OBSERVING EMERGENCE

The adult asks questions to find out what the children already know about materials.

We introduce the topic and encourage the children to talk about what they already know. This introductory discussion helps us to establish the children’s prior knowledge and understanding. Their ideas are recorded and they guide our planning. In this way the children’s ideas are used as a basis for our decisions on how to support the children’s investigations.

This ‘map’ illustrates the richness of the children’s ideas and the exploratory nature of our planning (png image, 190kb).