Go outdoors
As we embrace Spring, we are excited to tell you about our outdoor projects which are evolving and, pardon the pun… ‘growing’.
Our youth groups in Thorntree have been prepping our outdoor activity space for use by taking on the cleaning, sweeping, washing and tidying. As the sun comes out more, all our groups make great use of this space by running activities, playing games, foosball, badminton, doing some crafting in the sunshine…all sorts! We find it’s a great way to get some fresh air and vitamin D without having to go too far or trying to achieve too many things at once. It instantly helps people feel fresher and brighter.
On that note, Sheroes and Boys in Blue have already been down to the allotment to turn over the potatoes we’re growing there and ensure they’re growing to the best of their ability. They’re learning all sorts of gardening skills and how to help plants grow more effectively. They’re also superstars at making healthy snacks. Sheroes recently turned up early to help prepare snacks for the whole group because they know how important it is to eat well, for your energy levels and mood.
We also recently planted our pumpkin seeds that we kept from our pumpkin carving activities at Halloween last year, and can already see great results. We love to find creative ways to learn new skills, so when we saw an opportunity to follow one free activity with another, and lots more once we get some fresh pumpkins out of it, of course we jumped at it.
This way of thinking has been embraced at Pavilion Nursery in North Ormesby by our Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO) Claire Brack, who as part of her recent Level 4 Certificate for the Advanced Practitioner, is implementing a range of outdoor facilities and activities to stimulate development of communication and social skills in our children under 5 years old.
As SENCO, she is seeing more and more children with additional needs and knows how important it is to pick this up before they attend mainstream school. By picking it up early, childcare providers and families are able to find ways to support them better and one that works well for our children is the outdoor space at the nursery. It currently is a space which could do with some investment and by enriching the space, we hope to offer additional facilities around our current childcare offer too.
Claire has devised a plan to add visual alphabet and number boards to enhance recognition and communication skills, story sacks and a reading hut to encourage positive sensory play, and a mud kitchen and café to support role play and promote positive interaction between the children.
We’re really excited to see how more time outside, fresh air and vitamin D will impact the children’s development and enjoyment. Safe green space is not something people can easily access in North Ormesby, so to be able to offer this to our children, feels very important. You can see the before and after here with the first two photos showing how it used to look.
