Print rich outside environment

Hi Ladies

Sarah's recent fab inspection outcomes document mentioned that Ofsted are very hot on a print rich outside environment for the children atm.

would anyone mind sharing how they have created this environment please? Apart from numbers, colours, shapes and letters is there anything else that you provide which you think makes your outside space more enriching for the children?

any thoughts/ideas would be much appreciated.

thank you :thumbsup:

jo x

There is a good thread on our Independent Childminders Facebook group :D


https://www.facebook.com/groups/inde...5207347834008/

perfect thank you sarah :laughing:

Some good ideas on this site to encourage literacy outdoors

Literacy Outdoors

I am not a big fan of lots of print in the outside environment permanently. My

I didn't have lots and Mrs O wasn't concerned.

I think it is more what you are seen doing with it than having stuff on fences, walls that the children just ignore because it's like wallpaper and permanently there. Lots of childminders put up loads of number lines and colour and shape posters, then don't use them often enough for them to be an enabling environment.

An enabling environment is about enabling the children in their learning, not just to make the garden look colourful.

My garden this week has :

plant labels on the veg in the 3 veg patches, plus big stones with drawn on pictures of veg and name.

The 5 water butts are numbered - when we talk about watering I say " use the water out of butt 4 today" and I will hold up the matching number and they know which one I mean, but not all can recognise numbers, this reinforcement of me saying the number and them finding it on the butt is enabling them to see and recognise numbers in the environment.( only one can at the moment).

Some of our plants and bushes have a tag that has a picture of a bee or butterfly / caterpillar and the name of the plant, these are quite small but the LO's played a game of dressing with bee/ butterfly wings and finding the plant that they like the most, some have remembered the name of the plant this way.

The green house has a small sign at child level of a giant which says only come in with a person bigger than you. A similar one is on the shed, it says come in here if you want to be eaten by a giant! ( Jack and the beanstalk story this week).

The fairy garden has child written words as does the dinosaur land - though they are a bit blurred from age now and post boxes where the children leave messages and the fairies and dinosaurs write back, giving a reason to write and read. The dinosaurs had a sign up saying - gone to look for a new place to live as this one flooded! - we are going to redo it in a couple of weeks so I have started the imaginary reason for creating a new one, there is lots of water in it.

Somewhere in the garden there is a bucket with slate and on the pieces of slate there are letters, mainly 's a t p i n', synthetic phonics first sounds and the Lo's spread them around the garden or put them in lines to make their words - they ask me what it says and we all say Yey if it is a proper word - just drip feeding that certain letters together make a word that we use, not a made up one. But usually the made up ones sound better and are repeated lots in fun!

I have also put the letters in their names, this week as I sat in the shade on a too hot day with one LO she tipped the bucket over and found the letters of her name on her own...first time she has shown me she knows these.

We have minibeast habitats and a sign for the bug hotel, DH can write on wood by burning in the words so the bug labels are all burn't on. We have little wooden signs that the children put where they see minibeasts with a picture and name. These are kept in a drilled log by the log pile, so the children know where to get them when they spot a bee or a worm etc..
I have made a set of photo numbers made out of natural materials,( inspired by the cosy catalogue) but only have these out if they lend themselves to our activity. This week we used them to put the pots on, 3 sunflower pots, 4 grazia's and 5 for beetroot to remind us how many we needed to plant ( DH had given me a verbal list of what he wanted us to plant and I needed a way to remember his list - sort of acted out this conversation in front of the children to stimulate activity and set up a problem solving task too.

As one LO likes to sit on their own with books I usually have a comfortable area with books that are usually linked to a nature theme or water..but also favourite reads too...this week we have had our bird hide up to watch / photograph our blue tits so that has housed the books in a cool shaded place , themed around birds and growing/ life cycles. It also has a childs camera in there and a diagram encouraging them to look through the low hole and take a photo. This isn't always up.
I have a writing box that I keep in the shed, with clipboards and a variety of media to write/ draw with, these go on a mat somewhere and the children wrote plant labels for the seeds we sowed ( emergent writing wiggly lines and circles) my oldest selfishly wrote his 'name ' on a sticker and attached it to the wheelbarrow, laying claims that it was his- a purpose for writing! Just perhaps not the correct purpose!

