Learning through play


	Butterflies Day Nursery

	The Mill, Sulby Glen, Isle of Man IM7 2BB 01624 897226


	Learning through Play

At Butterflies we understand the importance of learning through play in a childs development. Our main aim is to promote our children's physical, emotional, intellectual, and social wellbeing and to encourage their individuality.

We believe that children learn best when they are doing the things they love to do and by having positive experiences.

We are building on the knowledge that the children already have and then extending their learning.

We are passionate about 'Learning through Play' believing that this is simply the best way to learn. The Department of Education has also taken this on board now and Reception classes are a lot more formal than they were a few years ago.

THIS IS HOW CHILDREN LEARN!

We are very interested in the Reggio Emilia approach to child care and although it is impossible to mirror it completely we choose to take on board a lot of their theories and attitudes in all we do.

We give our children the tools to think for themselves, to choose what they want to do, to explore for themselves. We follow along the way, learning from them.

We use our outside area as an extention of the inside. This area is used for least an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon in all but the most inclement weather. This can lead up to a whole day in good weather. The children have hands on experience planting bulbs, growing fruit and veg and feeding the birds. We have made bug boxes and bird houses. There is an area of rotting logs for the children to find bugs, to observe with our special bugpots.

We have drainpipe and guttering for making water courses, tyres for rolling and building with. Fish boxes for transporting and climbing on. Railway sleepers for balancing. There are plenty of wheeled toys and most of our children leave knowing how to ride a two wheeler bike.

We are just as happy painting and drawing outside even in wet weather when you can make paintings in puddles.

We use Surestart Birth to Three Matters for the children who are 2 -3 years old and the QCA Foundation Guidence for our pre-school children. The QCA is the same document that is used within the Department of Education Nurseries.

At Butterflies the children get to experience many different things. We use sand and water, soap flakes, gravel, stones, driftwood, sticks, shells, fabric, seeds and ice to explore, make pictures with and experiment with. There are always magnifying glasses and balancing scales on hand. We use whatever is around us at the time to make interesting environments, small worlds and displays. The children don't just help us with the artwork in displays they help to mount them and decide where they want them to go. They enjoy bringing their parents in to show them what they have done.

The willow dome is a great hiding place in the summer. It also looks great in the winter when it has no leaves and you can hang things in its branches.

At Butterflies we don't like baselines or checklists. We celebrate what your children can do, not what they can't

We learn about and document your child's progress in pictures and observation. We take lots of photos, as evidence of what we do, and have a record of daily achievements. Every childs record is kept up to date with pictures they have done, observations and photos. You can ask to see this record at anytime and we will be proud to show you, although we do tend to share things with you on a daily basis as we believe the home/ nursery link is very important.

Butterflies is an official worksheet free zone.

We are a very 'green' nursery. We encourage our children to respect the people and world around them in many ways.

We encourage them to think before throwing anything away, to turn off lights when not in use, not to use too much water. We collect newspapers, plastic bags and other junk which we then use within the nursery.

There has been much debate recently in the national press about the teaching of reading and the use of phonics. At Butterflies we strongly believe that little children need a print rich environment where they are encouraged to see reading and writing as enjoyable and a part of every day life. There are books, posters and notice boards for children to look at and the children see the staff writing often. Story and rhyme times are both fun and informative and role play areas have opportunities for even our toddlers to copy adult actions by writing shopping lists and using the telephone.
With emergent writing children are making representations on paper and we have writing areas with a range of equipment to use. We encourage the children to recognise their names and help them to write the first letters and then maybe, if they are ready, to give meaning to any of their artwork. Every child develops at a different rate (Einstein was seven before he could count to ten) and we recognise that some children are not ready to formalise their skills during their pre-school years but the foundations are being put into place none the less.

Please ask if you would like more information about this we are always happy to talk about any aspect of our curriculum.

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