improvements to our garden

[Lynne28]

Hello everyone,

 

we are a pack away preschool, we have children on role that are between 2-5 years. We have just had new flooring and a canopy fitted and we have just been given permission to have resources put on the fence. Our garden is quite small so we would like to make use of this space appropriately.

I am trying to get some ideas on what resources we should have made. Currently we have two definite ideas, the first being guttering on slopes and a water collector at the bottom, the other thing is different size padlocks and door handles on some wood for the children to find the keys to unlock the padlocks. These will be fixed securely to the fence or shed so that they can be left out and this will save us time whilst we set up each morning.

 

is anyone willing to share photos of resources that the children use a lot or can describe what the resources they would use.

 

Obviously money is an issue but hopefully hubby can make some resources. We need to make the most of a small area incorporating numbers, insects and obviously a lot more.

 

Many thanks

[hellotrout]

Is your fence picket style? 'S' hooks are good for hanging resources to fence for children to self select and you can leave them out or in certain weather bring them in over night.

 

you could screw numbers onto the fence and letters, shapes etc.

 

hope this helps

[Panders]

Are you thinking a bug hotel? made from stacked up pallets? Ours love a plank of wood! we have some smaller lengths of wooden planks at the moment, - they are using them as skateboards - hilarious, since they don't move.

 

I also have a number of photographs I have laminated throughout the different seasons of different things for them to go and find, also recently photographs taken at odd angles of common things they see in the garden, even the badge on my car and they go off to see if they can find these things, different shapes in the environment. Room for a bird feeder? but watch out not to put too much food, we had a little fury friend visiting!

[lashes2508]

[Lynne28]

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Wow you have a lovely garden and it looks very big.

 

I was looking for more things that can be attached to the fencing like your guttering. as we are a packaway setting and we would love to get activities on the wall that cab stay up and then all we have to do is to put equipment out on the floor space.

we have a big planter out and a rocker which we can leave out, however everything else has to be packed away.

 

We will definitely put guttering up but as it is a smallish space we need to get the other activities right so this is why I am asking for ideas and then we will draw a plan and hopefully within the next month we will work on getting activities up.

 

this is going to be apart of my research before we can work on improving the garden.

 

Many thanks for your help

[Mouseketeer]

A sound wall works well on a fence, attach random things like saucepan lids, tubing, old cooling rack...I've just put some old quoits on a length of gutter, thread string through and tied to the fence to make a big abacus, I'm going to hang numerals off each quoit, have a search on Pinterest you'll find some brilliant ideas :-)

[finleysmaid]

Lynne have you tried analysing what your children need to learn...this might help to focus ideas then.

Music/construction/reading/maths etc etc. Personally I don't try to have too much that's static so we have two pieces of trellis and Velcro strips so that we can attach what is relevant and useful for the children whether it be music, water runs, car slopes etc or frozen treasure like this week with tools to find out what's inside!

[Lynne28]

Lynne have you tried analysing what your children need to learn...this might help to focus ideas then.

Music/construction/reading/maths etc etc. Personally I don't try to have too much that's static so we have two pieces of trellis and Velcro strips so that we can attach what is relevant and useful for the children whether it be music, water runs, car slopes etc or frozen treasure like this week with tools to find out what's inside!

Hi

This is very new to me putting activities on the fencing and one of the reasons that it is so important for us is the time we spend setting up. Setting up two rooms and a garden with 3 and sometimes 4 members of staff, we only have half an hour to do this and as you can imagine this can become very stressful. So it is vital for us to ensure that we get this right.

We have a lot of resources that we can use, so I am just looking for ideas so that we can improve.

We are due our dreaded OFSTED very soon as we have taken over the setting just over a year ago. I think that the only thing that OFSTED can pick up on is the lack of resources because of the space we have and this is why I have badgered the centre to allow us to put things up and now they have agreed, I need to find ideas.

we have things like mirrored numbers, bug house, bird house, balls for counting. Just really looking for ideas on what different things to do with them.

We need ideas on how people incorporate things like shapes (at present we have threading shapes hung but just looking for the different ways practitioners display them.

we have chalk boards on the shed but again looking for different ideas (we have square ones).

