EYFS Activities: An A to Z of enhancements - D is for Display

In our nursery we always have a home corner which contains a range of continuous provision. This area is often enhanced to inspire children to take their play in new directions, to learn new vocabulary or to apply new skills. One of the enhancements includes a window display with a view that is often changed. It was painted to look like a woodland scene when ‘Goldilocks and the Three Bears’ enhancements were added. Another time, when the children were enjoying the story Aliens Love Underpants, washing and sorting clothes enhancements were added to the house, and through the window children could see pants on a washing line from the illustrations in the book, with all different colours and patterns on them. This prompted the children to talk about the story, to describe the colours and patterns, and choose their favourites.

When the children returned from the summer holidays this year, they discovered that the window had a view of the seaside with sailing boats on the sea, which is a view sometimes seen in their hometown of Gorleston-on-Sea. On the windowsill were some photographs of Gorleston seafront which were put there to add familiarity, prompt discussion and develop awareness of their local area. When the children noticed the photos, they made comments such as ‘look, it's the pirate ship play park! I like going there!’ and ‘I like the splash park. My mummy and daddy got splashed by the bucket and it was so funny!’.

OWNING IT

Sometimes the children help to change the scene in the window. Contributing to displays gives children a sense of ownership over their environment. We decided to add ‘night-time’ enhancements to the home corner with gym mats, cushions and covers for beds, lots of bedtime stories of course, and the view of a night sky through the window. The children had been enjoying the bookHow to Catch a Star by Oliver Jeffers, and when asked what they wanted in their night sky, some said space rockets like in the story, and others said fireworks. They then helped to add their ideas to the window display board using paint and chalk. The night-time enhancements led to some lovely vocabulary use about what they saw in the sky and they decided to read bedtime stories to the baby dolls in the home corner. It encouraged them to apply their early reading and storytelling skills with the purpose of reading to the babies.

ENHANCING THE ENHANCEMENT

One day the children were told there was a new display for them that has all the colour names on. The display had some real objects stuck onto it and the children were told that their job that week was to look out for objects and add them to the display near the colour names. The children enjoyed this, and it contributed to children firmly knowing their colour names.

PROUD WALL

We added a ‘proud wall’ gallery near our arts and crafts station to encourage the children to feel pride in their creations and to know that the things that they do are valued. This enhancement ended up staying in the classroom as it was very popular. We glued pegs onto a board that was at the children's level to reach. The children are very proud of their pictures and love to put them on the pegs. The adults add photographs of other things to be proud of too, for example, buildings they make in the construction area and PSED-related achievements such as helping a friend. The adults promoted the wall to begin with and used language such as ‘that is amazing and I saw you kept on trying and didn't give up, would you like to put it on the “proud wall”?’. The children soon picked this up and would independently put their work on the pegs, or they will sometimes ask the adults to take a photo of their creations.

To ensure children are developing independence in using ICT equipment, we moved on to letting them use the iPad themselves to take photos of the things that they create.

Amy Jackson is EYFS specialist leader of education and teacher at Ormiston Herman Academy, Gorleston