The witches den – ELGs

Lilly has an idea. She talks to the teacher about it and she helps her to make it happen. The other children in the class want to get involved.

Good for looking at

• Communication
• Language
• COEL - playing and exploring
• Imagination
• Pretend play
• Den building
• Co-operative play
• Physical development
• Socialising

Lilly has an idea. She talks to the teacher about it and she helps her to make it happen. The other children in the class get involved.

Notice

• how Lilly’s idea develops, from the consideration that she has given to start with to becoming a group project
• how the adult scaffolds Lilly enabling her to share the ideas with a wider audience
• once the project develops role play begins – notice how the children use their language when this happens

Reflect

Refer back to the ELGs for Language and Communication

• Lilly has clearly been spending some time watching and reflecting on what is happening outside. This time has given her the opportunity to come up with some ideas that she’d like to investigate.  She knows that the resources will be available.  Notice how she draws a comparison between her idea and a witches den
• Lilly is working within the ELGs in this Area of Learning. Are any of the other children?  How do you know?
• What does the adult do? Which other Early Learning Goals are being demonstrated here?

Communication and language

Listening attention and understanding

Children at the expected level of development will:

• Listen attentively and respond to what they hear with relevant questions, comments and actions when being read to and during whole class discussions and small group interactions;
• Make comments about what they have heard and ask questions to clarify their understanding;
• Hold conversation when engaged in back-and-forth exchanges with their teacher and peers.

Speaking

Children at the expected level of development will:

• Participate in small group, class and one-to-one discussions, offering their own ideas, using recently introduced vocabulary;
• Offer explanations for why things might happen, making use of recently introduced vocabulary from stories, non-fiction, rhymes and poems when appropriate;
• Express their ideas and feelings about their experiences using full sentences, including use of past, present, and future tenses and making use of conjunctions, with modelling and support from their teacher.