LITTLE CHESTNUTS PRESCHOOL
THE CHILDREN'S DAY
Out in the local community
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We pride ourselves on giving children the best experiences that we can and are meaningful and have impact on their development. On a daily basis children experience the forest garden where they collect bugs, plant seeds, make potions, build and construct and dig in the sand for treasure.
With parent permission they are also able to visit the park. We are so lucky that the nursery is in the park as this enables children to develop their gross motor skills by climbing, swinging and sliding on the various equipment.
We also make regular visits to Corringham library and visit the shops to buy snacks for the nursery. Sometimes we ask parents to donate toys that are no longer used at home and some of the children take these to the charity shop. It’s so nice for the children to experience ‘giving’ first hand.
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'In the moment' Planning
‘In the moment' planning is where teachers and practitioners use a responsive approach to teaching and learning. Responsive curriculum planning focuses on finding strategies to help teachers search for, support, and keep alive children's internal motivation to learn, and their spontaneous explorations of people and things of interest and importance to them.
This is the strategy that we use at Little Chestnuts Preschool as we believe that children learn best when they can make decisions about what they want to do and are able to learn through things that interest them.
Free Flow
At Little Chestnuts Preschool we allow the children to ‘Free Flow’. Free flow play is used with children in early years settings and allows children to move freely indoors and outdoors however they please.
Free flow play is said to provide a richer learning environment for young children and enables them children to...
• Develop greater independence and set their own rules.
• Progress at their own pace and cater to all learning styles.
• Develop decision making skills and help practise dealing with the consequences of their choice.
• Develop an understanding of their environment and surroundings.
• Build relationships and develop creativity.
Snacks & Lunch
Free flow snack
Building independent learners is one of the goals of early childhood education. Snack time is the perfect time to let children learn to do things all by themselves. At Little Chestnuts Preschool children are encouraged to select their own food, pour their own drink and wash and dry up their own plates and cups during snack time. They are also encouraged to use different tools such as knifes for spreading butter and peelers for peeling veg.
Lunchtime
At lunchtime the children come together as a group. Adults again uses this time as a learning opportunity. Modelling the use of good manners, talking about healthy eating and encouraging independence are all good examples of the things that happen during this part of the day. We want children to enjoy eating and learn about the importance of a varied diet.