I had similar out on my inspection - I talked to the inspector about the important word being 'rich' - which I interpreted to mean purposeful, a reason for having it there .. To enable the children to learn / achieve next steps..not quantity or boldness or colourful...rich in outcome for the children, not to tick a perceived ofsted box - she agreed!

This is just my interpretation...but it worked for me at my inspection and the good progress these LO's have made shows that I can't be far wrong.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FloraDora

I am not a big fan of lots of print in the outside environment permanently. My

I didn't have lots and Mrs O wasn't concerned.

I think it is more what you are seen doing with it than having stuff on fences, walls that the children just ignore because it's like wallpaper and permanently there. Lots of childminders put up loads of number lines and colour and shape posters, then don't use them often enough for them to be an enabling environment.

An enabling environment is about enabling the children in their learning, not just to make the garden look colourful.

My garden this week has :

plant labels on the veg in the 3 veg patches, plus big stones with drawn on pictures of veg and name.

The 5 water butts are numbered - when we talk about watering I say " use the water out of butt 4 today" and I will hold up the matching number and they know which one I mean, but not all can recognise numbers, this reinforcement of me saying the number and them finding it on the butt is enabling them to see and recognise numbers in the environment.( only one can at the moment).

Some of our plants and bushes have a tag that has a picture of a bee or butterfly / caterpillar and the name of the plant, these are quite small but the LO's played a game of dressing with bee/ butterfly wings and finding the plant that they like the most, some have remembered the name of the plant this way.

The green house has a small sign at child level of a giant which says only come in with a person bigger than you. A similar one is on the shed, it says come in here if you want to be eaten by a giant! ( Jack and the beanstalk story this week).

The fairy garden has child written words as does the dinosaur land - though they are a bit blurred from age now and post boxes where the children leave messages and the fairies and dinosaurs write back, giving a reason to write and read. The dinosaurs had a sign up saying - gone to look for a new place to live as this one flooded! - we are going to redo it in a couple of weeks so I have started the imaginary reason for creating a new one, there is lots of water in it.

Somewhere in the garden there is a bucket with slate and on the pieces of slate there are letters, mainly 's a t p i n', synthetic phonics first sounds and the Lo's spread them around the garden or put them in lines to make their words - they ask me what it says and we all say Yey if it is a proper word - just drip feeding that certain letters together make a word that we use, not a made up one. But usually the made up ones sound better and are repeated lots in fun!

I have also put the letters in their names, this week as I sat in the shade on a too hot day with one LO she tipped the bucket over and found the letters of her name on her own...first time she has shown me she knows these.

We have minibeast habitats and a sign for the bug hotel, DH can write on wood by burning in the words so the bug labels are all burn't on. We have little wooden signs that the children put where they see minibeasts with a picture and name. These are kept in a drilled log by the log pile, so the children know where to get them when they spot a bee or a worm etc..
I have made a set of photo numbers made out of natural materials,( inspired by the cosy catalogue) but only have these out if they lend themselves to our activity. This week we used them to put the pots on, 3 sunflower pots, 4 grazia's and 5 for beetroot to remind us how many we needed to plant ( DH had given me a verbal list of what he wanted us to plant and I needed a way to remember his list - sort of acted out this conversation in front of the children to stimulate activity and set up a problem solving task too.

As one LO likes to sit on their own with books I usually have a comfortable area with books that are usually linked to a nature theme or water..but also favourite reads too...this week we have had our bird hide up to watch / photograph our blue tits so that has housed the books in a cool shaded place , themed around birds and growing/ life cycles. It also has a childs camera in there and a diagram encouraging them to look through the low hole and take a photo. This isn't always up.
I have a writing box that I keep in the shed, with clipboards and a variety of media to write/ draw with, these go on a mat somewhere and the children wrote plant labels for the seeds we sowed ( emergent writing wiggly lines and circles) my oldest selfishly wrote his 'name ' on a sticker and attached it to the wheelbarrow, laying claims that it was his- a purpose for writing! Just perhaps not the correct purpose!

