With lots of new arrivals in the Exploring room there is a new level of curiosity when it comes to exploring and discovering. We encourage this interest by providing opportunities for the new babies to explore through heuristic play. Heuristic play describes the activity of babies and children as they play with and explore the properties of 'objects'. These 'objects' are things from the real world. One of the staff was coming back from her break and picked up some recycled cardboard rolls in Reception and brought them into the room. Some of the children were very curious by the cardboard rolls and soon got stuck in playing with them. The children appeared to have great fun and imaginative play was booming that afternoon as the children engaged in different types of pretend play with one another and the staff joined in too! One parent commented that it’s the simple things that offer children endless opportunities of discovery and exploration.

In the Discovery room, some children noticed the heavy rain fall had wet some of the wet suits and wellies outside. A discussion was had on how we could fix the problem and prevent it from happening again. We found some old waterproof tent like material and decided to measure it against our wetsuits and wellies box to design a waterproof storage. Some of the children helped to cut out the shape we needed. We covered the boxes outside and on Tuesday we found our suits were dry, but not for long as the rainy weather made for some large puddles to splash and play in ! On Thursday some of the boys made their very own puddles in the water basin to experiment in. Some of the parents laughed and commented on how much fun the children had when they were showed pictures and seeing the wetsuits sent home for washing.

This week in the Adventure room we realised that some of the kids were willing to help us in the daily cleaning tasks such as wiping the tables, brushing and cleaning the toys. We accepted their help every time and they asked to collaborate on the tasks. We observed that they liked to feel involved and enjoy doing ‘adult duties’ as a game. They feel important and grown up. We will keep providing them with these kinds of learning opportunities in order to make them feel part of the community and as important players in it. One Mum was surprised to hear about this motivation to help us! Another agreed that this also happens at home while another was really happy to see his daughter ‘helping’.