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Outdoor Play

Outdoor play offers unique learning experiences which cannot be provided indoors.  It is an ever-changing space that provides new sights, sounds, and sensations.  It offers space and freedom for children to explore and investigate, imagine and create, and to try out new things.  Creativity and imagination can thrive outdoors.

At Pennies Day Nurseries, we value outdoor play. Outdoors, firemen can put out the fire, picnickers can get dressed up, pack their bags, and go for a picnic, horses can gallop, and aeroplanes can fly.

Our outdoor play is much more than just physical learning.  It can offer opportunities for learning in all areas of the curriculum e.g., observing insects hiding under logs, seeing how long ice takes to melt, feeding birds, observing, and discussing changes in the weather and the seasons and growing things in the garden, promoting development of general knowledge, language and vocabulary.

We aim to go outside every day of the year – at Pennies, our motto is, ‘There is no such thing as bad weather; it’s about being properly prepared’.  Cold, damp, or wintry weather does not prevent us from going out – we encourage the children to wrap up warmly.  Equally, in warm weather, we prepare the children for play in the sun.  We prefer legionnaire hats to protect heads and necks.  We do provide 50+ sun cream to protect the children’s delicate skin from the sun.  We do avoid the heat of the midday sun. We always ensure all the children and well hydrated and have fresh drinking water available in a photo labelled bottle.

We are very lucky to have such wonderful outdoor spaces to play in at all three of our nurseries.  There are so many benefits to outdoor play and it’s our job to make sure the children in our care have a fun, positive, challenging, playful and enjoyable outdoor experience.