Last year we updated our outdoor area.
It is important, in our opinion, to ensure the children experience wide and vast early years skills in their outdoor area to help and support their development.
We focused on helping the children develop their gross and fine motor skills. We added a cycle track for the children, the best bits about the tracks are you can go ‘fast, fast, fast’ on the balance bikes – Loxley. Strong gross motor skills set children up to create a healthy body and mind; varied gross motor (physical) activities help children ensure they have a life-long, positive relationship with health. Gross motor is vital to the foundation of children’s fine motor skills, to be able to write children must first have a strong core and upper body. Fine motor, including working the small muscles in the children’s body, like fingers. Developing fine motor skills helps children do things like eating, writing, manipulating objects, and getting dressed.
Role play is also an important part of fostering a child’s imagination, we have a variety of different role play areas including a large mud kitchen, reading and stage area, doll house, and more. This is great at expanding children’s vocabulary as well as their speaking and listening skills while playing together with peers or as individuals in a safe and enabled environment.
Finally, one of the most popular areas in our outdoor areas is our chicken coop. We have 8 chickens that currently produce all of our eggs which we use to create cakes and pancakes with the children.
