Every Time I Climb a Tree.

Every Time I Climb a Tree

Every time I climb a tree

I scrape a leg 

Or skin a knee 

And every time I climb a tree

Where have you been? 

They say to me 

But don't they know that I am free 

Every time I climb a tree? 

But still it's pretty good for me 

Every time I climb a tree

(Paraphrased from the full poem by David McCord 1897-1997)

This year the children love to try climbing trees, much more than any other year. So when we go to Peatlands Park or Sperrinview they spend ages walking around seeing which trees are most suitable for climbing. I love to see their sense of pride & achievement when they do manage to get up into a tree & back down again.

I have this poster from Explorations Early Learning displayed in school & I think it says it all about why tree climbing is such an essential part of preparing for school!

The Language of School

Recently I had the opportunity to attend an afternoon training session on Speech & Language Development with other nursery staff in my area. It was facilitated by an ex teacher who now advises schools on how to develop language & writing within schools. She was a very inspiring speaker & her advice was all very practical & doable. The 3 of us from my setting were pleased to realise as we listened that we are doing everything she suggested to help the children in our class develop as competent speakers & hopefully then eventual writers. We ask lots of open ended questions, especially in the 30 minute whole class story time when the children will often be asked to problem solve how a scenario might be reached, for example, How would a tiny goat manage to get up onto a high bridge. Children as young as 3 will come up with amazing suggestions if allowed time to think & to become comfortable at putting forward suggestions.

The trainer also lamented the fact that children no longer get to just play outside with open ended resources to help develop their imaginations. Again we could all feel a little smug as we thought of our class spending time outside every day creating their own little worlds using sticks, pine cones & tyres to represent anything from boats to fairy wands.

Then she spoke about how the language of school is so different to that of home and how some children will really struggle with this.

It really got me thinking, I am quite aware that when a child starts nursery they have to learn a lot of new words & I always stress this on the information night in June before the children start. It is one of the reasons that our settling in time is probably one of the shortest session wise (2 hours) and the longest time wise (4 weeks). There are so many new experiences & vocabulary for the children they need time to absorb it all & adjust.

I have been in the same school now for 12 years & therefore I am used to all those words & sometimes it's hard to remember that to the 3 year old child it is all new. We talk about getting a ticket to have snack, let's face it at home you don't need a ticket if you want something to eat & unless the children have come from another child care setting before they start nursery they won't have come across this before. They will hear new phrases like the craft table, loft, block corner, puzzle table etc. We ask them to wear aprons at the water & paint and I bet very few have heard that word before nursery. 

I remember one year after about a week, I had a group in the story room & was calling them by name & saying 'OK x you can go & play in the classroom' when one little girl asked me, 'What's a classroom?' - we as adults assume too much sometimes!

In my setting we talk about rain gear all the time & yet I have had a child ask why we wore reindeer at Windmill once!

Teachers also use words & phrases that aren't that familiar to others outside the school environment or is such common use, we need to be very careful we don't bombard parents with words we are used to but will just confuse them. As a teacher of preschool children I talk about fine & gross motor skills all the time but I have to remember to give examples when talking to others outside of the school environment. Schools also love to use acronyms, so it is usual to hear us talk about IEP's, the CoP, SPD, ASD etc. Sometimes it takes someone asking what does that mean to make me realise I am using 'school speak'. I was talking about siblings one day when someone asked me what it meant & I realised it's not a term in common use outside of application criteria for schools.

But every so often some phrases pass into common language & I think that the internet & social media has a lot to do with this - a key example would be loose parts. 3 years ago I would have had no clue what this meant & yet now I seem to see & hear it everywhere.

Sparkly Spool Christmas Trees

When the children have made these & they are sitting around in the classroom it really starts to feel Christmassy!

These Christmas Trees start off life as cardboard spools that we are lucky enough to get for free at the local scrap store (Play Resource Belfast)

It's a really simple yet magical activity, they children paint the spools with green paint & stick their name on them, they they put them in a box full of glitter, paper dots & sequins. (again the paper dots came from the Play Resource)

The children then have to shake the box up & down & from side to side & I always love to see their faces when the lid gets open & they have a sparkly tree instead of just a plain green one.

Of course they will go home & take pride of place in their houses but apologies first for all the glitter that will be in the car!!

Outdoor Play Party - Guest post from Cornwall

For this fortnightly OPP I'm delighted to have Martin Besford from Highway Farm Activity Centre contributing a guest post & providing images of his amazing outdoor preschool in Redruth in Cornwall.

Martin & I became friends via Facebook & then were fortunate enough to meet up in person during the #PlayIceland 2013 conference organised by Fafu .

Whilst Highway Farm Activity Centre has been on the site for over 10 years the outdoor pre-school only started in January 2011. As Martin explains it was "Started due to parents demands that children loved coming in the holidays and being outside all day and our ethos. We had the staff experience and qualifications to do it." It was also the type of pre-school experience that Martin & his wife wanted for their own 2 children. he then adds, "We operate in an Eco friendly Timber building with a back to basics, cosy atmosphere. The building is heated by a log burner and water heated on it. We have a compost toilet and are wrapped internally with carbon zero insulation. We try to offer the best of both worlds with a secure natural indoor space, a stimulating and challenging outdoor, enclosed area for free flow. All surrounded by an acre and a half field for the freedom and exhilaration the natural outdoors has to offer."

