"During outdoor play, children become teachers and learners"

At nursery, we truly value the importance of outdoor learning and believe that every child has the right to play outside. Therefore, all children can freely access the outdoor learning environment throughout their sessions. This means that children will play outside in all weathers, so please make sure that your child comes to nursery in warm and comfy clothes. 

Research shows that learning outdoors can play an important role in children's development, as it can help children build self-esteem and confidence as well as resilience and independence. When playing outside, children can learn how to assess and manage risks in a safe environment and explore the natural world around them. Outdoor learning also provides children with endless opportunities to move freely but it can also help children to develop their communication and social skills, as well as their physical development. 

Please see below for photographs of children's learning experiences 

Making Potions

The children have had a so much fun exploring the mud kitchen this week. We have been making our very own magic potions using food colouring, flowers, water and a range of natural objects found around the garden. The children used their imagination to create their own potions, making their friends turn into all kinds of things such as dinosaurs, butterflies and even rainbow frogs.

It was great to see the children working together to share their ideas. We also used this opportunity to learn about capacity and size.

They all had a great time turning their friends and teachers into different things. 

Hammering 

This week in nursery, the children have had a great time exploring the hammers and nails.
First, we talked about the importance of keeping safe when using the hammers and why we must wear our safety glasses to protect our eyes. After this, we then talked about why we must always look at what we are doing so we do not hurt our fingers. We then modelled to the children how to use the hammers safely and demonstrated how to hold the nail in place between our thumb and first finger.

The children made sure to listen very carefully to our instructions before having a go themselves. 

Let it snow! 

The children have had such a great time exploring the snow outside this week. 

We have talked about how the snow felt, what it looked like and where it come from. The children were able to talk about how the snow was "freezing" and "cold" in their hands and we discussed how the snow "melted" in our hands when holding it. 

The children loved making footprints in the snow and they even had lots of fun having a snow-ball fight, making sure to be very careful when throwing the snow! 

Well done everyone. 

Please see photographs below. 

Summer Term

Last week we went down to the Junior gardens to explore the outside green space and environment.

We took our snacks and milk for a picnic and we also played with toys and the parachute!

To finish our session the children sat on the mat and listened to the story of Little Red Riding-hood told by one of the teachers while they sat and ate a biscuit.

Spring Term

The children have had lots of fun exploring spring outdoors. They have been observing the wonderful changes that are happening outside, such as the flowers and plants growing around them. They have been independently using the watering cans to water our plants and they have observed the flowers more closely using the magnifying glasses. 

The children have also noticed more insects in the garden during the spring season and have gone on a number of mini-beast hunts with their friends, searching both high and low in the garden.

We have also had many other learning experiences happening outdoors, from cleaning the windows and doors using our large muscles to mark making in coloured sand to help improve our fine motor skills.

Looking after our environment

This week in our outdoor area, we have been putting our waterproofs on independently or with a little support to really develop those independence skills, and you can develop your confidence with these skills by practicing dressing yourself at home. 

We had a focus of looking after our environment, and we talked about the importance of how and why we should keep our surroundings clean and tidy. The children did a great job with using their large arm movements to sweep the floor and their fine motor skills by using the litter pickers to pick up pieces of rubbish and putting them in the bin bags.

It was a real team effort and the children loved working together on these activities. 

Exploring Winter

When it snowed at Anglesey Primary School, we made the most of it.

The children enjoyed exploring the outdoors and talking about what they could see and how the snow and ice felt in their hands. The children also used their problem-solving skills to find different ways to melt the ice to help rescue our resources. We found out that warm water and salt can help melt the ice but using hammers can be just as fun to rescue our resources, as we was able to smash and break the ice into tiny pieces using our big strong muscles. 

See below for some photographs of our snow day.

Autumn Term