We linked the children’s current interest in superheroes to coincide with our teaching of emotions. Staff were inspired to create a wide range of activities across the curriculum reflecting the theme. These included a Numicon skyline and a superhero phone book to develop maths skills. Parents and grandparents kindly made and donated superhero capes and masks which produced some creative roleplay. We worked in partnership with our families to create a superhero board reflecting the children’s achievements and successes at home. To promote personal, social, and emotional growth superhero reward figures were also created by staff and sent home noting positive behaviour within Pre-School. The children were captivated by the theme which resulted in some inspirational child-initiated play and learning opportunities and outcomes.
We aim to provide quality learning and deliver the curriculum in our outdoor provision. Some children prefer to learn outdoors and under EYFS guidelines we ensure continuous provision in all weathers when it is safe to do so.
Some of the resources we provide are linked to our themed planning and some are in the moment and weather dependent. In some of our outdoor play experiences, we use elements of indoor resourcing. These act as a familiar
‘bridge’ that allow children to initially access familiar equipment that will lead them to explore other skills. We develop their understanding of the world, for example, by adding small world resources to natural elements e.g princesses in the snow or dinosaurs in a muddy swamp. Exploring the natural world also includes planting and caring for our tyre and wellies miniature gardens.
Outdoor learning also enables the children to have different opportunities than inside. Vestibular and proprioceptive sensory activities require gross motor skills. These activities, such as sweeping the floor or painting the fence develop and strengthen the muscles needed for writing later on. We recognise each child’s individual needs as being unique and an increased or decreased diet of sensory experiences can support all of our children’s learning and development.
Please keep an eye on the blog for further examples of our outdoor play experiences and provision over the forthcoming year.
– Natasha
We gratefully received a donation of a trampoline which has had full use in our indoor and outdoor provision. After staff initially modelling turn taking, we were thrilled to observe the children independently managing their turn-taking and using number language throughout the rest of the week.
