Unit 5 Reading 1 Turning Knowledge into a Weekly Plan
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CD2120 School-age Care and Development.
Unit Five Readings
Turning Knowledge into a Weekly Plan
The easiest way to understand the planning process (for a theme-based curriculum) is to follow an example of it as it occurs:
The staff of Mapleridge school-age centre are in the midst of a program-planning meeting. The goal of the meeting is to develop the curriculum for the next couple
of weeks. The program’s two educators are basing their discussion on their observations of the children as well as the curriculum goals for the program.
Step 1:
They begin by discussing some of the observations they have made on things that the children were interested in. One topic that kept coming up was making forts, while another was hockey (the Stanley Cup playoffs were on). The educators decided to go with hockey as a theme.
Step 2:
Next they began to discuss how the theme of hockey would work into various areas of the program. Planning outdoors seemed relatively easy since they knew that pick-up games of street hockey would occur, but they also decided to add some skill development by setting up targets for children to try to shoot pucks at. Knowing that Alice, one of the most avid hockey fans in the group, would have trouble getting involved in a pick-up game, the educators decided to organize a simple hockey game. This game would have to have some adaptations made in order to accommodate the fact that Alice needs to use a wheelchair as a result of spina bifida. Even though the theme was hockey, the educators also planned some different activities for the sandbox and other areas.
For example, along with the usual toys for sand building they included some ropes and pulleys to encourage the children to work at a solution to finding new ways of moving buckets of sand from one area to another when building.
Step 3:
The indoor environment seemed as though it might be a bigger challenge with a theme of hockey. In the art area, the educators posted various hockey pictures and made sure that the pictures were varied, not only in content, but also in the art style used to make the picture. The children were given access to pencil crayons, tempera paint, and brushes of various sizes and shapes. The educators did not make markers available because they had observed that children often headed straight for them because markers were a familiar medium to use and children were not sure their pictures would look good if they tried to use pencil crayons or pastels. The educators also included black paper and white chalk in the art area, and encouraged the children to use these materials to
create a winter hockey scene.
In the science centre the educators provided examples of hockey equipment that was old and could be thoroughly examined by the children. They also provided ©GPRC
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CD2120 School-age Care and Development.
Unit Five Readings
resource books that described various aspects of hockey equipment, and a variety of loose parts so children could try to make equipment themselves.
In the drama centre the educators had hockey equipment that the children could wear, and examples of music that is often associated with hockey. There was also a puppet theatre and an area where children could work on making puppets.
Sports magazines that had pictures of hockey players were provided as well, and
the children were encouraged to cut them up in order to use them to make stick puppets.
In the construction centre there were posters of hockey arenas. Some of the pictures showed modern arenas (such as Ottawa’s Corel Centre) while others were pictures of old community arenas and outdoor rinks. The educators also provided a toy zamboni along with other cars and trucks.
In the table-top centre, the educators made sure that there were board games, a hockey foosball game, and puzzles that related to hockey (remembering that there have to be a number of puzzles of varying difficulty levels).
In the drop-and-flop centre the educators added hockey books to the general library. These included resource books, books on hockey greats, and story books about hockey. By providing a variety of books, the educators addressed not only the different interests of the children, but also their different reading levels. In addition, the educators brought in blankets with hockey logos and hockey banners to decorate the area.
Step 4:
After making the decisions regarding activities for each area, the educators double-checked to make sure that they identified, in each area, any special considerations that needed to be made (for example, the hockey game has to be playable by someone in a wheelchair).
Step 5:
Once the ideas had been identified, the educators recorded their curriculum on the weekly planning sheet. As well as simply recording the name of the activity, the educators took the time to identify various objectives for the activities, any adaptations that would have to be made, and the materials they would need to collect to put the plan into action. Once this was completed, they then looked to see what materials were available in the “hockey theme kit” (prop box).
Step 6:
At the end of the planning meeting, the educators divided up the tasks that needed to be completed before beginning the theme. One of the educators took on the responsibility for ensuring that the equipment and materials were available
for the science, art, reading and drama centres, while the other took on the task ©GPRC
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CD2120 School-age Care and Development.
Unit Five Readings
of collecting materials for the rest of the centres. (Bisback & Kopf-Johnson, 2007, pp. 242-244).
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