The Outdoors
”Let nature be your teacher”William Wordsworth
Evidence shows the enormous benefits that playing and learning outdoors can bring to children. We know that children are five times more likely to talk and develop language in nature. Being in nature helps with emotional self-regulation, phsyical fitness and filling our hearts with joy. As a result in every room in the nursery we have an active programme of activities which means that all our children spend a lot of time in the open air. We have a wonderful forest school that is in regular use and we are just in the process of starting our nursery allotment. All the children go on regular walks to the common and our preschool children also walk up to ‘wriggly manor’ to see their buddies every Wednesday.
Our Approach
We believe that nature is a valuable teacher of our children. We use the outdoors as a place for exploration and to inspire curiosity. We encourage children to ask questions like ‘why is this leaf green and that leaf brown?’ or for younger children ‘how many different textures can we feel?’ as we rub bark or leavees or crumble soil through our fingers. The outdoors is also a place to teach children valuable lessons about assessing and managing risk in a positive way to help their own safety. We learn rules together like what it is safe to climb on to and what would not be safe. Children are supported to develop their strength and coordination by climbing for tree stump to tree stump or balancing along low slung ropes.
Have a glimpse…
of some of the fun we have at forest school.