Garden Committee Journal
November 2023
The last few months have seen excellent progress with the garden and with the Garden Committee finally being able to action some of what we’ve been planning for our outdoor space.
Clean up
At the end of the summer we had a huge clear out of the garden, with staff members helping to sweep leaves, and get the base of our space looking fresh. We spent an afternoon repainting the pirate ship and the play shed a lovely light blue and our facilities team gave the ship a new solid home with some safety matting which has given the outdoor space a freshen up and new lease of life.
Mud Kitchen and Wild Area
Grace, Helen and I spent a morning sorting out our new wild and mud kitchen area at the back of the Southville Centre garden. It was great to clear the space, get rid of the existing mud kitchen and replace it with our fancy brand new mud kitchen unit. We have ordered hooks to create a large hanging space for the children’s pots and pans; bark chippings to make the area look smart and to protect the ground, and a portable pressure water sprayer to help keep the resources clean and safe. Our next steps are to put up signage and blackboards to share learning and engage children, as well as to expand the natural learning environment by creating an area for den building and creating cosy dry spaces to play outside in the winter months.
The committee are also looking into building some movable fences for the garden so we can section off different areas and keep the space playful and engaging. We are hoping they will work well to create safe divisions for the bikes and trikes and will in turn help to reduce accidents by creating bike and scoot only lanes!
August 2023
We are excited to share that we have finally bought a new mud kitchen! The committee got together in June to pick things back up again and we are scheduling another meeting for September. We have discussed zoning the garden into areas that reflect the 7 different areas of learning and development in the EYFS, focussing on:
Physical development
- Space for running, jumping and gross motor development.
- Opportunities to safely manage risk (climb trees, biking, and scooting)
- Natural sandpit dug for older children to get in and explore.
Personal, social, and emotional development
- Through activities such as running, climbing, and playing games, children can learn to communicate, problem-solve, and cooperate with others. Engaging in outdoor play can also help children gain a better understanding of their own emotions, as well as those of their peers.
- Opportunities for children to learn about turn-taking.
Understanding the world
- A natural area where children can safely explore the world and plants around them.
- A sectioned off area for the mud kitchen including safe plants and sensory herbs for the children to explore.
- A wormery, a bug hotel.
- Large, pebbled area for small world play and discovery.
Expressive arts and design
- Big/ gross motor opportunities for children to express themselves.
- A stage to put on shows and performances with music and costumes.
- An area to explore sound and music making in the wisteria.
- Paint available and encouraged on the clear boards – blackboards repainted.
Literacy, communication and mathematics development
- Mathematics
- Communication and language development
- These areas can be woven into activities in the different areas and incorporated into the learning.
We are also looking into storage options and ways that we can make the space more functional and encourage independence in our children.
May 2023
Although the Garden Committee haven’t met up this year, lots of behind-the-scenes work has gone into figuring out how best to set up the space and improve the way we use and look after the garden and resources moving forward. The shed has been cleared, cleaned out and reorganised ready for new equipment to be stored effectively, with plans to create more easy to access storage in the outdoor areas. We have already seen success with the new moveable blocks storage and subsequently these have been used far more frequently by all the rooms in the garden. We are looking at moving the outdoor tap to improve the ease of cleaning resources, setting up a larger, more permanent mud kitchen and zoning the space to cover more key area of EYFS learning.