print in the outdoor area

[blondie]

my friend who works in a nearby pre-school recently had an ofsted and one of their actions was for more print in the outdoor area.

i have very little as i find it is pointless, especially this time of year when it rains all the time and the stuff gets wet and falls to pieces.

does anyone have any ideas, can tell me what they do please

[Panders]

Hmm Blondie, I know what you mean, we can't really have anything permanent up, and anyway those types of boards etc. would be out of our price range anyway.

 

What I have done though when the children were enjoying a story about Monster Sandwiches I copied some pages from the book of things like jars of eyes, and boxes of Mice Krispies etc. and laminated them and then laminated them again with quite a large boarder around the main picture, this has protected them more and they have survived since Spring and still look good pinned to the outdoor fence where the children have their mud kitchen. Similarly we have numbers. I also have laminated photographs taken outside which we can hand to children to go and look for that particular plant/flower etc. and obviously sheets that have been laminated with pictures of slugs etc. for them to identify out there. Last week we had some lining paper clipped to the railings and they were painting out there.

[blondie]

thanks panders - her ofsted quoted print in the outdoors and i just think its hard to keep up as gets ruined out there and cant keep replacing forever as too expensive.

any further ideas welcome :0)

[Smiles]

This was an action for us too both indoor and out. I've double lamented and hang them on the fence from string we plan to put cup hooks in fence to hang them from. Just have to remember to put them out every day. We do have the problem that children take them down as we're now allowed to keep them up so have used Velcro ...l might have to take that down . we have some young ones .

[Littlesparklesnursery]

We have put shop advert display boards (cheaper than normal boards) tied to the fence with wire ties. Makes a huge difference I think

[blondie]

This was an action for us too both indoor and out. I've double lamented and hang them on the fence from string we plan to put cup hooks in fence to hang them from. Just have to remember to put them out every day. We do have the problem that children take them down as we're now allowed to keep them up so have used Velcro ...l might have to take that down . we have some young ones .

do you have pictures and/or words? what sort of words please?

[Smiles]

We have lots of numbers ... That's the easy one . Literacy is harder so inside I have labelled our boxes with pictures and words . Have words and pictures in the plqydough area. Couple of posters up of numbers and shapes. Material alphabet . Hopping to get a alphabet bunting for outside . Have words and pictures for sand and water play. Goes against the grain of having too much print but having to do it to tick boxes.

[blondie]

the inspector said you need lots of print outside for all those boys who like to learn outside - not sure those boys stop to look at it though lol!!!

each inspector seems to still have their thing - we don't have lots of written words etc outside but this wasn't mentioned in our ofsted.

[finleysmaid]

we have a story area outside. I now keep and laminate (not lament!!) the old broken books and create 'waterproof' ones for the outdoors.

[blondie]

they do put old books outside too -not sure what else she wanted - all these ofsted inspectors have such different views on the same inspection framework - crazy !!!!!

[lsp]

We were 'advised' more opportunities for books outside.

 

Like Finleysmaid idea of 'upcycling' old and torn books. We have lots of those at the moment with the latest intake of 2 year olds.

Edited October 15, 2015 by lsp

[lashes2508]

my friend who works in a nearby pre-school recently had an ofsted and one of their actions was for more print in the outdoor

 

 

This is exactly what we had written in our report , our garden has just had a massive overhaul although the inspector loved it otherwise.

 

So this is how we are doing it , I'm our log storytelling area , I had some lovely laminated nursery rhymes , they are now stapled to fence next to area.

The children helped position , draw round saucepans etc in mud kitchen and I have written the names in the outline ( it was really done to help staff and children tidy up )

Our new palette communication space ( been a bus stop this week ) has a small tick sheet and poster ' what's the weather doing today ? ' at child level and visual .

I am also cutting out letters to put on fence around sandpits and beach hut - sand , bucket , treasure etc and then painting with chalkboard paint , the children can then trace the letters if they wish.

We had before a mark making tray tidy with lots of Mark making tools, pens, chalk, paintbrushes

Menus in kitchen area

I have also had 2 small wooden cable drums donated today so I am going to use chalkboard paint on top for mark making tables outspdoors.

I kept the plastic feet from our caterpillar and used a marker to write numbers on.

We have got wire shopping baskets which I need to put pictures on and written stamens ( scoops) sieves etc

On our compost bin and nature area fence I am going to put laminated questions and statements . Sounds like a lot but enough to not take away from the natural area and we have a big space.

Edited October 17, 2015 by lashes2508

[Berryred]

I've recently started working in a nursery (following 11 years as a childminder) and print outside was an action for me back in April..... This nursery got outstanding in August and has a huge outdoors area and no print!!

[finleysmaid]

The other thing I forgot to add was using chalk to add things for the day...so stop signs or menus or????? these are relevant and timely and not just 'there' every day