Sand and water

[Madmum]

Do you have sand and water inside and out?

We moved both of ours outside last year but it's been suggested we need it inside as well at all times, in both nursery and reception, so would love to know what everyone else does? I can't see that it's a requirement of the EYFS and we freeflow in nursery so it's available during those times.

 

[lashes2508]

Yes we have water lots of it due to recent weather , puddles ! Sand not had any inside but have had other malleable materials and have sand pit outside but garden has not been used due to safety reasons so just been in yard

[zigzag]

We have both inside and outside, but not all the time.

[klc106]

We don't have it out all the time (inside or outside) and have never been told that we should. We do always have a sensory type activity out everyday though.

[Madmum]

We tend to have sensory stuff inside and the sand outside, with water outside but not when it's this cold! We also have a gravel pit outside and numerous puddles and lovely muddy areas at the moment!

[Guest]

sand and water outside and other sensory play inside

[sunnyday]

Madmum - may I ask who made this suggestion?

[Stargrower]

We have sand outside all the time, water when not freezing cold and either sand or water inside but not usually both at the same time.

 

We also have a gravel pit outside

Madmum I like the sound of that...how did you make it and how do you use it?

[narnia]

You can fill an old tractor tyre with gravel to make a 'contained' pit........

[narnia]

or..........................and this is definately a first for us..........................you could use some old Porsche tyres, as they are nice and wide ( we're going to grow our taters in ours )

[Guest]

a gravel pit outside

I also like the sound of this and will definitely get all the soil out of one of our tyres and fill with large stones/gravel

[Guest]

we have 4 tractor tyres, one with large pebbles, one with gravel, one with bark chippings and one with soil and grass. They are quite close together so the children can jump or scrabble from one to the other experiencing the different textures

[Guest]

Can I have the porche that goes with the tyre ? )

[Guest]

We don't have sand in, I have know where to keep a sand tray. we have a huge huge huge play sand area outside, we free flow it does mean children who choose not to go out do not get the access to it, so if I could I would , we are a packaway in church hall with a beautiful wooden floor, we have managed water tray inside , (we also have water out )have not managed to find suitable floor covering for the water, we are stuck with a piece of Lino, not great but hey ho it is what is .

I think if you have a stimulating, enabling inside environment, do you need sand and water in when it is difficult to do so!

 

We did not have either when ofsted came a knocking a few yrs back but no comment was made.

Edited February 9, 2014 by Suer

[bubblejack]

I don't think that I ever had sand or water out when being inspected. Inspector was impressed by sensory tray luckily I had put it in a prominent position only to stop the children running indoors and lots of children used it that day.

[Cait]

I have different things in the builders tray, but it's not there all the time, not at the moment in fact. We were told in the past by our EYAT that we should offer both indoors all the time and we did for a while, but it didn't suit us, children were at it like it was going out of fashion for a week or two then totally ignored it and it got in the way for months. So we find that putting it away and getting it out for specific things is much better, then they really enjoy it for a few days and it can go away again. It's a permanent feature outside though.

[Aunt Sally]

I used to grow strawberries in my old tyres but when I heard there was a huge debate whether edibles should be grown in tyres due to the potential toxicity I stopped. I just didn't want to take the risk.

[finleysmaid]

Do you have sand and water inside and out?

We moved both of ours outside last year but it's been suggested we need it inside as well at all times, in both nursery and reception, so would love to know what everyone else does? I can't see that it's a requirement of the EYFS and we freeflow in nursery so it's available during those times.

 

It isn't a requirement. It is suggested as good practise in ECCERS if i remember rightly. (who suggested you must have it???) but IMO we should be offering open ended resources both indoors and out which might include sand and water but not exclusively always be sand and water! but this is only my opinion and i'm not your advisor! I like suer have an issue with floor so if i have sand inside it is very limited (maybe green sand with lizards or moon sand with astronauts etc!)

[thumperrabbit]

Our sand / water / other sort of messy play is on a rota not all out every day

 

In the better weather I prefer sand to be outside; as on our wooden floor inside it becomes very slippery.

Plus no matter how much we brush it up there's always some left and our landlords complain about it

[Madmum]

We certainly find it works better outside and gives us more scope and space for other activities inside.

Will see what happens tomorrow!

[mundia]

As Finleysmaid said it is one of those things that has come from ECERS. where a higher score is awarded for having both sand and water inside and out. Often these statements from ECERS get taken slightly out of context and then become 'assumed good practice'.

I think its much more important to look at what you provide to do with the sand and water, how you change it up to maintain interest, how you encourage different uses for it , and how you consider your role as the adult in it!

There's my twopenneth anyway

[Guest]

I dislike ECCRs it is not conducive to packaways or in line with Elizabeth Jarmin s communicating friendly spaces

[Guest]

Sorry re read should have no instead of know )

[woodlands1997]

We have either sand, water or grain inside at all times (although not all day!), or something similar such as ice, fake snow, dried pasta etc. At the moment we don't have either sand or water outside! As long as they get the experiences I don't see that it matters whether inside or out to be honest :-)

[Madmum]

Update!!

No negative comments on our sand being outside and no water out at all!

All in all a seemingly positive 'expert' visit!

[green hippo]

The only thing I can add to this is that it was suggested at an Early Excellence course that I attended that if there was water and sand inside that the sand should be damp (or at least for some of the time!) as water and dry sand have similar properties in terms on pouring etc. I like to do a bit of both so that children can decide on the need for damp sand and then we allow it to dry again to allow for further discussion as to why we can't make good sand castles today or build the same mountain etc.

Also, we make sure that when we do have sand and water inside and outside - that the outside experiences are different. We have recently decided to not keep our larger outdoor water tray as a water tray as during winter we do not fill it and in summer it takes such a long time to fill for the children to empty it in 10 minutes while exploring water movement! We are going to fill it with different outdoors materials e.g. bark/soil/gravel to provide different surfaces and materials for exploration alongside small world etc. We are going to use smaller buckets and shallow trays for water movement outdoors which are easier to provide quickly and will hopefully extend play in different ways.

Green Hippo x