking after the environment as well
as how to reuse items to create a visually appealing area for play.
Child/childrens background knowledge: What is your starting point what does the child/children already know, what have they done before, how does this
experience connect to or build on their existing knowledge/interests?
This experience will build on current interests and knowledge of the garden. One of the children was collecting tree nuts and sharing them amongst friends, she
demonstrated her knowledge as she described the tree nut here you have this nut its from that tree. This shows her basic knowledge of different plants which
will be built upon through this experience. This interest in nature will be combined with the interest in the fairy garden using natural resources to beautify the
garden.

Learning objectives: What will the child/children learn?

1- For the children to extend their knowledge of the environment exploring new ideas through discovery and play
2- For the children to extend their vocabulary by engaging in creative and sensory experiences being exposed to new words as they are engaged in sustain
communication regarding ideas and experiences to extend their vocabulary (DEEWR, 2009, p. 34).
3- Children will develop fine motor skills as they paint and thread different natural resources for their decorations, resourcing their skills through a wide
range of materials and tools (DEEWR, 2009, p. 32).

Teacher focus/intentionality: What areas will you concentrate on? e.g. teaching strategies, EYLF practice principles, interests, equity.
The focus of this experience will be building on the childrens interest in the environment, promoting a sense of respect and ability to look after their environment.
Questioning: throughout the experience open ended questions are used to assess each childs understanding of their environment and their individual views.
Questioning is useful to find out what children know prior to an experience and can allow for direction and critical thinking throughout the experience
(Government of Western Australia, 2005, p. 4).
Scaffolding: challenging each individual child through conversation and experiences slightly above current skill level. A childs learning is maximized when they
are regularly working in their zone of proximal development (MacNaughton & Williams, 2009, p. 374). In this experience scaffolding is used to encourage
children, providing verbal feedback expanding on a childs knowledge. The level of scaffolding can be adjusted to support children of different needs, some
children may require more assistance and support than others (MacNaughton & Williams, 2009, p. 377).

Environment and resources: What resources and materials will you need to have collected? Where will the experience take place? Considerations for time,
space and teacher support? How will the environment be prepared?
Resources needed:
A collection of natural resources from outdoor environment (collected by children)
String
Paint, Glitter
A pin for creating holes for threading
Sandpit buckets
Beads and other threading resources
Paintbrushes
Paint smocks
Table
Chairs
Plastic table protector
Cloths for cleaning
Assessment strategies: How will you identify what the child/children have learnt and how will you record this?
A discussion during and after the activity can determine childrens understanding and awareness of the environment. This can be noted and used for observation
purposes.
Written narrative of childrens conversations to provide evidence of objectives and Early Years Learning Framework goals.
The first objective for the children to extend on their knowledge of the environment through play will be assessed through written and photographic observations
for the childs individual portfolio. The second objective of children extending their vocabulary can be assessed through written narration and observation.
Childrens fine motor skills can be assessed through the requirement for assistance and photographic evidence of their current work which can compared to the
childs future skills to show their improvement.

Stage
Plan for all stages of
the experience

Stage 1
Introduction
How will you
introduce the
experience/concept(s
) and engage the
interest of the
child/children?

Approx.
time
(Full day?
Morning?
Specific
time? e.g.
12-1pm)
Morning 9915
Prior to
outdoor
play

Pre-service teachers actions

What will you do during this time?
What prompting questions might you need to
prepare? How might you assess and record
learning?
How will you cater for individual differences?
Gain childrens attention leading them to the
group time mat. Singing their song its time for
group time.
Read a story about the environment
Ask open ended questions during and after the
story to assess current knowledge.
What plants are growing in our backyard?
How can we look after our plants?
How can we look after our environment?
Show an example of what can be collected from
the environment and an example of what we are
making.
Explain the importance of picking up items from
the ground and not from the trees.

Child actions/tasks
What will the children be doing during this time?

Children will be on the group time mat answering questions

and becoming involved in the story and discussion

Stage 2
Main body
Describe the
experience: what will
children be doing?
How will concepts/
issues be explored?
List at least three
focus questions
relating your
learning objectives
to be asked of the
children.

