A project such as 'castles' should stem from the interests of an individual child or small group of children, but practitioners can engage all children in the theme by providing stimulating and challenging experiences that promote children's imagination and curiosity. Castles may also be introduced as part of a wider topic on 'buildings' or 'traditional tales'.
Approach
Curriculum Guidance for the Foundation Stage (page 11) emphasises the importance of providing children with a balance of adult-led and child-initiated learning opportunities (see box). This project:
* identifies adult-led activities, to develop children's understanding of the topic through stimulating, meaningful experiences which offer challenge
* suggests ways to enhance areas of core provision, to consolidate children's learning about the theme. It is the practitioner's role to observe children's learning daily to inform individual children's profiles and future planning. Children should be encouraged to use the resources to support their own learning, so the possible learning outcomes will be wide-ranging and varied for each child.
* advocates that settings should be organised and resourced using a 'workshop' approach so that children can access resources autonomously and independently (see box).
Adult-led activities
Shhh!
Share the story Shhh! by Sally Grindley and Peter Utton (Hodder Children's Books, 5.99), in which readers can join the narrator and try to creep through the giant's castle, without waking him up.
Key learning intentions
To show an understanding of the sequence of events in stories
To listen with enjoyment and respond to a story
To respond to significant experiences, showing a range of feelings where appropriate
Adult:child ratio 1 up to 8
Resources
* Shhh! by Sally Grindley and Peter Utton (Hodder Children's Books, Pounds 5.99) * sack containing several 'giant' props such as huge glasses, boot, handkerchief, key, sock, mug and toothbrush.
Activity content
* At group storytime, show the children the sack and ask them to guess what is in it. Ask one child to feel inside the sack and describe what they can feel. Ask them to take the item out of the sack and show the other children. Discuss what the object is and who it could belong to.
* Continue until the children realise that they could all belong to a giant.
* Look at the props and introduce the vocabulary. Emphasise descriptive words and ask the children to suggest other words for 'huge' and 'enormous'.
* Read the story to the children, building up the suspense, and exaggerating the phrase 'Shhh! Be quiet'. Remember to finish with a flourish on 'Shut the book!'
Extending learning
Key vocabulary
Castle, quiet, silence, whisper, disturb, noise, wake, bother, hatch, dare, snoring, fear, afraid, enormous, huge, gigantic, vast, massive, colossal, mammoth.
Questions to ask
* Can you think of another time when we have to be very quiet?
* Who do you think might go to the castle? Why would they go there?
* Where do you think the castle could be?
* Can you think of a way to sneak back into the castle without being heard?
Extension activities
* Plan opportunities for the children to retell the story independently, using the story props from the group story time.
* Provide a magnetic wedge/board for children to retell the story using magnetic card story props.
* Make a version of the book with the children's own words and pictures.
* Provide imaginative small-world play based around a castle set up in a TUFF Spot (black builder's tray).
On the map
Make maps of the giant's castle.
Key learning intention
To use talk to organise, sequence and clarify thinking, ideas, feelings and events
To use writing as a means of recording and communicating
To create maps based on an imaginary journey
Adult:child ratio 1 up to 4
Resources
* Four pieces of A1 card or sugar paper * Shhh! by Sally Grindley and Peter Utton (Hodder Children's Books, 5.99) * story props from Shhh!, representing key elements of the story - key, mouse, cat, hen/eggs, kettle, cauldron (or cooking pot), chess pieces, toys * story sack * item to represent the giant, such as a huge footprint * assorted fat fibre-tip pens * speech bubbles
Preparation
* Tape the pieces of A1 card together and fix them to a table.
Activity content
* Recall the characters and the sequence of the story with the children.
* Take all of the props out of the sack and begin to place them, one by one, on the card on the table. As you do so, retell the story, in sequence, with the props. Discuss where in the castle each prop belongs. It will be impossible to lay them in a straight line, so you will have to consider where, for example, the kitchen may be in relation to the giant's bedroom, and so on.
* When all the props are on the table, follow the journey from entry to exit and the moment the book is shut.
* Encourage the children to draw pictures near each prop, including the prop and its location in the story. Record children's comments, using speech bubbles.
* Remove all the props and encourage the children to look carefully at the map, retelling the story independently.
Extending learning
Key vocabulary
Character, prop, location, map, journey, sequence, forward, backwards, upstairs, downstairs, slowly, quickly, quietly, entrance, exit
Questions to ask
* What is the first thing we see as we enter the castle? What does it look like?
* Where do we go next? Who can we hear and see?
* Do you think we have to go up or down the stairs?
* Who do you think is in the kitchen? Where can we hide?
* How do you think we can find the way out?
Extension activities
* Provide large pieces of paper and props such as road signs, vehicles and buildings, and support children as they create their own plans or maps independently.
* Provide 'explorers' rucksacks with map, torch, compass, water bottle, survival blanket, rope and spare socks, to encourage role-play adventures.
Child-initiated learning
Water area
Additional resources and adult support
* Enhance the core provision in the water area by adding an AquaPlay water castle and canal system, with jugs, funnels and coloured water.
* Model the use of key vocabulary, using descriptive and comparative language.
* Ask open-ended questions about how things work and why they are happening.
* Support children's conversations, encouraging them to communicate what they are doing and why.
* Observe and, where appropriate, extend children's play.
* Promote children's autonomy through the independent use of materials and tools.
Play possibilities
* Designing and making castles and towers.
* Filling and emptying jugs.
* Exploring ways of changing water levels using locks.
