There are three types of planning which are long-term plan, medium-term

plan, and short-term plan. Planning is a system that has ideas and thoughts that the

teacher recording about what the children need to learn, what are they interesting, also

resources and materials that support the learning (Queensland kindergarten learning

guideline. (2014). If you want the lesson to be exciting, varied, progressive and have

learning effective you should plan a good planning (Chuaungo, (n.d.). The importance

of planning guides in early childhood education in general is to manage the classroom

with appropriate materials and engaging activities. In this essay, I will write

descriptions on long, medium and short term plan. Moreover, I will compare and

contrast between long term plan with medium term plan, and between medium term

plan with short term plan. In addition, I will refer with an early childhood curriculum

framework like, the Ministry of Education (MOE) curriculum and the Early Years

Foundation Stage (EYFS).

The long term plan is identifying opportunities for learning for the entire year.

They use it when it is organization the learning environment indoor and outdoor,

decisions about usual routines and deciding on essence equipment. Why they use the

long term plan is to ensure coverage of the six areas of development and learning

(Cognitive Development, Social, Emotional, Personal, Language Problem and

Reasoning Skills, Communication, Development of Aesthetic and Creative

Expression). The activities will be a basis on a long-term (Chuaungo, (n.d.).

The medium term planning gives a total strategy and direction for your

learning. This plan is planned up to four or six months. The aim of the medium-term

plan is to arrange in the next few months in development terms and adjust for

emerging to any needs. The activities are designed to be always at the edge of what

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children should be achieving so that you can arrange and map out activities on a

weekly basis (Medium Term Planning, 2018).

The most concrete instruction plan is the short term plan. It shows the details

of a day of the pupils (3 Formulation of an instruction plan (Daily/

Weekly/Monthly /Yearly. (n.d.). In addition, it includes that you know what you are

doing with your children day by day (Medium Term Planning, 2018). It is basically

the responsibility of the teacher to write the daily lesson plans (3 Formulation of an

instruction plan (Daily/ Weekly/Monthly /Yearly. (n.d.). This planning is flexible and

responsive to change, and it concentrates on interests, the resources, and interactions

that will support the current learning of the children. In the lesson plan it includes the

planning the location and accessibility of resources for example, the students can

reach the materials, and materials are on their levels. Organization of the learning

space for instance, makes the quiet areas far away from the active areas, also

establishing daily routines and transitions. Observe and assess the students. To extend

the learning of the children, we have to plan interactions, challenges, and questions in

the class. (Queensland kindergarten learning guideline. (2014).

There are some comparing and contrasting planning guides between the long

term plan and the medium term plan. The long term plan is a plan for the whole year

and it is focusing on the areas of learning and development. However, the medium

long term is between four to six months and it is focusing development terms and

adjusts for emerging to any needs. According to the Ministry of Education (MOE)

curriculum, the long term plan has something called 'Strand', but the medium term

plan has something called 'Standards'. The different between them is the standards are

more specific than the strand. For instance, lessons plan for kindergarten 2 about

reading. The strand for the long term plan is K2.3.1 Print Concepts, but the standard

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for the medium term plan is K2.3.1.1 Demonstrate understanding of concepts about

print and concepts about books which shows that the standard of medium term plan is

in more details rather than the strand of the long term plan. The comparing between

them is both of them are plans for a long time or term.

There are several comparing and contrasting planning guides between the

medium term plan and the short term plan. The short term plan is a daily lesson plan

that includes the learning outcomes, activities, key words, and type of assessments.

According to the Ministry of Education (MOE) curriculum, the short term plan has

the 'learning outcomes.' For example, in the previous example, the standard for the

medium term plan is K2.3.1.1 Demonstrate understanding of concepts about print and

concepts about books. However, there are many learning outcomes on one standard

such as, K2.3.1.1.1 Follow words from left to right, top to bottom, and page by page,

and the second learning outcome is K2.3.1.1.2 Understand that words are separated by

spaces in print. The third learning outcome is K2.3.1.1.3 Recognize that written words

are made up sentences to convey meaning, the forth learning outcome is K2.3.1.1.4

Name most upper and lowercase letters of the alphabet and recognize their order. The

last learning outcome is K2.3.1.1.5 Identify the title of a book. The contrasting

between them is that the short term plans is deeper and more specific and include

what should the students do?

According to the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) about reading is

"children can read phonically regular words of more than one syllable as well as many

irregular but high frequency words. They use phonic, semantic and syntactic

knowledge to understand unfamiliar vocabulary. They can describe the main events in

the simple stories they have read."(Early Years Foundation Stage Profile. (2013). P.

54)

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 In conclusion, the main three plans are long term plan, medium term plan and

the short term plan. They plan for the entire year for the long term plan and it has a

general strand about the subject also it focuses on the areas of development and

learning, but the medium term plan is between four to six months and it has a more

specific standard. The daily plan which is the short term plan it has many learning

outcomes according to a one standard and it focuses on pupil's specific, needs,

interests and that will support their current learning.

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 References

3 Formulation of an instruction plan (Daily/ Weekly/Monthly /Yearly). (n.d.).

Ochanomizu University.

Chuaungo, M. (n.d.). Planning of early childhood education programmes. Retrieved

from
https://www.academia.edu/14078047/PLANNING_OF_EARLY_CHILDHOO
D_EDUCATION_PROGRAMMES

Early Years Foundation Stage Profile . (2013). P. 54

Medium Term Planning. (2018). Retrieved from toucanlearn:

https://www.toucanlearn.com/blogs/blog5.php/medium-term-planning

.Queensland kindergarten learning guideline. (2014). Kindergarten, 5