The preschool sessions - known as Little Explorers - run from 8-1 and 15 of those hours are free through government funding. However the setting also runs sessions from 1-3.30 and an after schools session until 6. It is quite possible for some children to attend from 8-6 & the setting is open all year round. They take children from 3 years old until they start school and offer the free entitlement funding from the term after a child is 3. They base their EYFS curriculum around the outdoors and nature and are outdoors in all weathers for the majority of the day.They have also fully adopted the Healthy Early Years Program within our setting and believe these opportunities give children flexible ways of working with and in nature to develop and learn. They support and encourage children through outdoor learning to develop their emotional confidence and self esteem. Children are also supported and encouraged to manage their own risks and to develop their life skills through using the correct tools for a purpose. 

As the farm is run as a community interest group it can now access funding and was successful in a bid to Awards for All for lottery money to build an outdoor kitchen. This amazing space means that the children eat outside every day but not out in the elements. I love the way the whole site seems to be in constant development & new pieces are being added to all the time. It means that there are so many different areas on the site for the children to explore & grown into. 

The amazing outdoor kitchen area.

There seems to be an amazing family feel to the whole organisation & they organise between 6-8 family days throughout the year when all family members are more than welcome to come along & join in & even learn some new skills, like how to cook pizza in their fabulous pizza oven.

I can see why so many of the children who have attended Little Explorers come back every summer when they start school as it means they get to revisit so many of their favourite activities e.g. cooking marshmallows on the fire and whittling.

"A typical day is spent collecting the eggs from the chickens, feeding and caring for the rabbits, cooking snack over the camp fire, building dens to story tell in and children initiating their own play and learning. The children tend to the fruit and vegetables they grow on site and ensure they are watered and nurtured, ready for them to select and prepare for their snack. Opportunities are presented through the outdoors in a range of purposeful contexts for children to appreciate and respect nature. Most of our resources are from natural materials found in the local environment. We plant, nurture, harvest and eat vegetables and fruit and incorporate physical opportunities into every day activities." - now doesn't that sound like the most idyllic way for any 3 -4 year olds to spend the day?

I have visited 2 outdoor preschools now, one in Scotland & one in Donegal, Ireland and I now hope to go over in July and spend some time at Little Explorers and Highway Farm to see what ideas & tips I can bring back to my setting. I am also excited to have Martin coming over to visit my setting early next year, I may just kidnap him until he builds me an outdoor shelter for Bear Woods!!

There were again so many great posts linked up in the last OPP and it was great to see summer posts from Australia mixed in with Wintery ones from over here. But as a nursery teacher the one that I loved the most was on an urban beach visit from Creative Star Learning Company.

• Any kind of children's outdoor play-related posts are welcome!

We'd appreciate it if you included a link back to this post (either in your post or sidebar) to help us spread the word about the importance (and fun!) of outdoor play! In return, we'll gladly further share your post on Facebook/ Twitter/ Pinterest. Please feel free to grab the Outdoor Play Party button from the sidebar and/or include a text link back.

Please note that by contributing you are giving permission for an image and link to your post to be republished if featured.(If you have been featured, please feel free to grab the 'featured' button from the sidebar.) Share your ideas for outdoor play activities with us every other week!

Learning in all weathers.

My blog is taking a new direction & subsequently I asked followers on the Facebook page for some ideas for posts & another topic suggested was "being creative with outdoor learning what ever the weather" by Debbie.

A little pop up den (from Cosy Direct) provides a quiet spot in the noisy playground.

So I have been thinking about this one all week. I know that I am very lucky to have a covered verandah area just off the classroom that allows us to be outside without actually being out in the rain etc. I did find it a little strange when one visitor suggested that some of the children were not actually outside if they were under the covered area, as let's face it they still need coats, gloves, scarves & hats when under the roof as it's just as cold under there as outside under the sky! But the cover does allow us to offer a wide variety of table top activities as well as all the usual outdoor learning resources, so on any day the children who don't want to be running, climbing, jumping or riding bikes can spend time playing with imaginative toys for example farm or zoo animals or drawing. There are usually 2 Tuff spots outside too with some construction resources & maybe some water or gloop or fine sand. Our sand pit is also under the cover & the snack table & a house corner.

A Tuff spot with gloop - messy activities are perfect for outside.

I have found myself watching weather forecasts intently 5 days a week when at school as I like to know exactly almost hour by hour what the weather will be like, it seems a bit obsessive but if I'm putting fine sand or pages & markers out I need to know it's not going to be windy or very wet, as the rain will blow under the cover & ruin the fine sand. If there is going to be heavy constant rain, then the bikes are a good bet as the children love riding round in the rain & we usually also bring out the powder paints so the children can paint with the rain. On wet days the guttering & pipes are a good idea too as the children can use the rain from the water butt as it fills up almost instantly. 

