Cromdale way Preschool

🌿✨ Learning Beyond the Classroom ✨🌿

At preschool we believe that **some of the best learning happens outdoors**. Whether children are digging in the mud kitchen, building with natural materials, hunting for mini beasts or simply running freely with their friends, every outdoor experience is full of valuable learning opportunities. 🌳💚

Learning does not just take place at a table or in a classroom — the outdoor environment encourages children to explore, take risks, develop confidence and follow their own interests. Being outside supports children’s physical health, emotional wellbeing and curiosity about the world around them.

🌟 **Why outdoor learning is so important:**
🏃‍♀️ Builds strength, coordination and overall physical development
😊 Supports mental wellbeing, resilience and self-confidence
🧠 Encourages curiosity, problem solving and independence
🗣️ Develops communication and language through real experiences
🤝 Promotes teamwork, friendships and social skills
🌍 Helps children develop a love and respect for nature

⭐ **Links to the EYFS & Early Learning Goals (ELGs):**

💪 **Physical Development** – Climbing, balancing, digging, pouring and transporting resources supports both gross and fine motor skills and contributes to the ELGs for moving and handling and health and self-care.

🗣️ **Communication and Language** – Outdoor play inspires rich conversations, questioning and new vocabulary as children explore their environment, supporting the ELGs for listening, attention and understanding, and speaking.

❤️ **Personal, Social and Emotional Development** – Children learn to take turns, manage risks, solve problems and develop independence outdoors, linking to the ELGs for self-regulation, managing self and building relationships.

🔢 **Mathematics** – Natural exploration provides opportunities to count sticks, compare sizes, explore patterns and use positional language, supporting early number and numerical understanding.

🌍 **Understanding the World** – Investigating seasons, weather, plants, animals and changes in the environment links directly to the ELGs for the natural world and understanding the past through real-life experiences.

🎨 **Expressive Arts and Design** – Nature inspires creativity through den building, role play, mark making and creating with natural materials, supporting imaginative and expressive development.

👨‍👩‍👧 **Ideas for families to try at home:**
🌼 Go on a nature walk and collect leaves, sticks or stones to sort and count
🚿 Let children help with watering plants or washing outdoor toys
🪵 Build a small den or obstacle course in the garden or park
🐞 Look for mini beasts and talk about where they live
🥄 Explore messy play with mud, water or sand using old kitchen utensils

By spending time outdoors together, you are supporting your child’s **confidence, wellbeing and lifelong love of learning**. 🌈

💬 Tell us in the comments — what is your child’s favourite thing to do outside?
❤️ Like & share to celebrate outdoor learning with us!

🦕🌿 Prehistoric Explorers in Preschool 🌿🦴

Our preschool children have been busy becoming **prehistoric explorers** as they learned all about dinosaurs and fossils. The children enjoyed investigating information books, discussing what fossils are and how they are formed, before heading to our discovery area to dig for their own hidden “fossils”.

Using brushes, scoops, spades and their hands, the children carefully excavated objects from soil and sand. They showed great excitement as they discovered different shapes and textures, comparing their findings and talking about what they thought the fossils might have belonged to. 🦖✨

This hands-on activity provided rich opportunities for curiosity, problem solving and imaginative play as children took on the role of real-life paleontologists.

⭐ **Links to the EYFS & Early Learning Goals (ELGs):**

🗣️ **Communication and Language** – Children engaged in meaningful conversations, asked questions and used new vocabulary such as “fossil”, “dinosaur”, “bones” and “dig”. This supports the ELGs for listening, attention and understanding, and speaking.

🌍 **Understanding the World** – Exploring the past and learning about prehistoric life helped children to develop an awareness of change over time and the natural world, linking to the ELG for understanding the past and the natural world.

💪 **Physical Development** – Digging, scooping, brushing and handling small objects supported both gross and fine motor skills, coordination and control, contributing to the ELG for fine motor development.

🤝 **Personal, Social and Emotional Development** – The children worked cooperatively, took turns with tools and showed perseverance when searching for fossils, linking to the ELGs for self-regulation, managing self and building relationships.

🔢 **Mathematics**

🦷✨ Healthy Smiles in Preschool ✨🦷

Our Children have been learning all about the importance of keeping our teeth clean and healthy. Through stories and non-fiction books about visiting the dentist, the children explored what happens during a check-up and talked about ways we can care for our teeth at home. 📚

In our play experiences, the children practised tooth brushing using a range of fun resources such as model teeth, toothbrushes and role-play equipment. They enjoyed pretending to be dentists and patients, taking turns and sharing their own experiences. This helped to build confidence and develop positive attitudes towards self-care routines. 😊

⭐ **Links to the EYFS & Early Learning Goals (ELGs):**

🗣️ **Communication and Language** – Children listened to stories, answered questions and used new vocabulary such as “dentist”, “brush”, “healthy” and “germs”. This supports the ELGs for listening, attention and understanding, and speaking.

