The great outdoors was the focus of an 'al fresco' parents' evening at Camborne's Flying Start Nursery in Cornwall.
Staff decided to have an outdoor learning theme for their termly evening so that they could show parents what their children enjoy doing in the nursery's large garden and how they learn from it.
Well over half the nursery parents attended. They chatted to each other and the staff while enjoying snacks and drinks and watching their children engage in typical nursery activities. These included water and sand play, kitchen role play, a compost digging pit, guttering and balls, and blankets placed under the trees laid out with Duplo, cars and books.
Nursery manager Kerry Baker says, 'A lot of people just think of children playing with bikes and balls outside. We wanted to show the parents the free choice that the nursery children have - if they want to play with a train outside or do mark making, then they can do. We have free flow between the indoors and outdoor area.
'We set up the nursery as it would be on a typical day. A lot of the parents drop off their children first thing and then collect them at the end of the day. Then they only see us packing and unpacking, rather than being able to look at the resources on offer.'
It was also an opportunity to show off the nursery's wonderful outdoor space, which includes a large grassy area, a bark area with trees, a vegetable garden, an outdoor roofed classroom and willow dens.
The nursery regularly holds popular cookery clubs for the children, so a session was put on to coincide with the parents' evening, to occupy them while parents relaxed and spoke to staff. The children barbequed vegetable kebabs, using peppers grown in the nursery garden, and marshmallow sticks.
Picture perfect
Nursery staff selected photographs of the children enjoying the outdoors and prepared a Power Point presentation which was interspersed with summary pages from the EYFS on the benefits of outdoor play. This was played on a loop on a projector in the main nursery room, resembling a cinema. The parents enjoyed seeing photos of their children.
There was also information on children's behaviour and learning styles. 'Some children, particularly boys, tend to focus better outdoors,' explains Ms Baker. 'In Cornwall we seem to have a lot more boys than girls - there must be something in the water! Boys in particular can almost be climbing the walls indoors, but then their behaviour can completely change when they are outside.
'The evening helped parents to see how much can actually be done with their children outside the home. It showed them that they don't even need toys or equipment to enjoy being outside - they can simply explore the garden or the park and talk about the plants and trees, their different smells and colours, and the wildlife. It helped the parents to get in touch with nature and look afresh at their surroundings.'
'Story sticks' was one of the simple ideas that particularly impressed the parents. The children find a stick in the garden and attach natural things that they like to it with string, for example a sprig of lavender, a daisy and a leaf. The children then talk about what they have found and why they like the objects.
Questionnaires (see panel) given out following the evening showed that it had been a real success, with parents enjoying interacting with their children in the nursery environment and getting ideas for their own outdoor play. The positive feedback wasn't a surprise to staff. 'In the end we had to turn off the barbeque and shoo everyone home!' recalls Ms Baker. 'It was a really good social event.'