Guest Posted January 2, 2010 Posted January 2, 2010 We are hopefully having our early years area area rebuilt (for 3 to 5 year olds) and I need some inspiration! Hope you can help - any ideas or comments would be gratefully received! What do you love about your building/provision? What areas so you think work well near each other? What would you do if you could redesign you setting? Any other ideas!! Thanks for your help.
AnonyMouse_2732 Posted January 2, 2010 Posted January 2, 2010 Nice question - deserves some really good answers - can I take a bit of time for thought? Sue
Guest Posted January 2, 2010 Posted January 2, 2010 Nice question - deserves some really good answers - can I take a bit of time for thought? Sue Please do!
Guest Posted January 3, 2010 Posted January 3, 2010 Hi, we are pack away in a village hall. My favourite bits of our setting are to do with the very light room that we work in. The ceilings are high, which gives us a real sense of space. We have a raised stage area which is useful. The kitchen and cloakrooms are close to the main hall which is useful. The downside is that the door in and out is also where we free flow, so the children have to go down quite a long hall to get outdoors, and I think this creates a bit of a mental block for both them and staff about free flowing. Also storage is limited which is a real pain. Hope that helps. If I were you I would look at how you can create storage options which are also useful, e.g. shoe racks under seats, cupboards with shelves at a height that children can access. Think about display options as well at the design stage.
Guest Posted January 3, 2010 Posted January 3, 2010 Thanks SuzieC8, that's really interesting. We too have a narrow passageway which means that one of our larger spaces is only really used by children who have that area as their homebase, so opening that up is a key priority for us. Thanks for all of the ideas and your thoughts about storage are really helpful.
Guest Posted January 6, 2010 Posted January 6, 2010 Hi, I had another thought on this, which is to include some of those partition things where you can create 2 rooms out of one. They fix on the wall and can then be pulled out to temporarily chop a space in half. This would let you create a separate quieter space for when you need one. Also think about things like sink heights, toilet sizes, etc. being in reach for children.
Guest Posted January 6, 2010 Posted January 6, 2010 Thanks for helping me Suzie. Spent lots of time today putting together all of my ideas into document for my head teacher. I was very glad of the snow!
AnonyMouse_3735 Posted January 7, 2010 Posted January 7, 2010 thought I had added to this earlier.. seems I didn't.. A sink for handwashing in the playroom was always on my wish list... save continually going out to wash hands etc.. and natrual light wherever possible, good ventilation... Inge
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