Outdoor Learning
Water Play
So many of our children love to explore and play with water. They love to transport water from one place to another, carrying it in different containers. As expected, water spills out as the container is tilted, water overflows when they don’t stop pouring as a container gets full. This is how children learn, we encourage them to notice what is happening and wonder why. Sometimes they may change what they are doing to prevent spilling but sometimes they will continue, this means they need more opportunities to experiment and discover this when they are ready.
The children are learning about the way water flows.
They have been finding out what they need to do for the water to flow from the tray, down and out of the pipe so that they can catch it.
The hosepipe is fun too. We have even made our own rainbows! 🌈
We love being outside!
Being outside offers our young children so much. It is amazing to see children show more self confidence and independence whilst playing outside. Some children are more likely to talk to others and explore new friendships when in an outdoor environment. They feel more free, and are often more willing to have a go at something new.
What is the weather today?
It’s frosty and freezing, it’s frosty and freezing, that is the weather today!
We regularly talk about the weather and use different words to describe it. Today we all agreed that it was very very cold. Outside we noticed white frosty cobwebs, the pond had frozen over, we didn’t need wellies because the mud was frozen so it was hard and some areas in the playground were frosty and slippery. The table top had frosted over and we were able to make marks and patterns in the frost.
Wet weather
Rainy days are lots of fun and one of the children’s favourite things is to gather any collected water around the outdoor area and explore it by transferring water from one container to another. So much pouring and filling was going on today- we talked about the containers being heavy when they are full and then getting lighter as the water pours out of them until they are empty.
The children have continued to explore the outside area, enjoying the climbing wall and climbing frame. They have loved digging for worms in the tyres and loved smashing the ice in the tuff trays to reveal lots of different fruit and vegetables. They have played so brilliantly together, taking it in turns to have a go and letting others go before them. We have been exploring autumn and talking about the things we might find when we are out and about at this time of year.
Our children love to be outside, playing , exploring, observing and experiencing. Outdoor play is really important for our young children’s development. In nursery, we play outside every day, whatever the weather! Children can choose to spend the majority of each day playing outside and many do!
Here are a few photos of our children in their first few weeks of their nursery year enjoying being outside.