Little Explorers

 As the children gain independence through their uses of language and ever increasing physical and intellectual abilities they progress to our Little Explorers room at around the age of two years, this is where they will grow and develop their new skills until they leave for school.

During their day in Little Explorers the children are able to choose from a wide range of activities that cover all areas of the children’s development. There is a home corner where the children can dress up and get creative with the play food and kitchen, or construct a tall tower or a rocket with the lego and bricks. For table top toys we have a range of puzzles and games and mark making resources to inspire their development.  For quieter times Little Explorers have a relaxing book corner where the children are able to have a story read to them or look through the books picking out their favourite characters or pictures.  Around the room you can see all the art work created by the children through painting, sticking, cutting and drawing; our full equipped art trolley is full of art and craft materials to give them inspiration and develops their creativity. There is also work to be taken home for you to create your own gallery! Little Explorers also love the messy activities such as gloop, water, shaving foam and cereal play.

At mealtimes the children sit together to develop their social skills. They are encouraged to try different food from our menu and develop skills with using cutlery, table manners and portion sizes. All children are able to self serve their own lunch and can choose from the daily pudding or fruit. At this time staff support the children to encourage portion sizes and healthy eating. We have rolling snack time mid morning and mid afternoon where a variety of snacks are used including fruit, rice cakes and vegetable sticks, please see more info tab for our main menu.

After a busy morning some of the younger Little Explorers need to recharge their energy and can sleep in our sleep area. Children that don’t wish to sleep can play with a range of different activities within Little Explorers and the outside garden area.

As the children develop and progress in Little Explorers we support them to develop their independence ready for when they go to school and through play they can learn and develop all their skills on very individual levels.

Every day the children have registration which supports their name recognition and a sense of belonging within the group. Throughout the day children are also encouraged to find their name at snack time and during mark making activities children can attempt to write letters of their name and are introduced to letter sounds.