Physical development
Children play and move
Physical activities support brain development, help develop social skills and emotional wellbeing and enhances bone health and muscular development.
It is paramount that each child receives enough exercise during their day with us. In the morning the children have room to build their own obstacle course, using resources such as tunnels, slides, climbing frame, jumping stones and have independent access to put music on and dance. Throw beanbags into buckets, floor tape to make different types of tracks etc.
The morning circle time also has a good balance of sitting and moving activities, such as our morning activate song and stretches.
We don’t like to wait or to que for long periods of times, so children are staggered through fun activities at transitioning times.
Each setting has space to run and move using a wide range of materials and resources. We encourage children to use equipment independently.
PE, festivals and dance
We celebrate many festivals throughout the year and dance plays a big part in this. When children are provided with creative movement opportunities, it develops children’s understanding about the art of dance, supporting skill and knowledge about the world.
We have physical education, Zumba, story yoga and dance.
‘Liikkuvavarhaiskasvatus’ is a national campaign that we are actively involved in. You can read more about it from this link.
Fun outdoor activities
An important area of outdoor play is allowing children to engage in risky play. Risky play is important part of children’s learning and development. Without it, children will be unable to assess risky situations and or make logical judgements to keep themselves safe. Children can become clumsier, having less control over their motor skills, poor balance, fear of rapid movements and less able to manage risk.
Children need to be able to experience supervised and age appropriate risky play daily. Playing with sticks, building dens, balancing on beams and climbing up a slide are allowed and not feared.
Outside we use a lot of our imagination with provided resources and materials. Such as boxes, crates, wood planks, car tires, rope etc. children can freely build their own obstacle course if they choose. The adult is always there to assist in their creations.
We always take children’s interests and ideas into account when building up the environment.
Free flow play in the fresh air
Outside we have a lot of free flow play. In our own forest we have access to different terrain, big rocks, a hut, hammock, investigating and discovering.
Slides, swings, poles and football pitch have endless possibilities for physical activity.
A lot of outdoors for the benefit of the children
We have many fun outdoor resources where children can choose from independently such as:
- Scooters
- Mopeds
- cars
- Hulahoops
- Hockey sticks
- Parachute
- Skipping ropes
- Frisbees
- Different types of balls
- bikes
Directed play
We have opportunities for directed play each day. The whole team is actively involved in the planning and executing of these activities. Children can propose different types of games. Pre-planned games are also delivered.
Different types of ball games, running and chasing games, parkour, ninja and circus shows etc. We plan with the children to encourage every child to participate.
We use the most of our surrounding environments, nearby forests, going on trips. It important that children get to move on different types of terrain. If we see a child sitting for a long period of time, we encourage them to get up and move around.
