Today was officially great! The children are still coming in a few at a time but the ones who have been in for a few days are really starting to feel at home and use the environment independently.
They did some brilliant outdoor work with the bread trays and plastic covers. In the couple of hours that I was out there the area was everything from Tia's sausage butty shop to a pirate ship complete with planks for walking! All of this with minimum adult intervention. If we had themed the outdoors as a cafe or a house we wouldn't have got such diverse opportunities for play.
I have got some big plans for outdoors but we are starting with 3 areas – wheeled toys, role play/imaginative play and an outdoor art studio.
I have to say that I am really impressed with how hard the staff are working to make it happen Reception produced a brilliant piece of large scale work today using a variety of media. They had also ensured that the equipment on offer was directly related to next steps for development following their assessment – I was DEAD IMPRESSED!
Here Come The Girls!
The highlight of my day though came from two boys who worked together to make a cardboard bridge for their train track. Glad I had my trusty flip to record it! Looking back at it there are things I wouldn't have said but on the whole a clear example of learning taking place.
The train track had not been out before today. It was a specific request from one of the boys.
Once I have got permission from the boys parents then I will post it. The 'how do I work table has caused some interest but at this stage in the year there is SO much on offer that they have never seen before that they are not sticking with anything for more than a day. I know it will all calm down once they are all in!
My other highligh today was a little girl who is clearly used to getting her own way and not used to hearing the word no!
She asked me what I was doing with some traffic cones 'Ey, mista what you doing wiv them?'
I squatted down to tell her, taking my sun glasses of so that we could have eye contact and was just about to launch into what I was doing when she held her flat hand up to my face and said 'D'ya know wha? I cannot be bothered listenin to ya!' and then skipped off!
Was really glad the Flip wasn't on me then – we did have words about being rude but I am not convinced that she was bothered!
Alistair