On dry days when there has been lots of frost & subsequently ice, the tyres are a great source of fabulous ice shapes as the water in the rim freezes. If you know it's going to be lovely & dry but cold, make some ice shapes overnight in the freezer (or if it's cold enough outside). The children will have fun playing with the shapes & watching them melt. Some years I have put leaves in the ice shapes & the children love getting them out of the ice. 

Ice shapes - trying to put the pieces back together is always fun

You can see the frost on the tyres but it's still fun to be outside

On snowy days (no matter how light the snowfall) we break out the sledges.

Of course it's much easier to be outside on warm, dry days but honestly for the past 7 years that we have been going outside everyday I can safely say that there has never been a day when any of the adults or children didn't enjoy being outside. We never have any child refusing to come outside or wanting back inside before it's time to go inside. The children quickly accept that they are going to be outside & will find extra layers if they do find themselves getting cold. It is of course important that the adults are dressed appropriately too with good warm boots & waterproof trousers & coats if necessary. In my setting most of us wear this everyday whether it's raining or not, so that we aren't worrying about kneeling down to help children put on wellies or sitting down on a damp tree stump to chat to children. 

I really do challenge anyone to try going outside everyday for a month. It will quickly become a habit you won't want to break. 

Words by me!

I made this word cloud to see what I have been writing about on the blog & must say I'm delighted to see children and outdoors feature heavily!
Word cloud made with WordItOut

Making the most of a small outdoor space.

I recently asked followers of my page for some topic ideas for future posts, I got lots of them so will have a few ideas for the next few weeks. The first one I'm starting off is how to make the most of a small outdoor space, mainly because our space is quite small in relation to most others.

You can see it's certainly not a large space.

We were in very cramped outdoor conditions for a year and half before moving into our new premises so it seemed like perfection to us. For over a year it was big, clean open space but then we began to develop different areas within the small space. The one saving grace we do have is that we are very sheltered, we can't be seen from the road & therefore can leave most resources out all the time with no chance of theme being taken.
I know not everyone can leave tyres, crates or tree stumps outdoors all the time & it would be very different if we did have to bring these in all the time.

Luckily all the 'loose parts' can be left outside.

I think the key is to make different areas within the space so it feels bigger. We now have what we call the 'forest area', it started off as a large expanse of grass, then we added 3 willow dens. Over time the grass wore away - I do think if you want pristine grass you are going to have to keep the children off it most of the year. We chose not to do this & eventually we had no grass at all just mud. Last January we put down old Christmas tree branches to soak up the mud & then later added bags of bark chippings. These have been the best addition as they become loose parts all by themselves. Over the past 3 years we have gathered up enough logs to line the whole of the forest area with them to contain the bark chippings. 

A few weeks ago we made a tiny little hill with some more bark chippings & it is lovely to watch the children rolling down it & running up & over it. It is really a slight incline but to a 3 & 4 year old it feels like a hill.
Sometimes when the children are playing in among the willow dens & cooking with bark chippings or pine cones on the tree stumps it is hard to believe we are sitting inside the playground of a school. It really does feel like we have a little forest in the playground.

We installed a double slide & little wooden house when we got the new playground & while I know many are against fixed equipment, I'd have to say ours has more than earned it's keep in the playground. The children like to hang out together in the tunnel between the 2 slides, they enjoy going up one & down the other & love spotting key landmarks in the town from the top of the slide. The little house can be a rocket, shop, boat or plain house. It is is always busy & in use.

We have created a mud patch in one corner, it is most popular on very wet days when it fills up with lovely squishy mud. There is a water butt attached to one down pipe & it has created a water play area & because it is parallel to the mud area water can be transferred easily between the 2 with buckets etc. by walking along behind the slides.

Our mud patch

The water butt is at the side of the slide & across from the mud patch.

In the small area of tarmac that we have it has lots of tyres on it so it can transformed into a variety of play spaces. Sometimes the tyres form a track for the bikes, other times they created a barrier for pipe & ball play. On Fridays we always light the fire in the bottom half of the tarmac. We have again gathered up enough tree stumps to make a seating circle with some additional planks & then the rest of the week the stumps are all piled in a corner to create a climbing area.  
In the warmer summer term the large Community Playthings hollow blocks tend to get spread all over the tarmac area & we can have bowling on there too.

If I was advising someone on how to develop a small space from scratch, I'd advise getting some tyres, palettes & tree stumps. These will create many play scenarios for the children. If at all possible I would advocate approaching garden centres etc. and asking if they could give discounted prices on bulk buys of bark chippings or come to some arrangements on split bags that can't be resold.
Creating an area with a natural feel of bark chippings will be the best investment a setting could make. 
We take the class on monthly visits to several forest settings & outdoor play areas and we also have a wooded/wild area for our use within the main school grounds but I can honestly say the playground is my favourite space to enjoy watching young children totally involved in good quality outdoor play.