The cafe – ELGs

Five year olds Islay and Steven are making recipes and meals in the outdoor area. The teacher encourages Steven to write down what he's been cooking. This develops as more children join in and making the meal turns into a cafe. They make a menu and lots of experimental meals. (The previous day the children had been creating mud recipes in a playful activity initiated by the teacher).

Good for looking at

• Understanding the world
• Pretend play
• Early literacy
• Writing
• Cooperative play
• Communication
• Socialising

 

Five year olds Islay and Steven are making recipes and meals in the outdoor area. The teacher encourages Steven to write down what he’s been cooking. This develops as more children join in and making the meal turns into a cafe. They make a menu and lots of experimental meals. (The previous day the children had been creating mud recipes in a playful activity initiated by the teacher).

Notice

• how they co-operate as group
• what they show know about the roles of people working in and visiting a cafe

Reflect

Refer back to the ELGs for Understanding the World

“In play, the child is always behaving beyond his age, above his usual everyday behaviour; in play he is, as it were, a head above himself. Play contains in a concentrated form, as in the focus of a magnifying glass, all developmental tendencies; it is as if the child tries to jump above his usual level.”

Lev Vygotsky

• What does this clip tell you about how the team support and develop learning? Look at the enabling environment of the provision.
• Whilst these children are within the ELG for Past and Present ELG, what else would you want to find out?
• Which other Early Learning Goals are being demonstrated here?