This year we have been developing play opportunities in the outdoor area for the babies to provide a safe and stimulating area for the children to roam freely with open access developing their independence, problem solving skills and to increase their capacity to learn and develop by being able to experience nature first hand. By having access to outdoors it is proven to help children become more confident, co-operative and help with controlling/understanding emotions and behaviours.

We made sure the children had access to natural resources, this was to encourage the children to become engrossed in the nature and surroundings hands on exploring the mud/sand, grass etc to enhance their senses, creativity, fine motor skills and so much more.

We added cones, wooden stacking game and netting to weave with ribbons. The children have shown a keen interest in this area - some even using the netting as a ‘goal’ by throwing and kicking balls into it. This area is great for developing the children’s problem solving skills, turn taking/sharing resources and language skills with lots of encouragement from staff.

There has been guttering and pipes added for the children to put balls down/through. This is a great way for the children to explore the different types of schemas and develop hand eye co-ordination.

The mud kitchen has been developed further by adding more equipment such as pots, pans, spoons, jugs etc with more access to sand and mud for the children to explore/develop their imagination and creativity skills.

 Next steps are to development a music wall, construction area and a small bridge.

 Watch our video 

For role play

Adapting the home corner within the baby room to be more accessible and a nurturing environment for all ages and stages. (crawling and walking). I have re-arranged the area to ensure the children can access the full area and made it more spacious for the younger babies to crawl into and access the resources to role play.

Through these changes I have ensured that the environment is accessible for all age and stages for the children within the room. All resources for the home area are down low in baskets or stored on the kitchen units and little table we have in the area for easy access.

‘provide appropriate space to play and learn with a range of possibilities for children to develop their present and future potential’ quoted from Building the Ambition.

I have recently introduced real food into the home area, a long with real utensils, pots, plates etc. With these resources added in it will encourage the children to explore role playing using their own imaginations and also developing their fine motor skills through filling, pouring and mixing the food using the utensils.

This also develops their use of speech through play, by encouraging  children to imitate words said by the staff member whilst interacting with the children and also by encouraging the child’s use of language they already have.

I am currently doing a home links with parents and asking for family photos to create a family wall and also planning to create a family book that  the children can have access to daily.

I also want to continue looking and adapting the area to suit the needs of the children at all times, therefore I will review the area every month and ensure this is still meeting the needs of our children in the room. I also want to continue adding in natural resources and I would like to add in some natural wooden play food for the children to have at all times for using to role play in the kitchen area.

Creative opportunities

Creativity  fosters mental growth in children by providing opportunities for trying out new ideas, and new ways of thinking and problem-solving.

Through creative opportunities for the babies I wanted to use more natural resources to create some of our  art work and focus on our opportunities for early mark making and exploring our senses.

Recently for the children to experience, we done a mark making activity exploring with paint and different natural resources such as tea bags, pompoms, wooden corks and cooked spaghetti. Through this the babies explored each resource  given to mark make through using their sense of touch and sight and this also developed their fine motor skills for grasping and dabbing or stamping the resource onto the paper.

 Play is the main way your baby gets creative and expands his/her imagination, as they experience and experiment with new sounds, sights, activities and feelings.

Next steps:

I also want to develop my two areas together and for the babies to have more opportunities to express themselves through dance, music and movement, role playing with the puppets. The exploration of song and puppets promotes development of language and of the children’s imagination through play, continuing to explore song time to allow the children to express themselves through this.