Shared playground

[green hippo]

Hi all,

Just some more thoughts needed from you lovely people!

Our playground is shared between the Nursery and Reception class which has worked ok but has a few issues. As the reception children do not come out to play until after 10am, we have the outdoor area to ourselves, then all the reception children come out. This has some benefits for the Nursery children in that they get to play with the older children and see older siblings etc - learning from them. However, often, what it does is disrupts their play and as this is the only time they see the Reception children most don't really play together, and some are quite unsure of the older children. The second problem is that we want to tidy up before the reception class are due to come inside, therefore, I feel I'm not really able to get the Nursery children to tidy-up outdoors properly as I would like as the reception children are still playing with the equipment.

What I am mulling over is: should we take the first hour to allow for free-flow, then tidy-up and come inside before the reception children come out thus allowing the Nursery children to tidy-up properly and allow them time to play in their classroom for a time before we tidy-up inside. Or am I taking away opportunities for children to learn and build further relationships?... Any thoughts gratefully received.

Thanks,

Green Hippo x

[Susan]

Pros and cons as you have identified, I would think.

How important is it for the nursery children to tidy up "properly"? If the play is not profitable outside, how important is it to maintain this routine?

Good luck with what ever you decide.

[Guest]

I think you are making too big an issue about the tidying................

 

I would not disrupt the play and the reception mix ups (transition) just so the children could tidy.

[tracyb46]

What we do at our preschool and reception classes is a rota, we have it in the mornings on a Monday and a Tuesday we have it in the afternoon etc. This works well and every now and then we join and share the playground.

[green hippo]

Thanks for your advice and ideas. I'm not too worried about the tidying up but what tends to happen is that I call them in and they simply just drop what they've got in their hand on the floor and because I trying to locate all the children as it's quite a big area I can't really support children with this.

Anyway what we are going to trial is using the outdoors until just after 10, then coming in and allowing reception their time. We will see how it goes and can always change it later in the year. My real concern is that the amount of children outside more than doubles and many of the Nursery children are put off their play so at the moment to ensure for quality play we will trial this x

[green hippo]

Thanks for your advice and ideas. I'm not too worried about the tidying up but what tends to happen is that I call them in and they simply just drop what they've got in their hand on the floor and because I trying to locate all the children as it's quite a big area I can't really support children with this.

Anyway what we are going to trial is using the outdoors until just after 10, then coming in and allowing reception their time. We will see how it goes and can always change it later in the year. My real concern is that the amount of children outside more than doubles and many of the Nursery children are put off their play so at the moment to ensure for quality play we will trial this x

[Guest]

we have this too, but we are also having outdoor issues due to building work so what we have been doing this term is opening up to our now currently small shared area about 9.30 after our group times etc, so our children can free flow in and out if they choose. Many choose not to go out at this time now. Then we all come in at 10.30 which usually coincides with F2 coming out (although more recently our children have been coping with this better, so we do give and take a bit more now. We have snack at 10.45 then after snack about 11.15 take them all to our old garden for 30 minutes where there is more space and our old play equipment is still there. This cohort have all loved this time, not one has said I don't want to play outside, so we have a lot lot more children going out (i.e all!) than when we used to leave it to free flow. We plan to change this routine by January to support relationships and transitions having given our F1 children and the F2 children a term to learn the rules and find their confidence and hopefully be able to all be out together.