Our outdoor environment
Ensuring children are given the opportunity to explore and play outdoors every day is an essential part of their development. Outdoor play promotes a healthy lifestyle and stimulates positive interaction with others. It also encourages creativity and imaginative play alongside developing a child’s physical skills, both fine and gross motor such as using tools/equipment and climbing, balance and co-ordination.
We are very lucky to benefit from a large, spacious, safe undercover outdoor play area at the front of the nursery which is fully equipped with age-appropriate resources and activities for all the children in our care to enjoy, explore and experiment with. This has been split into two areas, one side for the Turtles/Dolphins children and one side for Penguins/Sharks.
Turtles and Dolphins (0 – 3 years)
From the ‘Turtles’ room, there is a direct access to our baby garden which has a sandpit, an activity centre, a jumperoo, a rocker, a small slide and a selection of small treasure baskets and heuristic items for the younger children to explore and stay safe, away from tumbling toddlers. This area leads onto a large shaded artificial grassed area for the more physically challenging activities such as slides, balancing beams, see-saws and soft play blocks, tyres and cable reels with beams attached designed to encourage coordination and balance. This steps up to a messy area consisting of a mud kitchen and a digger pit and large-scale chalk board, encouraging the children to experiment with different textures and enhance their creativity. These two areas are accessed by both the ‘Turtles’ and ‘Dolphins’ children.
Penguins and Sharks (3 – 11 years)
The undercover area for the Penguins/Sharks children houses a sensory kitchen and an artificial grassed area which is for the more challenging physical activities such as wooden pirate ship with slide and den. We also have loose parts play with items such as balance beams, cable reels, crates, wooden planks, tyres, pipes and guttering where children can work together to build structures, dens, using their imagination and inventiveness whilst problem-solving and negotiating with others.
Discovery Garden (All nursery children)
There is also on offer a spacious outdoor discovery garden area which is shared by the whole nursery and is used come rain or shine. The children spend a great deal of time in this area which consists of a water wall where they empty and pour water down the different pipes, a sand pit where anything and everything are made, a book corner, an aeroplane see-saw, a den and a large homemade outdoor music station.
Car park – Playground (All nursery children)
An enclosed tarmacked car park is also used as a playground by the children at pre-set times of the day. The gates are closed, stopping people or visitors from entering during these times. It is used for the more energetic and larger activities such as football, basketball, tennis, skipping, bowling, ride on cars, scooters, bikes, go-carts, parachute, team/circle games and running/moving around in a number of ways etc. It can also be used for large-scale chalking and water painting. This is shared by the whole nursery, taking it in turns who is out at any one time.
Walks (All nursery children)
We are in a fortunate position of the nursery being situated in the countryside so going for walks is a must. The babies also go on walks too, sitting in our large 6 seater buggy, known as ‘The bus’ until we get to the bottom of the hill and they can get out and explore their natural surroundings. The children play in the nearby fields where they run around, play games, blow dandelion seeds, explore objects from the woods and build dens or structures out of branches, sticks and leaves.