Badger room

We utilise many resources to help create a rich learning environment to allow them to thrive, providing different activities and learning opportunities, catering for your child’s innate exploratory impulses and inquisitiveness. Children have open access to two rooms and the top garden throughout the day to allow free-flow learning, promoting independence and having the freedom to explore and discover.

Our rooms have tailored learning areas which are engaging and challenging for all children. These include:

• An imaginative role play area, usually based around our current topic or children’s interests, giving them the opportunity to extend and elaborate on their own ideas and use their imagination and experiences within their play.
• Our construction area allows children to build and experiment with different tools and different building materials.
• An art station with a variety of media, materials, mark making and craft tools where the children are free to explore and create, developing both gross and fine motor skills.
• A maths and numbers area with a range of resources that will promote your child’s innate problem-solving skills.
• A cosy book area where children can relax in a quiet space with some of their favourite books and other reading materials.
• A small world area allowing children to recreate everyday experiences or products of their imagination, using language to demonstrate heir thoughts and ideas – creating their own stories.
• We also enjoy messy play such as playdough, foam, dry foods, sand/water and materials – exploring different textures, colours and senses.

Each child has a ‘key person’ who will then be responsible for overseeing that child’s learning journey and ‘next step’s’ throughout their time in the Badger room, to ensure that their learning is catered to them, in order to support their development. It is important to note that all room staff will play an integral role in supporting the learning and development of every child.

We work closely with parents, sharing achievements and milestones, and working to scaffold children’s learning by offering guidance and support when needed through conversations and a PLOD (Possible Lines of Development) report which we send home termly.

Within the room, we also carry out specific adult led activities daily which are more focused or challenging, so that children have the opportunity to develop skills with close adult support to help promote their learning further. We try and get together in small groups at different intervals throughout the day, to discuss parts of our day and what we are going to be doing next. We also discuss our latest topics, special occasions or things of interest such as the weather, holidays, space, things that grow and most importantly, our feelings. We will often share a story or a factual book, to learn about these topics in more depth, which really helps to promote our knowledge and understanding.

Music is always a big part of our day and we enjoy exploring singing, music and rhyme. We listen to different sounds and music on our CD player, learn and sing lots of different nursery rhymes – some traditional, and some new ones. We also like to play musical instruments as well as explore what sounds different objects make, and we even use our bodies to experiment and create different sounds.

We work hard to support our children with developing their independence, nurturing new skills such as using cutlery, pouring own drinks, potty or toilet training, dressing and undressing.

We encourage children to take part in physical activity every day within our continuous provision, as well as through a more structured ‘Leap into Life’ program that we follow daily. We create fun games and adult led activities to practise and learn gross motor skills such as stretching, lunges, throwing, catching, yoga, ball games, running and exercises, dancing, balancing and obstacle courses.

We also have access to our Rainbow room which holds a variety of development resources. This space gives opportunities for a range of learning activities away from the room including small group games, as well as to support the delivery of more targeted interventions such as speech and language programs or sensory activities.

We have a great outside space consisting of a top and bottom garden where children have access to all the areas of learning. The children can access activities such as bikes/scooters, balls and bean bags, obstacle courses, hula hoops, tunnels, tyres and climbing wall, to promote physical development.

Sand and water play is a part of our everyday practice which we explore in a range of ways such as scooping, pouring, filling and emptying. The children also have access to our natural woodland where they explore using natural resources such as sticks, stones, mud and leaves.

A typical day in Badger room would look like this:

• 8am-9am - Welcoming the children
• 8.55am - Tidy up time
• 9am-9.15am - Group time
• 9.15am-10am - Rolling snack/Free flow play inside and out
• 11.15am - Tidy up time
• 11.25am-11.45am - Leap into Life / Small group time
• 11.45am-12.15pm - Lunch time
• 12:15pm-2.15pm - Sleep time/ free play for non-sleepers
• 2.25pm - Tidy up time
• 2.30pm-3pm - Focused group time
• 3pm-3.30pm - Snack time
• 3.30pm-4.40pm - Free flow play inside and out
• 4.40pm-6pm - Free play / home time