* Experimenting with the use of water wheels.
* Fitting together blocks, tunnels, towers and arches.
* Working as part of a group, co-operating and negotiating.
Possible learning outcomes
Uses everyday words to describe position.
Works as part of a group, co-operating and negotiating.
Uses the language of size and position.
Designs and makes things for a purpose.
Uses small equipment with increasing skill.
Role-play castle
Additional resources and adult support
* Provide dressing-up clothes to support fantasy play involving characters from fairy tales. Include jewellery, crowns, wizard hats and lengths of exotic fabrics.
* Provide familiar props from favourite fairy tales, such as a golden egg, a spinning wheel, treasure and a treasure chest, candlesticks, invitations to the ball, animal 'ears' and 'tails', a magic mirror, a magic wand, spells.
* Make a huge sign saying 'CASTLE' and convert the home corner into a castle, with corrugated cardboard ramparts, turrets and towers.
* Observe and, where appropriate, extend children's fantasy play.
* Model the use of specific resources and act 'in role' as a giant, wizard or lost child.
* Ask open-ended questions which encourage the use of imaginative and descriptive language.
* Create situations that encourage talk in an imaginative context.
* Encourage children to add additional resources or use equipment in creative ways to support their play.
Play possibilities
* Exploring resources and textures.
* Responding to stories and making up their own stories.
* Trying on costumes.
* Making up spells.
* Expressing and communicating ideas, thoughts and feelings through role play.
* Exploring moving in different ways - like a giant, fairy, troll, cat or dog.
Possible learning outcomes
Uses language to recreate roles and experiences
Retells narratives, drawing on the language patterns in stories
Shows an understanding of character in stories
Explores objects and materials
Uses imagination in role play
Construction area
Additional resources and adult support
* Provide large wooden blocks, large empty cardboard boxes, lengths of fabric and planks.
* Create a display near to the construction area with photographs and posters of real castles.
* Model the use of key vocabulary, using descriptive and comparative language.
* Ask open-ended questions about how things work and why they happen.
* Support children's conversations, encouraging them to communicate what they are doing and why.
* Promote children's autonomy through the independent use of materials and tools.
Play possibilities
* Designing and making castles and towers using blocks, boxes, planks and fabric.
* Climbing inside boxes or using fabric to create 'hidey holes'.
* Developing role play as a builder or someone who lives in a castle.
* Exploring and investigating the ways in which construction materials can be used.
Possible learning outcomes
Is beginning to understand the needs of others.
Works as part of a group, co-operating and negotiating.
Interacts with others, negotiating plans and activities and taking turns in conversation.
Uses the mathematical language of size and position.
Designs and constructs for a purpose.
Small-world play
Additional resources and adult support
* Provide a small-world imaginative play scenario in a builder's tray, with a castle made of construction blocks, small-world figures, treasure and story props.
* Provide information texts about castles.
* Ask questions that extend children's play: Who do you think could live in the castle? What do they do all day? What else does the castle need? How could you build a moat or drawbridge?
* Promote discussions about the castle and help children develop the scenario to support their own play themes.
* Encourage discussion about visits children may have made to castles.
Play possibilities
* Designing and making castles and towers.
* Retelling stories that involve castles and fantasy themes.
* Gathering information from texts.
Possible learning outcomes
Retells stories with the props.
Makes connections between the small-world provision and events in their own lives and those of familiar others.
Expresses creativity through imaginative play.
Judith Stevens is an early years adviser for Lewisham Education
Resources to support the theme
* Wooden castle (49.95)
* AquaPlay canal system (34.95), with harbours, locks, water wheels, pumps and boats
* AquaPlay water castle (39.95)
* Royal Palace (45.95), featuring a revolving secret door, working gates and a drawbridge.
All above from NES Arnold (tel: 0845 120 4525 www. nesarnold.co.uk)
* TUFF Spot, large, deep plastic tray (11.75, TTS, tel: 01623 447686 www.tts-group.co.uk)
* Shhh! by Sally Grindley and Peter Utton (Hodder Children's Books, Pounds 5.99)
EXTENDING CHILD-INITIATED PLAY
Recent EPPE research has found that: 'In the "excellent" settings, the balance of who initiated the activities (staff member or child) was nearly equal, revealing that the pedagogy of the excellent settings encourages children to initiate activities as often as the staff. Also, staff regularly extended child-initiated activities, but did not dominate them...
Freely chosen play activities often provided the best opportunities for adults to extend children's thinking. Adults need, therefore, to create opportunities to extend child-initiated play as well as teacher-initiated group work, as both have been found to be important vehicles for promoting learning.'
* EPPE Technical Paper 10 - Case Studies of Practice across the Foundation Stage (DfES/Institute of Education, 2003, London)
CORE AND ENHANCED PROVISION
Areas of provision such as the book area, home corner, creative workshop, sand and water play and outdoor climbing equipment form a setting's core provision.
This core provision should give children daily access to an unchanging set of high-quality resources. For example, the home corner should always include core resources to support early literacy, such as calendars, address books and take-away menus.
Such an approach ensures continuity and allows children's play themes to develop and evolve. By regularly revisiting these resources, children can extend their experiences and consolidate their learning.
In addition, practitioners can plan how to enhance this core provision in response to children's interests. If, for example, they have an interest in pets, practitioners could add to the home corner a cuddly dog puppet, dog basket, tinned food, feeding bowls, collar and lead, information texts, vet's appointment card and a calendar about dogs.