I had similar out on my inspection - I talked to the inspector about the important word being 'rich' - which I interpreted to mean purposeful, a reason for having it there .. To enable the children to learn / achieve next steps..not quantity or boldness or colourful...rich in outcome for the children, not to tick a perceived ofsted box - she agreed!

This is just my interpretation...but it worked for me at my inspection and the good progress these LO's have made shows that I can't be far wrong.

---

I love this - I have a small garden, but Flora Dora's post has just inspired me to make my own mini-water butts/watering cans out of plastic milk bottles.

Basically, if you take a long pin and heat it on a gas burner, you can poke holes through the bottom of the plastic milk bottle lid. (Putting the holes in from the bottom keeps the top smooth.) Just poke enough holes until you have lots of nice circles of holes and voila, your very own watering cans.

Here's a link.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=mi...%3B3648%3B2736

All the best,

L

This week I printed off number labels and laminated them, attached them to all the outdoor (vehicles) trikes, push alongs, etc and then put chalk numbers on the patio for the children to park the corresponding vehicle in the parking space.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lollipop kid

I love this - I have a small garden, but Flora Dora's post has just inspired me to make my own mini-water butts/watering cans out of plastic milk bottles.

Basically, if you take a long pin and heat it on a gas burner, you can poke holes through the bottom of the plastic milk bottle lid. (Putting the holes in from the bottom keeps the top smooth.) Just poke enough holes until you have lots of nice circles of holes and voila, your very own watering cans.

Here's a link.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=mi...%3B3648%3B2736

All the best,

L

---

Great instructions, we need a lot more watering cans, so this is how I am going to get them.
Thankyou.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FloraDora

I am not a big fan of lots of print in the outside environment permanently. My

I didn't have lots and Mrs O wasn't concerned.

I think it is more what you are seen doing with it than having stuff on fences, walls that the children just ignore because it's like wallpaper and permanently there. Lots of childminders put up loads of number lines and colour and shape posters, then don't use them often enough for them to be an enabling environment.

An enabling environment is about enabling the children in their learning, not just to make the garden look colourful.

My garden this week has :

plant labels on the veg in the 3 veg patches, plus big stones with drawn on pictures of veg and name.

The 5 water butts are numbered - when we talk about watering I say " use the water out of butt 4 today" and I will hold up the matching number and they know which one I mean, but not all can recognise numbers, this reinforcement of me saying the number and them finding it on the butt is enabling them to see and recognise numbers in the environment.( only one can at the moment).

Some of our plants and bushes have a tag that has a picture of a bee or butterfly / caterpillar and the name of the plant, these are quite small but the LO's played a game of dressing with bee/ butterfly wings and finding the plant that they like the most, some have remembered the name of the plant this way.

The green house has a small sign at child level of a giant which says only come in with a person bigger than you. A similar one is on the shed, it says come in here if you want to be eaten by a giant! ( Jack and the beanstalk story this week).

The fairy garden has child written words as does the dinosaur land - though they are a bit blurred from age now and post boxes where the children leave messages and the fairies and dinosaurs write back, giving a reason to write and read. The dinosaurs had a sign up saying - gone to look for a new place to live as this one flooded! - we are going to redo it in a couple of weeks so I have started the imaginary reason for creating a new one, there is lots of water in it.

Somewhere in the garden there is a bucket with slate and on the pieces of slate there are letters, mainly 's a t p i n', synthetic phonics first sounds and the Lo's spread them around the garden or put them in lines to make their words - they ask me what it says and we all say Yey if it is a proper word - just drip feeding that certain letters together make a word that we use, not a made up one. But usually the made up ones sound better and are repeated lots in fun!

I have also put the letters in their names, this week as I sat in the shade on a too hot day with one LO she tipped the bucket over and found the letters of her name on her own...first time she has shown me she knows these.