❤️ **Personal, Social and Emotional Development** – Exploring dental care routines encouraged children to think about looking after their own needs and managing personal hygiene, linking to the ELGs for managing self and building relationships through cooperative role play.

💪 **Physical Development** – Practising brushing movements supported fine motor control, hand-eye coordination and independence in self-care skills, contributing to the ELG for fine motor development and health and self-care awareness.

📖 **Literacy** – Sharing a range of fiction and non-fiction texts helped children develop an understanding that print carries meaning and encouraged a love of reading, supporting the ELGs for comprehension.

🎭 **Expressive Arts and Design** – Imaginative role play in the dentist’s surgery allowed children to act out real-life experiences and express their ideas creatively, linking to the ELGs for being imaginative and expressive.

🌍 **Understanding the World** – Children learned about their bodies and the importance of healthy lifestyles, including diet and hygiene routines.

We are so proud of how confidently the children engaged in discussions and practised new skills to help keep their smiles bright and healthy! 😁🌟

🎶✨ Rhythm, Movement & Bubble Fun ✨🫧

Our preschool children had a wonderful time taking part in a **rhythm and movement activity** using music, bubbles and colourful ribbons. As the music played, the children moved freely around the space, waving ribbons, popping bubbles and expressing themselves through dance and creative movement. 🌈

This joyful experience encouraged the children to explore different ways of moving their bodies, respond to changes in tempo and rhythm, and use their imagination to create their own dance styles. The bubbles added an extra element of excitement and sensory exploration, supporting engagement and sustained involvement. 💫

⭐ **How this activity benefits children:**
🎶 Builds confidence in self-expression
💪 Develops coordination, balance and body control
😊 Supports emotional wellbeing and enjoyment
🧠 Encourages listening skills and concentration
🤝 Promotes turn-taking and awareness of others
🎨 Inspires creativity and imagination

⭐ **Links to the EYFS & Early Learning Goals (ELGs):**

💪 **Physical Development** – Moving with ribbons, reaching for bubbles and travelling in different ways supports gross motor skills, coordination and spatial awareness, linking to the ELG for moving and handling.

🗣️ **Communication and Language** – Children listened carefully to music cues, followed simple instructions and talked about how the music made them feel, supporting the ELGs for listening, attention and understanding, and speaking.

❤️ **Personal, Social and Emotional Development** – Dancing together helped children build confidence, express emotions and develop positive relationships with peers, linking to the ELGs for self-regulation and building relationships.

🎨 **Expressive Arts and Design** – Responding to music through movement and using ribbons creatively supports the ELGs for being imaginative and expressive and creating with materials.

🔢 **Mathematics** – Children explored early concepts such as fast/slow, high/low and near/far through their movements, supporting early understanding of comparison and positional language.

We love seeing the children **shine with confidence and joy** as they explore music and movement in their own unique ways. 🌟

💬 What are your child’s favourite songs to dance to at home? Let us know in the comments!

💗 Valentine’s Mud Kitchen Fun 💗

Our preschool children had a wonderful time exploring a Valentine’s themed sensory and imaginative play activity in our outdoor mud kitchen. 🌹 Using flower petals, “berries”, mud, water and a range of real kitchen utensils, the children created their own “recipes” such as Cupid’s Flower Cupcakes and Sweet Berry Valentine Pies. 🧁🥧

This open-ended activity encouraged the children to mix, scoop, pour, decorate and serve their creations while working together, sharing ideas and developing their language through conversation and role play. 🌿✨

⭐ **Links to the EYFS & Early Learning Goals (ELGs):**

🗣️ **Communication and Language** – Children engaged in rich conversations as they described textures, explained their recipes and listened to each other’s ideas. This supports the ELG of listening, attention and understanding, and speaking.

🤝 **Personal, Social and Emotional Development** – The children collaborated, took turns with resources and showed pride in their creations, linking to the ELGs around building relationships, self-regulation and managing self.

💪 **Physical Development** – Mixing, scooping, whisking and pouring helped to strengthen fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination, supporting the ELG for fine motor development.

🎨 **Expressive Arts and Design** – The activity inspired imaginative role play and creative exploration as children designed and decorated their own “Valentine treats”, supporting the ELG of creating with materials and being imaginative and expressive.

🔢 **Mathematics** – Children naturally explored early maths concepts such as filling and emptying, comparing quantities and using language like “more”, “full” and “half”, linking to the ELG for numerical understanding.

