Welcome to our Fareacres Weekly Blog - Fareacres Pre School and Day Nursery - Childcare at Gants Hill and South Woodford

Outdoor Play

Outdoor play is a vital part of the routine at Fareacres to support children’s development. Within the Early Years Foundation stage (EYFS) it tells us to “Ensure that children have opportunities to be outside on a daily basis all year around.” Also under the Childcare Act 2006, from September 2008, all early years providers have a legal responsibility to ensure that children access outdoor play which is safe and suitable for the purpose in all weather conditions

At Fareacres, the outdoors covers all 7 areas of learning in the EYFS: communication and language; personal, social and emotional; physical development; literacy, mathematics; understanding the world and expressive arts and design. This is achieved by the variety of resources and experiences that are provided for the children.

The Gross motor skills that are learnt from being outdoors stimulate the synapses which form connections with the neuro pathways to different parts of the brain, therefore developing children’s holistic growth..

At Fareacres we create a rich outdoor environment but that alone is not always enough. It is what the practitioners and children do together that really matters. The responsibility in how children access the outdoors clearly lies with us as the practitioners.

Outdoor Play has many benefits:

The outdoors encourages children to learn about risk management
Children learn to negotiate the space, challenge and manage boundaries
It is ever-changing and provides new sights, sounds and sensations
Outdoors exercises children’s minds as well as their bodies
Outdoor allows the non-vocal children to be more vocal by having the freedom of a larger open space
Release of energy reduces stresses for children thereby allowing them to thrive socially and emotionally
Children are more likely to recover from every day sniffles by being outdoors in fresh air than being cooped up indoors where germs fester.
The outdoors offers a free environment, where children are not restricted to the same rules as they are indoors, such as ‘we walk inside’ and ‘use our indoors voices’

At Fareacres we ensure children have daily access to the garden area and are dressed appropriately for the weather conditions, regardless of age. Our children love exploring the outdoor environment and despite the current winter weather, we love providing it!

Garden Time SW

Garden Time GH

Garden Time SW

Weekly Experiences

At Gants Hill, the nursery had a joined together for lunch prepared by the nursery cook, Lou Ann. Lentil Stew with homemade flatbread was on the menu. Lou Ann had spent the morning preparing delicious flat bread, made from scratch for all to enjoy alongside the lentils. The food served at Fareacres is always cooked on site, and provides a healthy meal as part of the children’s wider diet. Lunch times are a very social occasion for the children and staff at Fareacres, combining everyone together offers much more opportunities for all in their communication, personal, social and emotional skills and sharing meals like lentils and flat bread also develops fine motor skills.

Recipe for Lentil Stew:

Ingredients: Green Lentils, Onions, vegetable stock, paprika, ginger, all-purpose seasoning and Garlic

Boil lentils in vegetable stock in pan.
In separate pan fry onions with garlic and ginger
Add paprika, curry powder and all-purpose seasoning to the onions, garlic and ginger.
Add the lentils to spices and onions
Leave to simmer for 30 -45mins
Stir every 10 minutes to reduce sticking.
Add water if required.

Recipe for Homemade flatbread:

Ingredients: Self raising flour, butter, water, oil

Add 750grams of flour to bowl
Add 2 cups of warm water to bowl slowly and make into a sticky dough.
Add 2 tablespoons of oil to dough, kneed
Cover and leave for 10 minutes
Roll out the dough into little balls
Add soft butter in the middle of the balls
Roll into flat circles
Fry in dry pan for 3/4minutes each side,

Mealtime GH

Meal time GH

Mealtime GH

Starfish children in South Woodford have been learning about growth and decay which is incorporated in the understanding the world area of learning within the EYFS. The children have watched the gradual process of decay on an apple over the week. The apple was cut in half and photographs were taken each day to provide evidence for the decay. This process offered the children perfect communication opportunities and the ability to extend their learning further through recording using mark making. When talking about decay, one child made the link to his own dental care and said:

“When I went to the dentist there was a hole in my tooth, I have to eat sugar just as a treat.” - Olly

The children in the baby room in Gants hill have created beautiful butterflies using symmetrical painting. The children chose their own colours and patterns they wanted. With adult support the children pressed the paper closed to create beautiful creations. The children loved the opportunity to make marks using bold paint to create the butterflies. The use of paintbrushes helps them to develop their fine motor skills. The children enjoyed looking at the final pattern and wanted to make more than one.

