What is continuous provision?
Continuous provision is a fairly new term, invented to describe the activities you have out every day... the resources that make your setting great... the things children look forward to playing with when they come to you... the essential equipment which helps children learn and develop and achieve...
It is different from your planned activities because, to set up a planned activity you will make a plan based around a specific set of resources which you have chosen for the theme / topic / role play / area of learning etc you are following with the children... whereas the continuous provision will always be there.
You might use continuous provision as part of your planned activities. For example, you could add some fish to the water if you are following a child’s interests in the book ‘Rainbow Fish’ by Martin Pfister; you could put some cinnamon in the playdough if a child enjoys the sensory experience of Christmas smells and you want to enhance his learning; you could add some glittery shoes to the dressing up if a child wants to be a ballet dancer...
Your continuous provision will always be changing, as you adapt it to suit each child’s individual needs. For example, John enjoys playing with the paints but you have also noticed he is spending more time in the sand recently – you could suggest he puts some sand in the paint and makes a sensory picture; Jane has shown an interest in your range of ‘feelings’ books, so you add your emotions hand puppets to the book box to see if Jane wants to use them to express herself in a different way; Kate has started to take an interest in using the mark making equipment, so you put together a shoe box of paper, pencils, crayons, note pads and other stationery for her to explore with her friends.
I have included 17 fully written continuous provision plans in this e-book and a chapter explaining exactly what continuous provision is all about.
Hope you find it useful!
:)
