EYFS Activities - Outdoor resource box…traffic

THEME

Our traffic outdoor resource box was first developed to stimulate the curiosity of a small group of boys who demonstrated a genuine interest in bicycles and outdoor wheeled resources. However, it was also introduced to add another dimension of play for those children that tended to spend extended periods of time on the bicycles and wheeled resources.

CHOICE

To extend and enrich their play, we provided the children with a varied assortment of traffic resources – some bought, but the majority developed in-house by both the staff and children themselves. Through the resources, we aimed to enable the children to learn about road safety as well as the various job roles of people that help us.

We developed a broad range of road signs with the children to enrich their knowledge and understanding of how numbers and symbols can carry meaning within a context. Providing a range of books supported children’s knowledge and understanding further, as key members of staff were able to help the children make links between the factual information in the book and what they could explore through their play.

OBSERVATIONS

When the resource box was first introduced, it was fascinating to observe how different children took on different roles.

Some were interested in designing, creating and then holding the road signs to ensure that the children on the bicycles and wheeled resources stopped, slowed down, speeded up or moved into a contraflow as required.

Other children were more interested in undertaking such roles as a pedestrian crossing a road, a school-crossing patrol officer and a police officer – who issued speeding tickets to children that they considered were exceeding the speed limit set by the signs!

INDOORS

Through lots of opportunities for careful and considerate scaffolding of play during continuous provision and key-worker times, the children were able to extend their knowledge and understanding of traffic, our roads and our wider world.

Using new technologies, the children were able to find out about a wide range of vehicles on our roads, and the need for all drivers to have a driving licence.

As well as creating their own road signs and registration plates, the children derived great satisfaction from planning, designing and building their own outdoor wheeled resource, using recycled, manufactured and ‘loose’ parts.

The key workers supported and enriched the children’s learning by sharing fictional and non-fictional texts with them.

AVAILABILITY

The resource box was first explored during key-worker times so that the children could develop a shared understanding of what the resources were and how they could be used. The children discussed some of the expectations that may apply when playing with these resources, such as taking turns and listening to one another.

The box is now stored in one of our outdoor containers but is accessed frequently when bicycles and wheeled resources are available.

LEARNING

Throughout their play and learning, the children have undoubtedly developed their knowledge and understanding of road safety and have demonstrated real motivation to engage. They have been stretched to think critically about the importance of signage and have demonstrated a real interest in making their own marks for use as road signs.

They have deepened their knowledge and understanding of ‘how things move’ by engaging in purposeful research and by building their own wheeled resource for outdoors.

The children have challenged themselves physically when on the bicycles and wheeled resources and have shown a keen interest in taking on the roles of people that help us, such as the police and school-crossing patrol, subsequently making the links between their play and ‘real life’.

ON THE LIST

• Road signs and posts

• School crossing patrol resources

• Cones

• Range of fictional and non-fiction texts

• Paper, pencils, clipboards, notebooks and other mark-making equipment

• Police role-play resources

MORE INFORMATION

• Everton Nursery School and Family Centre, www.evertonnurseryschoolandfamilycentre.org and @EvertonNursery on Twitter

Lyndsey Gardner is a senior early childhood educator and room leader at Everton Nursery School and Family Centre in Liverpool.