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Having a term plan for your playgroup gives children and families an understanding of what to expect and look forward to. Read the following advice to help plan your term program and choose activities to add to your program.
Routines also play an important part in your planning. You should also use the information about creating routines and structure to inform the development of your program.
What to consider when planning
Planning helps you make important decisions about the structure and focus of your playgroup and ensures you’re prepared and have resources and materials available when setting up each week.
Each playgroup is unique and there are many things to consider when planning, such as the space available indoors and outdoors, the numbers of families, ages of children and the cultural diversity of families attending.
Download a term program template
Programming activities for a term rather than weekly can help make sure your playgroups supports all the Together messages.
You can use our term program template as a guide for designing an effective program.
Download the:
Choose what Together messages to focus on
Aim to introduce all of the Together messages over a period of time. You could plan to focus on one or more key Together messages each week, over a few weeks, a month or even a term. How this happens is up to you and should be guided by what you know about the children and families and what messages you feel would fit best at any given time.
Sometimes one message may relate to the group at a particular point in time and may be worth focusing on for longer. For example, if your playgroup is new you may want to focus on the Belonging Together message for the first few weeks.
This will help families and children get to know you, the space and each other. It will help create a sense of safety and belonging that will support children and families in feeling comfortable to explore together at playgroup.
Repeating the same activities
It’s ok to set up the same activity for several sessions or even every week. For example, making playdough may be a favourite activity that children always engage in, so you might provide it each week but add different things to use with it every now and then. Children build on their learning over time and benefit from trying things multiple times.
Search for activities
You can search for activities to include in your program in our Together activities section.
You can refine your search, by using a variety of search filters. These include the following indicators and contributors to play and child development explained below.
Together messages – indicates the main Together message for that activity. Each activity page also displays other supporting Together messages.
Developmental stage – what age the activity is best suited for, however, you can alter most activities to suit the specific abilities of children attending.
Learning dispositions – Dispositions are habits of mind that affect how children approach learning. Opportunities where children can be curious, confident, communicators, resourceful, cooperative, purposeful and persistent will help them become successful lifelong learners.
Play focus – highlights the main types of play supported by the activity. For example, indoor, outdoor, messy, dramatic/imaginative, construction play.
Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) – a national data collection that measures and monitors the development of children in Australia. This focuses on 5 key areas of early childhood development referred to as domains. The key AEDC domains are:
- Physical health and wellbeing
- Social competence
- Emotional maturity
- Language and cognitive skills
- Communication and general knowledge
Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) – the nationally approved learning framework for young children from birth to 5 years in Australia. The EYLF learning outcomes include:
- Learning outcome 1. children have a strong sense of identity
- Learning outcome 2. children are connected with and contribute to their world
- Learning outcome 3. children have a strong sense of wellbeing
- Learning outcome 4. children are confident and involved learners
- Learning outcome 5. children are effective communicators
Understanding the Together messages will also provide more ideas for learning opportunities for each of the Together messages that you can implement at playgroup and at home.
Prepare to be flexible
Sometimes whatever you have planned may need to change. It could be that the weather is not suitable for the activity planned or someone has discovered something new and wants to explore it further. Following the interests of children can lead to some exciting play opportunities.
Remember, your playgroup program is just a guide and it’s ok to swap an activity for something else if you need to. The key focus is on engaging children and families in play and learning, so if the new idea is going to stimulate and interest them then go with it. You can always set up the original idea on another day.
Display your program
You can display the term program in different ways. Consider providing enough detail for families to get a sense of what to expect each week as well as reinforcing key learning messages you want to share with families.
For example, you can use table top information sheets to give information about the learning that’s taking place during play. Place them in a 16cm x 11cm display or photo frame on a table or near an activity. Some of the prompts contain simple ideas or questions for families to help them engage in their child’s learning.
Reflect on your program
Include time for reflection at the end of each week. Use the sample playgroup weekly reflection template (PDF 233 KB) as a starting point.
This will help you identify what worked well and what may not have worked as you expected. It also helps you think about why it worked or didn’t work and what you can change or include for next time.
It also gives you a chance to think about the group itself:
- Has anything changed?
- Have children’s abilities developed and in response do you need to provide more challenging activities?
- Is there a child or family you need to connect with to help you identify other ways to engage them in play?
