Nursery Forest Kindergarten

Dear Parents/Carers,

We are excited to inform you that we will be introducing Forest Kindergarten as a part of the daily experiences available to the children at King’s Park. We will be exploring the local woodland in King’s Park.  The permission granted on their ‘Local Trips’ form is sufficient.  If your child chooses to go along then they will be there for the whole session and will therefore have their snack outdoors too!

Why

There is a wealth of research documenting the benefits of outdoor learning.

“We know the benefits of outdoor learning, exercise and play for young children, in terms of their health and wellbeing and their physical and mental development. Playing, learning and having fun outdoors helps improve wellbeing and resilience, increase physical activity and allows children to use the natural world to develop curiosity and science skills. There is also a growing body of research that shows children with higher levels of active outdoor play have improved cognition, which can result in better academic performance and contribute to closing the attainment gap.” 

Chief Medical Officer Dr Catherine Calderwood.

There are also useful Links for the Care Inspectorate and Education Scotland that can be found here:

http://hub.careinspectorate.com/improvement/my-world-outdoors/

https://education.gov.scot/Documents/cfe-through-outdoor-learning.pdf

When

The programme will start from the 12^th March 2018. Each child will be offered the opportunity to go on a woodland exploration at least once a week (weather dependent).

Monday: Red Group + 3 children from Orange Group

Tuesday: Green Group + 3 children from Orange Group

Wednesday (pm): Blue Group + 3 children from Orange Group

Thursday: Yellow Group + 3 children from Orange Group

Friday (am): Blue Group

(Orange Group – please see Miss Morris for your child’s allocated day)

This is subject to change and if spaces are available they will be offered to children out with these groups.

What

The children will have opportunities to take part in activities such as exploration, tree climbing, den building, mud sliding and scavenger hunting.

Clothing

Please ensure children come suitably dressed for messy outdoor play in all weathers, particularly footwear. The nursery can provide a limited number of water proofs. If you can provide your child with their own waterproof clothing that would be appreciated and enable us to spread our limited resources further.

Adult Helpers

Helpers would be more than welcome to join us. Please add you name to the timetable on the wall of the cloakroom or speak directly to a member of staff.

New Starts

New children will be settled in the nursery for a term before starting at Forest Kindergarten.

If you have any questions please feel free to come and speak to me.

Ms McAllister

Class Teacher