A DAY AT PLAISTOW

At 9am the children are welcomed into the Preschool garden by a familiar member of staff and are encouraged to find their self registration picture to put on a drawer. Their drawer is accessible to them to put their special toys/comforters in as well as any art work they complete during the day. The garden is set up with activities for the children to start their day, they are encouraged to free play and get settled in whilst chatting with their friends and the grown ups.

We offer a fruit and milk snack in the morning and the children use child friendly knives to cut up the fruit and serve themselves. They are also asked to wash up their plates after snack. We use this time to chat about healthy foods and how they help our bodies.

Our mornings and afternoons are filled with focus activities, these are planned around the children’s interests and special events during the year (e.g. Easter, season changes etc.) The children have regular access to painting and other crafts and are able to make at our writing tables inside and outside.

We have lunch around 12pm, the children bring in a lunchbox and we sit together and enjoy our food. We encourage lots of conversation around this time and the staff often eat with the children to help role model healthy eating habits.

As we are a mostly outdoor setting the children are able to explore the natural world, they dig in mud, splash in puddles, bury things with stones and dig holes around the garden! We also go on lots of walks around the village, we like to visit the park, the church and the woods to hunt for adventures. We also run some clubs during the week to support the children’s development and interests.

We support the children by offering access to all the areas of learning, we use our outdoor classroom as a calm space to enjoy stories and quiet activities like puzzles and group games. Our garden is designed to support all aspects of physical development, the children have room to climb, run and navigate spaces. We encourage early literacy and numeracy and enjoy role play and creative activities regularly.

At 3pm the children are collected by their parents, often covered in mud with a big smile as they tell you what they have done in their day.