The environment at Little Owls is continually changed to reflect the children’s current interests. At Little Owls we are keen to allow the children to be free to play and put their experiences and ideas into practice. Play is the ‘work’ of the small child and therefore we put play at the top of our agenda, giving it serious time and resources.
The ‘home corner’ at Little Owls is very well used and popular. You will often find this area housing a tea party, being the home to sleeping dogs and cats or even having Kings and Queens in residence.
There is a carpeted area for play, construction and puzzles. The carpet area is also a cosy corner for reading or relaxing and watching the other children busy at play.
We have a sensory tray filled with interesting things to explore. Sand, rice and shredded paper are favourites. This area is busy with all ages but the two year olds find this area fascinating and spend much time sorting, stirring and enjoying the different textures and materials.
Other play-based activities typically include painting, bread making, play dough, seasonal craft, drawing. These activities depend on the day, theme and the interests of the children at that time. Paper, crayons and pencils are always freely available for the children.
After play time, we all tidy up. Tidying up is an activity that we encourage the children to help with and enjoy.
Each session will then typically involve the children coming together on the carpet for rhymes and songs. The children have huge amounts of fun jumping, balancing, dancing, singing and playing together.
Snack time follows, and we all enjoy some fruit together. Snack time is a perfect time for listening and chatting to each other and sharing ideas. We encourage the children to get involved in preparing and tidying away the snacks.
Every morning around 11am we put on appropriate clothes for the weather and we go outside. Our outside area is a fantastic mix of hard surface, grass and sand. There is plenty of space for us all to run around as much as we like. We have an enormous sandpit to which the children always have access. The children also enjoy the playhouse, a climbing tree and a den. We play in muddy puddles too when the weather allows!
At the end of the morning we return inside for shared book time where we can also talk about what we have enjoyed about our mornings.
It is then home time or lunchtime, depending on whether the children are staying for our lunch club.