“There are three teachers of children: adults, other children, and their physical environment.”
Loris Malaguzzi
In our Nursery class we have fully embedded this idea and ensure that our classroom reflects the 17 strands of the Early Years Foundation Stage framework. Through close observation and assessment of children’s interests and abilities, we enhance our provision to ensure that every child is given the opportunity to ‘grow their brain’ whilst involved in purposeful play.
Reading Corner
Reading opportunities are embedded in all areas of our provision, eg, we have books, songs, visuals and challenges in all areas of our classroom.
Our reading corner is a central part of our classroom. In this area we have access to a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction texts, story props and lots and lots of rhyme books. We love to read the rhyming books and songs because we know, ‘Rhyme makes readers.’
Investigation Area
This area of our classroom is where we can put our ideas to the test. We love to explore all of the lose parts and the bits and bobs to bring our amazing ideas to life.
Movement Area
Our movement area is one of our favourite areas to explore. In this area we can develop our physical skills by exploring different ways of moving, eg, rolling, dancing and practising our yoga moves.
Small World Area
In this area of our classroom we love to develop our imagination by exploring all of the resources that are available. We love to work collaboratively to create amazing train tracks etc. This area allows us to become ‘Active learners’ because we are encouraged to keep on trying and use different resources if our ideas do not go to plan.
Construction Area
In this area we have lots of building materials available to create structures and test out our own ideas. This area is next to our small word area, so that when we create houses etc, we can use the small world toys to enhance our play further.
Role-Play Area
We love to pretend play in our class and our role-play area allows us to introduce a storyline into our play by using the resources available. We love to use the scarves and materials to pretend to be Kings and Queens.
Maths Area
Key mathematical concepts are embedded in all areas of our provision, eg, we sort out the toys into the correctly labelled boxes and there are opportunities for counting in all of the areas. We have a thought-provoking Maths area that allows us to explore our ‘Invitation for Learning’ which changes every half-term. In addition to our ‘Invitation for Learning’ we are very fortunate to have lots of natural counting resources and lots of shapes available to development our early mathematical skills.
Mark Making Area
Mark making opportunities are embedded in all areas of our provision, eg, we can draw how we made our sandcastle, make marks to represent numbers in the maths area and draw out our ideas for our construction models in the construction area. The mark making area is one of our favourite areas in our class. We love to have, ‘Tummy Time’ and do huge drawings on large pieces of paper. We also have lots of resources available for us to develop our writing skills, eg, writing in birthday cards, writing on train tickets, making diary entries and mark making in different languages.
Creative
In our class we have lots of opportunities to be creative. We have given our creative areas alliterative names to help us become familiar with words that sound the same. The areas are called: Pinching Playdough, Creative Craft, Wet Water and Soft Sand (this will help us with our Phonics)
Soft Sand Area
We love to explore the sand area and use all of the equipment available to mould sandcastles, make marks in the sand and extend our understanding of the world.
Pinching Playdough Area
This area is where we can cook our favourite foods and take part in ‘Dough Disco’ which allows us to develop our fine motor skills.
Wet Water Area
Our water area allows us to develop our understanding of capacity, by filling and emptying containers. In this area we also develop our understanding of the world by playing with lots of different sea creatures and talking about where we see water in our world.
Creative Craft Area
We love to explore the paint and produce some amazing artwork in this area. We also use our, ‘Recycling Box’ to create some amazing junk models, this allows us to implement our ideas and give things a go.
Outdoor Learning/ Outdoor Classroom
We are very lucky to have such an enormous space outdoors, which allows to develop all of our skills.
We have lots of opportunities to develop our confidence and gross motor skills by exploring our wide range of physical apparatus available. We love to take turns riding on the riding equipment and balancing on the stepping stones, which develop our co-ordination and balance.
Our outdoor music area allows us to develop our understanding of sounds and rhythm, enhancing our Phonics.
Whilst we are outside, we are always on the lookout for things to learn, eg, we recently found some wriggly worms and then we had lots of conversations about what the worms needed and where the worms would like to live.
We also have a water area and a small world/construction area outdoors, which allows us to develop our skills on a much bigger scale and with larger natural resources.
We have lots of opportunities for Mark Making and Maths outdoors and can access chalk boards, wipe boards number lines and number mats whilst outside.
Our stage outdoors is one of our favourite places to play and we love to put on shows for our friends. In our class we love to showcase ourselves, knowing that we are all fantastic!
In addition to our thought-provoking outdoor classroom, we are extremely lucky to have a forest within our school grounds. We love our Thursday afternoon Forest School session, where we learn all about the different aspects of nature and if it’s cold we get to have some delicious hot chocolate!!
Parent Partnership
In our class we acknowledge the vital role that our parents play in the learning and development of their children. The ways in which we promote good relationships with our parents are, our parents are involved in a ‘Parent and Child Challenge’ every morning, we invite our parents to stay and play sessions every half-term, which relate to our theme. We also love to read in our class, so we welcome parents to stay and read with their child on Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons. We love to recall key events from our favourite stories to our parents and so far, this has been successful. In our classroom we all work together; staff, children and their parents, because we believe that teamwork makes the dream work.