9:15-11
During
outdoor
play time

Set up craft table with paint, paint brushes, plastic

table cloth and chairs.
Guide children to the craft table using musical
instrument to attract attention. Some of the items
may need a hole created for threading.

Children retrieve their hats from their bags and line up at the
door.
Children follow teacher to sandpit to collect a bucket and
move around the outdoor area searching for tree nuts, leaves,
seeds and other natural items for the decorations
Children bring back their items to the outdoor craft table.

Assist children when necessary with placing their

items on a string.

11- 11:15
Stage 3: Conclusion
How will you
conclude the
experience? Reflect
on learning with
children?
How will you
encourage a smooth
transition to the next
experience?

The next step children will be guided to get their

hats and line up at the door to move outside. We
will use sandpit buckets to collect our tree nuts,
leaves and other items from the garden.

The experience is concluded as children are

guided to place their paint smocks away and help
clean the table. Cloths are given to each child to
wipe away the paint and glitter from the table and
child sized brooms to assist in cleaning the floor.
Children then can look at each others work and
conduct small group discussion of different
materials used.

Children place their paint smocks on their hooks, hand up

their wet decorations on the drying rack and assist in the
cleaning up of the craft table. Children wash their hands and
move to other activities.

Evaluation and self reflection: Did your experience meet your learning objectives? Why/ why not? What aspects of the experience worked most effectively?
What aspects could be improved and how could they be improved? e.g. flow, resources, teaching strategies, environment, assessment of learning.
The objectives of the lesson plan were not completely met. Children extended their knowledge of the environment through discovery and play as they searched
for the items within the yard. I used co-construction as I paired children to collect the natural resources as there were not enough buckets. Co-construction allows
children to work together to develop social skills and vocabulary through this experience (Government of Western Australia, 2005, p. 3). Children showed a
developing vocabulary using the names of some plants, this objective will continued through the following experience as children showed interest in the names
of plants N- whats this called?, M- Is this a tree nut? L- I found some more of these green ones. The children were given a chance to develop their fine
motor skills through painting and decorating their strings for the fairy garden, although there was no threading as the tree nuts were not able to open. The main
body of the experience showed children interested in collecting, feeling and decorating their natural resources. The craft experience was very busy and in future I
feel having a smaller number of children completing the experience at a time would have given more opportunities to assess knowledge and use questioning with
children. The experience did not follow the plan directly as the weather did not permit outdoor play straight after group time due to the cold, the children had
morning tea inside. This did disrupt the flow of the experience, yet I reminded the children about the experience at the door and they showed interest in searching
for buckets and cups to collect their materials.
Follow-up: Are there any areas that you would like to follow up on? Emerging interests/concepts to explore further?
Children showed interest in the names and textures of the plants within their garden. A follow up activity using photos of each resource collected by children
along with their name, laminated for a game of memory match.
Mentor teacher comments:
Cassy shared information and provided children with range of natural
materials to create their own fairy garden. She is demonstrating a great
understanding with interactions and communication skills with the children.

Reference List

Pre-service teacher final reflection:

In future I would set up the environment prior to the experience, try to keep the
craft experience to a smaller group in order to assess knowledge and assist
children. To further promote learning I believe I should have moved around
more with the children collecting the resources in order to better document
communication and learning. Overall I believe children were interested in this
experience and they showed pride in their work as they brought their parents and
other teachers to see the display in the fairy garden.

DEEWR. (2009). Belonging being and becoming; the early years learning framework for Australia. Retrieved from
http://docs.education.gov.au/system/files/doc/other/belonging_being_and_becoming_the_early_years_learning_framework_for_australia.pdf
Government of Western Australia. (2005). Teaching and learning strategies. East Perth: Government of Western Australia.
MacNaughton, G., Williams, G. (2009). Techniques for teaching young children; Choices in theory and practice (3rd ed.). Frenchs forest, NSW: Pearson
Education Australia.