We have minibeast habitats and a sign for the bug hotel, DH can write on wood by burning in the words so the bug labels are all burn't on. We have little wooden signs that the children put where they see minibeasts with a picture and name. These are kept in a drilled log by the log pile, so the children know where to get them when they spot a bee or a worm etc..
I have made a set of photo numbers made out of natural materials,( inspired by the cosy catalogue) but only have these out if they lend themselves to our activity. This week we used them to put the pots on, 3 sunflower pots, 4 grazia's and 5 for beetroot to remind us how many we needed to plant ( DH had given me a verbal list of what he wanted us to plant and I needed a way to remember his list - sort of acted out this conversation in front of the children to stimulate activity and set up a problem solving task too.

As one LO likes to sit on their own with books I usually have a comfortable area with books that are usually linked to a nature theme or water..but also favourite reads too...this week we have had our bird hide up to watch / photograph our blue tits so that has housed the books in a cool shaded place , themed around birds and growing/ life cycles. It also has a childs camera in there and a diagram encouraging them to look through the low hole and take a photo. This isn't always up.
I have a writing box that I keep in the shed, with clipboards and a variety of media to write/ draw with, these go on a mat somewhere and the children wrote plant labels for the seeds we sowed ( emergent writing wiggly lines and circles) my oldest selfishly wrote his 'name ' on a sticker and attached it to the wheelbarrow, laying claims that it was his- a purpose for writing! Just perhaps not the correct purpose!

I had similar out on my inspection - I talked to the inspector about the important word being 'rich' - which I interpreted to mean purposeful, a reason for having it there .. To enable the children to learn / achieve next steps..not quantity or boldness or colourful...rich in outcome for the children, not to tick a perceived ofsted box - she agreed!

This is just my interpretation...but it worked for me at my inspection and the good progress these LO's have made shows that I can't be far wrong.

---

Totally agree with you ...there has been a rush to put lots of labels outside 'just in case' the inspectors quey this...but that is not what this is all about.
I remember the case of the windmills...suddenly many rushed to buy them ...why?

The 7 areas of learning are outside at all times...the rest comes from the children themselves.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lollipop kid

Basically, if you take a long pin and heat it on a gas burner, you can poke holes through the bottom of the plastic milk bottle lid. (Putting the holes in from the bottom keeps the top smooth.) Just poke enough holes until you have lots of nice circles of holes and voila, your very own watering cans


L

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I have a long metal skewer that I keep especially for melting holes in plastic!!! Recently I used it to put a few holes in my plastic bench, as it kept keeping puddles of water, I made hole in the end of white yogurt puts to make mother days daffodils. It's great for making drainage holes in the bottom of plastic flower pots, or wells boots or old toys you want to use as flower pots.
I have a very tactile snake I made with alternating coloured water bottle lids threaded onto string.


I just leave the skewer across the burner for a few minutes until it becomes very hot. WARNING - this is how animals are branded, so be careful

Quote:

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Originally Posted by k1rstie

I have a long metal skewer that I keep especially for melting holes in plastic!!! Recently I used it to put a few holes in my plastic bench, as it kept keeping puddles of water, I made hole in the end of white yogurt puts to make mother days daffodils. It's great for making drainage holes in the bottom of plastic flower pots, or wells boots or old toys you want to use as flower pots.
I have a very tactile snake I made with alternating coloured water bottle lids threaded onto string.


I just leave the skewer across the burner for a few minutes until it becomes very hot. WARNING - this is how animals are branded, so be careful

---

Good advice about being careful, Kirstie. I use an old Hat Pin. (It's got a fine point on it so works really well for me.)

I like the idea of using a skewer for bigger holes, though - I might just try that on the platform for my slide (which holds water really badly!)

Thanks,

L

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hectors house

Some good ideas on this site to encourage literacy outdoors

Literacy Outdoors

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thank you HH that's really useful :thumbsup:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FloraDora

I am not a big fan of lots of print in the outside environment permanently. My

I didn't have lots and Mrs O wasn't concerned.

I think it is more what you are seen doing with it than having stuff on fences, walls that the children just ignore because it's like wallpaper and permanently there. Lots of childminders put up loads of number lines and colour and shape posters, then don't use them often enough for them to be an enabling environment.

An enabling environment is about enabling the children in their learning, not just to make the garden look colourful.

My garden this week has :

plant labels on the veg in the 3 veg patches, plus big stones with drawn on pictures of veg and name.