🌍 **Understanding the World** – Sensory exploration of natural materials such as mud, pet

To adults, this might just look like *mess* 🎨
Paint everywhere. Hands covered. Table needing a serious wipe down.

But to a developing mind, this is **learning in its purest form**.

This activity began as a *modelled experience* — an adult demonstrating, exploring, and introducing the idea. From there, the children took ownership, extending it in their own ways and interpreting it through their own ideas, movements, and curiosity. What started as a shared example became something uniquely theirs.

This is sensory play — feeling textures, temperature, and movement.
This is fine motor development — strengthening little hands and fingers.
This is creativity — experimenting, imagining, expressing without limits.
This is confidence — “I can explore, I can try, I can make my own choices.”
This is emotional regulation — releasing energy, joy, curiosity, and focus.

Messy play supports brain development, language, problem-solving, and early maths and science skills as children explore cause and effect (“What happens when I press, smear, mix?”).

It’s not about the finished picture.
It’s about the process.
The freedom.
The learning that happens when children are allowed to *fully experience* their world.

🎨 Creative Feet in Action This Afternoon! 🎨
This afternoon the children took part in a fun (and wonderfully messy!) art activity using their feet to create artwork. By stepping, stamping and moving through the paint, they explored mark making, different textures, and discovered how their movements can leave a mark on the world around them.
Activities like this support so much learning through play:
✨ Developing creativity and self-expression
✨ Exploring cause and effect (“What happens when I move this way?”)
✨ Building sensory awareness and confidence
✨ Encouraging communication as children talk about what they notice and feel
Most importantly, the children had lots of fun, were fully engaged, and showed great curiosity as they experimented in their own unique ways. We loved seeing their excitement and pride in their creations! 💛
(And yes… little feet were very well washed afterwards! 😄)

🌿 **Outdoor Dino Swamp Adventure!** 🐊🦕

This week our outdoor area was transformed into a **sticky, oozy swamp**, sparking lots of curiosity and imagination! The children could choose to explore the swampy textures, discover a **dinosaur nest**, and hunt for hidden eggs. To move through the swamp, they carefully **crossed planks and balanced**, working out how to get from one side to the other.

This activity links beautifully to the **EYFS**, including:

✨ **Physical Development** – balancing on planks helped develop gross motor skills, coordination, core strength and spatial awareness
✨ **Understanding the World** – children explored different textures and materials while engaging in imaginative play around dinosaurs and habitats
✨ **Expressive Arts and Design** – the swamp and dinosaur nest inspired creativity, role play and storytelling
✨ **Communication and Language** – children shared ideas, solved problems together and used new vocabulary to describe what they felt and discovered
✨ **Personal, Social and Emotional Development** – taking risks, making choices and building confidence as they navigated the swamp

Activities like this support children’s learning through **hands-on, sensory-rich experiences**, encouraging curiosity, problem-solving and resilience. Balancing, climbing and navigating obstacles also strengthen the muscles needed for future physical skills, including writing.

Most importantly, the children were fully engaged, adventurous and having lots of fun exploring together! ❤🙌😁

🌈 **Outdoor Creativity!** 🎨🌿

The children enjoyed an exciting **large-scale outdoor painting experience**, where they had *free rein* to explore a **mega-size painting surface** using a variety of different materials. Brushes, twigs, foliage , hands and whole-body movements were all encouraged as the children expressed themselves freely through colour and mark-making.

This activity links closely to the **EYFS**, particularly:
✨ **Expressive Arts and Design** – children explored colour, texture and materials while developing their own creative ideas
✨ **Physical Development** – using big movements helped strengthen muscles and coordination
✨ **Communication and Language** – children talked about what they were creating, shared ideas and worked alongside their friends

Painting on a large scale is especially beneficial for **gross motor development**. Reaching, stretching, sweeping arms and moving their whole bodies helps children build core strength, balance and shoulder stability – all important foundations for later fine motor skills such as writing.

Most importantly, the children had *so much fun*, building confidence, independence and creativity in the fresh air 🌞💙

🌱 Helping Our Community Grow 🌱

We’ve recently been out in our local park working alongside the Parish Gardeners to plant new trees, helping to support and care for our community environment. The children were fully involved, learning how trees grow and why they are so important for wildlife, clean air and our future.

This meaningful experience links closely to the EYFS, particularly Understanding the World, as children learn about their local community and the natural environment. Tree planting also supports Physical Development through digging, carrying and planting, and Personal, Social and Emotional Development as children work together, take turns and feel proud of contributing to something bigger than themselves.

Activities like this help children develop respect for nature, a sense of responsibility, and an understanding that they can make a positive difference — even at a young age. We’re so proud of our little community helpers! 🌍✨