Butterfly printing GH

Butterfly Printing GH

Sharks children in South Woodford have been preparing for Chinese New Year celebrations. The children have used the nursery tablet to watch small clips on CBeebies to learn about the celebrations. The children really took an interest in the dancing dragon which brings good luck to all. To extend the children’s learning the children made a dragon for the nursery display, the children decorated a circle each, choosing their own colours based on the video’s they saw. These were all joined together; the dragons head and tail were then added to complete the dragon.

“A new year dragon” – Reva

“Dragon big eyes” – Davin

“He’s got a long body” – Isla

“He said Rahh to me” - Saanvi

“Rahh” – Xavi

Chinese New Year SW

At Gants Hill the children went on a bug hunt to extend their learning of the environment and the habitats of different animals. The children used different resources such as magnify glasses and binoculars to search high and low in the garden for the bugs. This offered many opportunities to meet more than just one area of the EYFS.

“Look, bugs” – Tawanda

“I found a spider in the web” – Cameron

“I found a spider” – Sriya

“Let’s put it in the bug hotel” – Minh Anh

Bug Hunt GH

Rainbow fish Children in South Woodford have been splat painting, exploring different colours and textures. Splat painting is a messy, sensory, playful and creative activity that encourages the development of both fine motor and gross motor skills for the children.

Splat Painting SW

The younger children at Gants hill have taken part in heuristic play. This activity is where children play with and explore the properties of 'objects'. These 'objects' are things from the real world such as plastic bracelets, cardboard tubes, pegs and tins with lids. Children are able to begin to make their own choices and decisions and start to gain an understanding of the world around them.

Heuristic Play GH

Stingray children in South Woodford have played with corn flour. There are many benefits to cornflour play. It encourages children to explore texture by themselves, and helps to support the development of fine motor skills. It also supports children’s understanding about different consistency by adding more water or more cornflour to the mixture. It offers many communication opportunities and provides children with a calm activity providing relaxation.

Cornflour SW

Activity of the week

Activity of the week was won by Saima Ali (GH) Saima has created an activity for a child to help them achieve a C&L: Speaking next step. This activity sees children creating a phone using kitchen roll and string. This is an activity that will be of interest to the children and will motivate them to engage fully. The use of a phone is something that is familiar to children of all ages, and will help them to make links to what they observe first hand in their home environments. The extension sees the children moving beyond using familiar expressions, to engaging in a conversation, which will further the learning opportunities for the children capable of the original intention.

Top 5 Children’s Quotes of the week

“I’m getting taller” – Rahib
“I’m digging for treasure” – Kassie
“My mummy is working” - Amaiya
“I can swim in the swimming pool with armbands” – Eitan
“My mummy put my dress on the wrong way” - Maliha

Food Bank

Fareacres would like to thank all of those that gave so generously to the food bank. The donations were delivered to the Ilford food bank this week and the staff there were very grateful for the plentiful and varied contribution, commenting “Wow, it’s like Christmas”. A tour of the food bank was provided by one of the members of staff, who told us that only the manager was paid, everyone else were volunteers giving their own time for this worthy cause. The tour showed how organized it must be, and what a vital service it was in order to provide those in need with their food parcels.

Thank you all once again. If you would like to donate yourself, you can do so directly at:

Redbridge foodbank, Jubilee Church – Ilford, 14 Granville Road, Ilford IG1 4JY

Food Bank

Quote of the Week:

‘The best classroom and the richest cupboard is roofed only by the sky’

- Margaret McMillan

(Early years pioneer)

Thank you for taking a glimpse into our Fareacres Learning Community

Until next time...