this topic throughout the year as the need and interest arises.
To be relevant to children, planned activities should always build on what children already know and can do. Adults should guard against using their own understanding and experiences of holidays as a starting point for planning and must find time and opportunities to learn about children's individual perceptions and experiences.
It is easy but unhelpful to make assumptions about children's experiences and even about their understanding of the language related to holidays. For example, for one child 'holiday' might mean 'when Daddy is off work', but for another the word could evoke memories of a skiing trip while to another it might be a weekend break in a caravan.
The word 'holiday' is also used in relation to religious festivals such as Diwali, Christmas or Eid and, again, children's experiences of such celebrations will be very varied.
Whatever children's understanding of holidays, their experiences should be valued equally. And despite their varied experiences, there are ways of extending and broadening children's experiences within the setting and the local environment, but these must always be rooted in a context that is meaningful to the child. (For guidance on organising visits, see 'Off we go!', page 17.) The activity pages begin with a 'finding out' session. Children's responses to this discussion should then form the basis for the team's topic planning for 'Holiday time'. The other suggested activities can be used as a bank of ideas to be drawn upon during the planning process.
Role play
There are also additional role-play activity ideas reflecting a wide range of holiday experiences (see 'From experience', page 20). Where children have little understanding of a particular type of holiday, use sensitive adult support to help them prepare to engage in role play, which may otherwise seem confusing or daunting.
After being on holiday, children are able to build on and recreate recent experiences through role play. However, children can also acquire knowledge of holidays through the media, for example, through holiday programmes, documentaries and magazines.
These 'second-hand' experiences can help to extend children's understanding of the world around them and enable them to access learning through activities such as role play and using ICT.
Where children are travelling abroad on holiday or to visit family members, there may be opportunities to explore foreign languages. For other children, travelling abroad may enable them to use their home language in a wider range of situations than usual. Practitioners should encourage an awareness of, and respect for, different languages.
Parents and carers
In becoming familiar with children's holiday experiences, it is essential to make time to talk with their parents and carers. Without information from families, practitioners will have only a limited perception of children's understanding.
Suggestions on how to involve parents in the topic in the setting, at home and even on holiday are included in some of the activities. And for parents who will be spending their holiday time at home with their children, there are suggestions on how they can plan activities that are exciting but not necessarily costly. These activities will promote learning across the curriculum but, most importantly, they will provide families with hours of fun (see 'A parent's guide to holiday- time activities,' page 18).
Jane Drake is a partnership advisory teacher in Leeds and author of Planning Children's Play and Learning in the Foundation Stage and Organising Play in the Early Years (David Fulton, 16.50 and 15 respectively)
