Nursery •
Nursery
Grab your favourite colours and create a majestic stag. Colour in this stunning stag. What’s his name? Where does he live? Stick leaves and other natural items around your stag to create a forest Use crayons, pens, paints add texture with tissue paper and bits of magazines! Give your stag a leafy crown, or make one out of gold ribbon
Storytelling is an art that begins in babyhood, perhaps as the baby gurgles away trying to keep its audience interested as they tell a story of sorts.
Head outdoors and track down summertime treasures. Keep your eyes peeled next time you’re out and about. Can you collect all these signs of summer? Look for daisies, buttercups and patterned petals Can you find a munched leaf and a nibbled cone? Hunt for fluffy dandelion clocks and blow the seeds away! Count five different types of grass Look out for green hazelnuts Can you track down a four-leaf clover? Remember to take a basket or bag with you to keep everything safe. What can you make with your treasures?
Take a deeeeeep breath! Can you smell the scents of summer? The woods are full of lots of different smells during summer. Sniff them out! Try and smell as many summer flowers as you can Does the wood smell different after it’s been raining? Which woodland scent is your favourite? Blindfold yourself or your friends and guess which smell is which. How many different ones can you identify?
Spot signs of animals and insects, and discover who’s been visiting the woods. Be a real Nature Detective and get sleuthing! Use all your senses while you’re out and about Remember to look in the trees as well as on the ground Sit still and listen: what can you hear? What else can you find? Explore under logs and leaf litter, listen out for birds singing, and keep your eyes peeled around ponds.
Can you find these tree-themed spots on your travels? Next time you’re off on a long journey, keep your eyes peeled for trees. Hunt for trees in unexpected places like street names Can you find any other woodland-themed things? Who can spot trees the quickest? Set themes like trees, woodland animals and birds, and see what you can track down!
Brighten up a cloudy day with this sunny craft. Encourage young children to be creative with this simple art sheet. Help babies fill the outline with yellow handprints Toddlers can experiment with crayons, paint or felt tips Use sparkly sweet wrappers or foil to make a shiny collage Now the sun is shining whatever the weather!
Help your little one colour in this sycamore leaf and seed. Look out for dark green, brown and yellow leaves and coppery seeds twirling in the breeze. Sycamore seeds are sometimes called helicopters Use lots of different shades of brown and yellow to make an autumnal leaf Try making a creative collage using real sycamore leaves Look out for sycamore seeds while you’re out and about how many can you find?
This guide is designed to show you the range of possibilities when designing or developing high quality outdoor childcare provision.
The list provides examples of practice combined with site-specific and appropriate design. The images used below meet the specific site
needs and are designed to give an indication of what can be done. There is no one-size-fits all solution and they are not intended to be
prescriptive or exhaustive.
Young children thrive and their minds & bodies develop best when
they have free access to stimulating outdoor environments for learning
through play and real experiences.
CfE guidelines for Early Years are clear that “all aspects of the
curriculum can be explored outside. The sights, sounds and smells
of the outdoors, the closeness to nature, the excitement most children
feel, the wonder and curiosity all serve to enhance and stimulate learning”.
How many woodland treasures can you fit in a matchbox or raisin box? Collect miniature twigs, pebbles and petals and keep them safe. Challenge yourself can you find lots of tiny things that are the same colour or shape? What can you make from your little finds? What else can you find? Squeeze as many bits and pieces as possible into your matchbox, and see who can collect the most.
Help! – How do we dry hands, kill germs and
save the planet?
Help! – What is a tippy tap?
Help! – Can you help us make one?
Help! How do tie knots and what rope do I use?
Importance of children getting outside due to Covid
Help! How do we build a shelter?
‘Top 10 TARP TIPS’
There are lots of ways of providing handwashing facilities in the outdoors –
some offer a budget solution, some require a little more investment. Working
out how many stations, and what type, will go some way to helping you meet
the latest guidance and help to control infection, germs and viruses.
Create a beautiful butterfly with your favourite colouring pencils, pens or paints. Get inspired by real life tortoiseshell butterflies or let your imagination take flight and make a masterpiece. The Latin name is Aglais urticae Small tortoiseshell butterflies love sipping nectar from flowers Look out for them during spring, summer and autumn We bet you’ve created a masterpiece! Don’t forget to give your butterfly a name and make a space for him on your fridge or wall.
Use this texture hunt to bring the outdoors to life for your mini Nature Detective. Explore the woods together and discover a whole new playground through touch. Let little fingers grasp and hold these enticing textures Gently run the items over hands and arms Describe how each one feels smooth or prickly, soft or rough? Introduce your little one to the natural world. What makes them giggle? Which textures do they like best?
Colour in a tree and start growing your little one’s very own woodland! Inspire your mini Nature Detective to paint their favourite tree on a walk in your local woods. Help your little Picasso paint a totally unique tree. Green in summer or orange in autumn Stick leaves, blossom or berries to their tree to make it complete Which wildlife lives in your little one’s tree? Do they make any special sounds? Create a habitat for your little one’s favourite woodland animals. Stick their designs to cardboard boxes to make a miniature glade!
Help your little one have lots of messy fun fingerpainting their own tree. Use this outline of a tree as the base for a colourful painting of their own. Paint with lush greens in summer and warm orange colours in autumn Use their littlest fingers for small leaves and their thumbs for bigger ones Stick leaves, blossom or seeds to your tree for a wild texture Why not get everyone involved and create your own family tree? Share this stencil with friends and family and plant a whole forest of fingerpainted trees.
Grab a some sticks and tap out a drumbeat! All you need is a sturdy pair of sticks and a tree stump, and you’ve got your woodland drum! Try your drumsticks on different textures is there a difference in the sound? Paint your drumsticks bright colours, or draw a pattern on them Make other natural instruments and set up your own woodland orchestra!
How many faces can you find in the woods? When you’re out and about, keep your eyes peeled for faces peeking from the trees Look for eyes hiding in the bark, and gnarled noses on branches How many animal shapes can you find? Can you tell how the tree is feeling, just by looking at its face? Tree faces often peep out from the most unlikely places who’s looking back at you from branches, trunks and stumps?
Get ready to fly off into the night, whoosh! Every good witch or wizard needs a broom to travel around on (or to play Quidditch!). Make your own in the woods. You’ll need: A long, straight stick A handful of smaller, slender twigs Some string A twig broomstick makes a great addition to a spooky Halloween costume!