Outdoor Environment
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Motor Skills
Gross motor skills are involved in movement and coordination of the arms, legs, and other large body parts and movements. They participate in actions such as running, crawling, swimming, etc. Fine motor skills are involved in smaller movements that occur in the wrists, hands, fingers, and the feet and toes. Our outdoor space provides opportunities for children to develop and refine both sets of skills.
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Our Mud Kitchen/Construction Zone
Dirt, sand, water, bits of plants, and cooking utensils comprise a timeless play kit. The first outdoor environment encountered by an exploring infant is most likely the ground, and probably the dirt: gritty, cool, stony, sandy, smooth to the hand, brown or black or gray to the eye, and tempting to the tongue. Mud Kitchens and outdoor construction areas allow the children to role play outside of their classrooms and to become immersed in their imaginations; making dinners, building a house and any other situation you could dream of. Research has shown that some of the values that mud kitchens and construction zones can provide for children include:
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Creative expression and invention (mud can become anything you want it to be in your imagination!)
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Problem solving opportunities (e.g. how to make sauces thin or thick, a cup of muddy tea?, or how to make a mud cake stick together)
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Cooperative play possibilities (e.g. let’s cook dinner together for the rest of our friends, let’s have a shop and we can sell food)
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Stress reduction (being outdoors in nature helps children relax and to feel calm in their surroundings)
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Building stronger immune systems
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Growing care and affection for the stuff on our earth—soil, stones, sand, and growing plants (leading to care for our planet and the other living things in the outdoors, like our plants, animals and trees)
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Balance Beams and Colour Poles
Our balance beams provide the opportunity for children to develop secure balance and to engage in risky play. With uneven surfaces and challenging gradients children will develop stronger gross motor skills and core body strength. Our colour poles allow children to play and to learn in partnership with one another; they become familiar with the primary colours they see.
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Our Sports Pitch
We have a sports pitch to the right of our service which is a big hit especially with our Afterschoolers! They have the equiment and the facility to play team sports such as hurling, soccer, GAA and much more or the chance to develop and practice their own skills such as target practice. The space facilities a great opportunity for children to co-operate, take turns and work together as part of a team.
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Our Stickyfingers Custom Car
This is another fantastic opportunity for children to use their imaginations and to engage in role play outdoors.
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“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”
-Albert Einstein
Slides, Hills and Tunnels
It's simple- PLAY! Our slide and tunnel centre allows children to again develop and refine those fine motor skills while also engaging in good old fashioned play. They are climbing, crawling, bending, running, sliding, rolling, tumbling. The possibilities are endless.
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Always Improving
We are excited that our outdoor space is going to get more interesting and fun-filled this September. Stay tuned...
