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Sand and water


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Do you have sand and water inside and out?

We moved both of ours outside last year but it's been suggested we need it inside as well at all times, in both nursery and reception, so would love to know what everyone else does? I can't see that it's a requirement of the EYFS and we freeflow in nursery so it's available during those times.

 

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a gravel pit outside

I also like the sound of this and will definitely get all the soil out of one of our tyres and fill with large stones/gravel :)

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we have 4 tractor tyres, one with large pebbles, one with gravel, one with bark chippings and one with soil and grass. They are quite close together so the children can jump or scrabble from one to the other experiencing the different textures

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We don't have sand in, I have know where to keep a sand tray. we have a huge huge huge play sand area outside, we free flow it does mean children who choose not to go out do not get the access to it, so if I could I would , we are a packaway in church hall with a beautiful wooden floor, we have managed water tray inside , (we also have water out )have not managed to find suitable floor covering for the water, we are stuck with a piece of Lino, not great but hey ho it is what is .

I think if you have a stimulating, enabling inside environment, do you need sand and water in when it is difficult to do so!

 

We did not have either when ofsted came a knocking a few yrs back but no comment was made.

Edited by Suer
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I have different things in the builders tray, but it's not there all the time, not at the moment in fact. We were told in the past by our EYAT that we should offer both indoors all the time and we did for a while, but it didn't suit us, children were at it like it was going out of fashion for a week or two then totally ignored it and it got in the way for months. So we find that putting it away and getting it out for specific things is much better, then they really enjoy it for a few days and it can go away again. It's a permanent feature outside though.

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Do you have sand and water inside and out?

We moved both of ours outside last year but it's been suggested we need it inside as well at all times, in both nursery and reception, so would love to know what everyone else does? I can't see that it's a requirement of the EYFS and we freeflow in nursery so it's available during those times.

 

It isn't a requirement. It is suggested as good practise in ECCERS if i remember rightly. (who suggested you must have it???) but IMO we should be offering open ended resources both indoors and out which might include sand and water but not exclusively always be sand and water! but this is only my opinion and i'm not your advisor! I like suer have an issue with floor so if i have sand inside it is very limited (maybe green sand with lizards or moon sand with astronauts etc!)

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As Finleysmaid said it is one of those things that has come from ECERS. where a higher score is awarded for having both sand and water inside and out. Often these statements from ECERS get taken slightly out of context and then become 'assumed good practice'.

I think its much more important to look at what you provide to do with the sand and water, how you change it up to maintain interest, how you encourage different uses for it , and how you consider your role as the adult in it!

There's my twopenneth anyway

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The only thing I can add to this is that it was suggested at an Early Excellence course that I attended that if there was water and sand inside that the sand should be damp (or at least for some of the time!) as water and dry sand have similar properties in terms on pouring etc. I like to do a bit of both so that children can decide on the need for damp sand and then we allow it to dry again to allow for further discussion as to why we can't make good sand castles today or build the same mountain etc.

Also, we make sure that when we do have sand and water inside and outside - that the outside experiences are different. We have recently decided to not keep our larger outdoor water tray as a water tray as during winter we do not fill it and in summer it takes such a long time to fill for the children to empty it in 10 minutes while exploring water movement! We are going to fill it with different outdoors materials e.g. bark/soil/gravel to provide different surfaces and materials for exploration alongside small world etc. We are going to use smaller buckets and shallow trays for water movement outdoors which are easier to provide quickly and will hopefully extend play in different ways.

Green Hippo x

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