Our Daisy Tumble at Daisykins Nursery in Rugby has been very popular with the children in Babies over the last few weeks. The practitioners have used this facility to help the children improve their physical development and personal, social emotional development skills. A few of the babies have now managed to climb up all three tiers of the soft play without the aid of an adult.
The children were encouraged by practitioners to take it in turns going up and down the slide and this turned into a little game. Once they had gone down the slide they waited at the bottom and then shouted “Ready, Steady, Go!” so the next one could go down. At this point the one waiting at the bottom would run back round and climb up the stairs as the next one waiting at the top would slide down. They repeated this for sometime, becoming very amused at each other.Some of the smaller children enjoyed playing in the ball pit with the different coloured balls, throwing them back and forth to a practitioner. The practitioner would then say the name of the colour of the ball and encourage them to repeat the word back. The children then put some of the balls on top of the ball blower which blew them up into the air, which they found fascinating. One of the older babies then became adventurous and decided to climb on top of the ball blower themselves, which then blew their hair and dress up in the air, causing them and their friends to giggle.The practitioners at Daisykins Nursery have used these activities to help develop and improve the children’s physical skills as they have learnt to climb, using their body strength to pull/push themselves up to the different tiers. They have also learnt to use their coordination and balance. Through these interactions the children have also developed their communication and language skills, and by playing alongside each other and independently exploring new environments it has linked into their personal, social, emotional development.
