This is a blog from one of the early years settings in Kent.
My setting took part in the Natural Thinkers programme - I absolutely love it! Although it was a relatively short project, we are continuing with it across the rest of this year, and it will be embedded in all our future practice. It ties in so well with well-being and involvement, a philosophy that has remained with us since it was introduced in Kent all those years ago now! We are going ahead for accreditation so that we can be a 'Natural Thinkers' setting.
Has it changed our practice? Definitely. We are already an outdoorsy setting, but this has enhanced it even more...and the understanding of the whole team. One of the biggest changes for us has been the vast reduction in getting out the wheeled vehicles for the children so much, as we were only observing low level play. There is so much 'to do' in the environment with our natural areas and resources that the children demonstrate much higher levels of involvement in.
I am also currently setting up our space for self-regulation outside...a calm space - this is something else that we did not specifically have outside, although we have a variety of quieter areas inside. The inside and outside opportunities for this will now complement each other more effectively once this is completed.
With Natural Thinkers at the heart of our planning, for the summer terms this is going to focus on 'The Scarecrows' Wedding' by Julia Donaldson after the children created a scarecrow for our allotment. We will be mind-mapping this with the children and hope to introduce/create a fellow scarecrow...all culminating in an actual wedding and reception for our parents to attend. We will add provocations such as letters between the scarecrows, a proposal of marriage, the children creating the vows etc, planning the reception etc. The planning and learning opportunities for this are endless!