 

if anyone has any suggestions I would love to hear them

Many thanks

[finleysmaid]

creative star learning has some ideas for music and water play on fences but I think my favourite idea is hanging gardens (pinterest) You could get someone to make one from old pallets they can then be hung on the fence and planted with herbs or veg.. Acryllic is also good and ive seen a sort of pocket made with acrylic which you can then plant up with carrots so that you can see them grow. Hanging shoe pockets can also be used for planting. What about using some of your fence for storage too? old shopping baskets and apple boxes are a good idea.

We have a really windy garden so I don't leave a lot outside one of the things I would like to add though is a reflective surface. We also have a solar fountain and have had windchimes (which have now blown away!) which all helps in K&U

[Lynne28]

creative star learning has some ideas for music and water play on fences but I think my favourite idea is hanging gardens (pinterest) You could get someone to make one from old pallets they can then be hung on the fence and planted with herbs or veg.. Acryllic is also good and ive seen a sort of pocket made with acrylic which you can then plant up with carrots so that you can see them grow. Hanging shoe pockets can also be used for planting. What about using some of your fence for storage too? old shopping baskets and apple boxes are a good idea.

We have a really windy garden so I don't leave a lot outside one of the things I would like to add though is a reflective surface. We also have a solar fountain and have had windchimes (which have now blown away!) which all helps in K&U

Thankyou for your ideas, this will certainly help us. We got from ikea some coloured plant pot holders that can be screwed to the wall and we were thinking of planting herbs in these and using them for pot holders. I think ideas are slowly coming and one of the next stages will be to get a plan in place. our garden area is long and not very wide, however it is a nice area esp now we have had the flooring and canopy done.

 

Heres to having a nice garden within a few months.

 

 

Our garden is very windy too and our wind-chimes have also blown away.

 

Thankyou for all your advice

[lsp]

Like the solar powered fountain idea finsleysmaid.

[finleysmaid]

Like the solar powered fountain idea finsleysmaid.

in our 2011 ofsted inspection the children were witnesses blowing the clouds away because they knew that the sun had to hit the panel to convert it in to energy so that the fountain would work :wub: you can get solar powered helicopters (wooden ones) who's blades twirl round when in the sun.

 

Fountain from primrose....wait till they have them on special offer!

Wind chimes and other odd items from something different wholesalers (but sell to the general public)

[lsp]

Thanks. We need to improve our outdoor area. It's also very exposed. Raised some money for sleepers to build big sandpit. We have used Primrose before for sun shade sails. Just bought metal door numbers from Poundland.

[Lynne28]

in our 2011 ofsted inspection the children were witnesses blowing the clouds away because they knew that the sun had to hit the panel to convert it in to energy so that the fountain would work :wub: you can get solar powered helicopters (wooden ones) who's blades twirl round when in the sun.

 

Fountain from primrose....wait till they have them on special offer!

Wind chimes and other odd items from something different wholesalers (but sell to the general public)

Hi Finleymaid,

 

Any-chance of photos or a link to the fountain, it sounds great

Many thanks

Lynne

[finleysmaid]

Hi Finleymaid,

 

Any-chance of photos or a link to the fountain, it sounds great

Many thanks

Lynne

http://www.primrose.co.uk/square-4tier-solar-water-feature-cascading-herb-planter-dark-wood-h42cm-w39cm-solaray-p-25719.html?cPath=1_108&src=list_img#type=&power=108&style=4964&size=&brand=&material=&accessories=

[Mouseketeer]

That's a great idea ...do you just put clean water in the bottom each day ? No digging water reservoirs or anything

Edited February 6, 2016 by Mouseketeer

[finleysmaid]

That's a great idea ...do you just put clean water in the bottom each day ? No digging water reservoirs or anything

we make sure it's cleaned out thoroughly once a week otherwise, because the water is moving. you shouldn't have too many problems.

[Lynne28]

we make sure it's cleaned out thoroughly once a week otherwise, because the water is moving. you shouldn't have too many problems.

This is such a good idea, this is definitely on our list, even if we need to get a smaller one.

Thankyou so much for sharing your ideas.

Do you have any more ideas?

 

Many thanks

Lynne