A Purposeful and Accessible EYFS Playground That Promotes Cross-Curricular Activities
Before our development, Chilham St Mary’s Primary Schools EYFS playground was mainly covered in bark which had begun to rot and caused the area to become ‘out of bounds’ in wet weather.
As outdoor space is limited on the school site, they have had to ensure that every inch of play space is purposeful and accessible for the children.
They wanted to create an area which targeted physical development, imaginative and investigative play. Our playground consultant, Rachel Westbury, worked closely with the school to do just that!
A zone to promote physical development
As the EYFS space was so small, we decided to install our challenging low level Pinnacle Hill Climber. It has not only provided the children with a space to climb, developing key physical skills and to take safe risks, but has also provided space to build dens and read quietly.
They have been draping materials over the ropes to create their secret dens before sitting underneath the climber to read or participate in imaginary play!
With this magnificent climbing frame in the centre of the playground, the children can swing, jump, climb and transport themselves to different imaginary worlds as they use the climber as creative inspiration.
As they can develop their core stability, balance, upper and lower body strength along with gross and fine motor skills, physical development is being targeted whilst playing outdoors.
Imaginative and investigative play equipment
As one of the school’s aims of the project was to target imaginative and investigative play outdoors, a Messy Play area was the perfect creation!
Made up of our Mini Mud Kitchen and Dig Pit, with a Rope and Pulley Material Mover to connect the two, imaginative play has been truly enhanced outdoors. The children love moving mud into their own kitchen before baking up delicious mud muffins, mud cakes and mud pies for their lucky customers.
By scooping, digging and manipulating materials, the children’s fine motor skills and gross motor skills are being developed whist using exciting messy play equipment.
Next to the Messy Mud Play Area, we have installed a magnificent Water Wall with Grass Topped Steps. Through investigating water, their problem-solving skills and scientific knowledge improves.
This excellent outdoor resource encourages children to investigate scientific concepts such as gravity and water flow as they pour water or release balls from the top of the wall.
As well as this, the children can easily manipulate the channels to create new routes, testing out scientific theories. This leads to an increase in the children’s ability to experiment until they get the desired result.
During play, children can transport themselves to new imaginary worlds as they imagine they are fixing reservoirs, dams or even a master chef baking for hungry people – an excellent way to target the curriculum outdoors!
An amazing selection of playground surfacing
One of the most important problems to tackle was the poor surfacing…
Therefore, we removed the rotten bark from the area before laying our vibrant, free-draining Artificial Grass Playground Surfacing, creating an all-weather play area for the EYFS children.
The new surfacing enables the space to be used no matter what the weather may bring and prevents the area from becoming ‘out of bounds’. It’s a joy to see the children having access to a variety of activities throughout all seasons, in all areas of the playground.
Term Time Installation
The school chose to have their installation completed during term time, due to the educational benefits, and they had this to say:
“We are so glad that we chose to have a term time installation as we built it into our curriculum. The children loved watching the whole process unfold and develop – they became builders, designers, engineers, digger drivers …. The children kept a diary of ‘Their Big Build’ and enjoyed the opportunity to talk to the installers and really see first hand the work in progress. It has also made them appreciate their new space because they witnessed first hand the time, effort and detail that went into building it.”
If you would like to transform your EYFS playground, please feel free to Contact Us here for a free no obligation consultation with one of our expert playground consultants. Alternatively, view our full range of products for Early Years here.