The 5 water butts are numbered - when we talk about watering I say " use the water out of butt 4 today" and I will hold up the matching number and they know which one I mean, but not all can recognise numbers, this reinforcement of me saying the number and them finding it on the butt is enabling them to see and recognise numbers in the environment.( only one can at the moment).

Some of our plants and bushes have a tag that has a picture of a bee or butterfly / caterpillar and the name of the plant, these are quite small but the LO's played a game of dressing with bee/ butterfly wings and finding the plant that they like the most, some have remembered the name of the plant this way.

The green house has a small sign at child level of a giant which says only come in with a person bigger than you. A similar one is on the shed, it says come in here if you want to be eaten by a giant! ( Jack and the beanstalk story this week).

The fairy garden has child written words as does the dinosaur land - though they are a bit blurred from age now and post boxes where the children leave messages and the fairies and dinosaurs write back, giving a reason to write and read. The dinosaurs had a sign up saying - gone to look for a new place to live as this one flooded! - we are going to redo it in a couple of weeks so I have started the imaginary reason for creating a new one, there is lots of water in it.

Somewhere in the garden there is a bucket with slate and on the pieces of slate there are letters, mainly 's a t p i n', synthetic phonics first sounds and the Lo's spread them around the garden or put them in lines to make their words - they ask me what it says and we all say Yey if it is a proper word - just drip feeding that certain letters together make a word that we use, not a made up one. But usually the made up ones sound better and are repeated lots in fun!

I have also put the letters in their names, this week as I sat in the shade on a too hot day with one LO she tipped the bucket over and found the letters of her name on her own...first time she has shown me she knows these.

We have minibeast habitats and a sign for the bug hotel, DH can write on wood by burning in the words so the bug labels are all burn't on. We have little wooden signs that the children put where they see minibeasts with a picture and name. These are kept in a drilled log by the log pile, so the children know where to get them when they spot a bee or a worm etc..
I have made a set of photo numbers made out of natural materials,( inspired by the cosy catalogue) but only have these out if they lend themselves to our activity. This week we used them to put the pots on, 3 sunflower pots, 4 grazia's and 5 for beetroot to remind us how many we needed to plant ( DH had given me a verbal list of what he wanted us to plant and I needed a way to remember his list - sort of acted out this conversation in front of the children to stimulate activity and set up a problem solving task too.

As one LO likes to sit on their own with books I usually have a comfortable area with books that are usually linked to a nature theme or water..but also favourite reads too...this week we have had our bird hide up to watch / photograph our blue tits so that has housed the books in a cool shaded place , themed around birds and growing/ life cycles. It also has a childs camera in there and a diagram encouraging them to look through the low hole and take a photo. This isn't always up.
I have a writing box that I keep in the shed, with clipboards and a variety of media to write/ draw with, these go on a mat somewhere and the children wrote plant labels for the seeds we sowed ( emergent writing wiggly lines and circles) my oldest selfishly wrote his 'name ' on a sticker and attached it to the wheelbarrow, laying claims that it was his- a purpose for writing! Just perhaps not the correct purpose!

I had similar out on my inspection - I talked to the inspector about the important word being 'rich' - which I interpreted to mean purposeful, a reason for having it there .. To enable the children to learn / achieve next steps..not quantity or boldness or colourful...rich in outcome for the children, not to tick a perceived ofsted box - she agreed!

This is just my interpretation...but it worked for me at my inspection and the good progress these LO's have made shows that I can't be far wrong.

---

thank you so much for taking the time to write such a comprehensive list of your garden resources! I have found it so helpful and now have a very long wish list :laughing:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hectors house

This week I printed off number labels and laminated them, attached them to all the outdoor (vehicles) trikes, push alongs, etc and then put chalk numbers on the patio for the children to park the corresponding vehicle in the parking space.

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I love this idea ! :clapping:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hectors house

This week I printed off number labels and laminated them, attached them to all the outdoor (vehicles) trikes, push alongs, etc and then put chalk numbers on the patio for the children to park the corresponding vehicle in the parking space.

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I love this idea ! :clapping: