Long-term planning

Step 3: Note teaching and learning opportunities with close links to your themes

Using the Cambridge Early Years Teaching and Learning Resources

The long-term plans in Step 2 outline all the teaching and learning opportunities in the Cambridge Early Years Teaching Resource that relate closely to the themes. They also record the curriculum learning statements that these opportunities develop.

The ‘Let’s Explore’ section of the Teaching Resource contains a bank of activities for you to choose from. If you decide not to use some of these activities, you will need to delete them from your long-term plan.   

You may also decide to add your own ideas, including possible trips, visitors and events that will help to develop the learning statements.  

Although many learning statements can be developed effectively through themes, some learning statements will still benefit from separate opportunities and activities that are less related to the themes. This is addressed in Step 5.

Using some of your own themes

If you are using some of your own themes:

• Note teaching and learning opportunities for different curriculum areas that relate closely to your themes. 

At this stage, you can just outline the concepts and skills, rather than recording detailed activities. You can refine this high-level thinking during your medium-term and short-term planning.

• Ensure that each teaching and learning opportunity develops one or more curriculum learning statement. Reference the learning statement(s). 

• Refine your thinking. Add, remove and reorder by:
• deciding which opportunities will most effectively develop learning towards the learning statements 
• deciding which opportunities will most effectively develop connections between learning in different curriculum areas
• checking that there is progression of learning across the year.