Setting up the Environment

The first thing that we needed to get stuck into when preparing for play in Year One was the environment and so we began to do this after school in the lead up to the summer holidays . The Year One classrooms were looking dated and were set up for adult-led learning so we had lots to do with very little budget – this was going to be a challenge!

Our EYFS provision is really strong so we wanted to take elements of what works down there into Year One. Our Reception classrooms are set up with each room having its own focus.  The children have a base room where they go first thing in the morning and meet up with their teacher for a group time/short maths session but other than that all of the rooms belong to all of the children.  Instead of putting all areas of learning into each classroom we’ve divided the rooms into three;

·        The Studio - this has a wide range of media, paper of different colours, shapes and sizes, loose parts for transient art and junk modelling resources

·         The Imaginary Room – a large role play house makes up a third of the room, along with small world and construction toys in the rest of it

·        The Explorers Room – this has a ‘base’ collection of maths and writing resources (although maths and literacy opportunities are included throughout the provision), interest tables focusing on understanding of the world, a sewing table and playdough making station.

We’ve found that this set up has worked brilliantly and has allowed us to spread the cost and really develop areas that we may not have been able to afford to resource otherwise and so with our small budget it seems like a sensible idea to continue it into Year One (with NC objectives in mind of course!). We have decided to rename the rooms in Year One and have so far come up with The Workshop, The Discovery Room and something along the lines of ‘The Dreamery,’ although we haven’t quite decided on this name yet so suggestions on a postcard please! 😊

The Year One teachers and I met before summer to discuss what we wanted to include in the Year One provision. Some of it is similar to what you’d find in Year R, such as opportunities for construction and role play, and some we wanted to be specifically more in line with the National Curriculum whilst still offering chances for the children to lead their own learning and to explore at their own pace.  We decided on introducing an ‘Authors’ Area’ after Helicopter Storytelling was so successful in Year R.  We’ve kept hold of the children’s story folders that they made themselves to keep their stories in and have added them back into the provision so that they can access them themselves.  We’ve also created a science lab where we plan on introducing simple science experiments for the children to have a go at. The Year One teachers have worked tirelessly in all classrooms over the summer and have followed the same rule that we applied when setting up Year R: offer open-ended resources that the children can access independently. 

For now, there isn’t any more that we can do at this point as we need to see what works once the children are in and playing.   I strongly believe that spaces need to grow with the individual cohorts of children and so I fully expect there to be changes and additions over the next year as the children develop and make their mark on the space – it’s their environment after all!  What an exciting place it is to be at this point in the year - lots of possibilities and unanswered questions.  I for one can’t wait to see what happens!