Working with our Atelierista Educators

Hello and a warm welcome to everyone! We are Childsplay’s Atelierista Educators and our role is to work with staff, children and families sharing in memorable, thought-provoking learning experiences. We work within all the units to develop long term projects and explore the children’s theories and ideas collaboratively. We are passionate about developing children’s creativity and curiosity working with art and within nature.

We are based within the atelier but also engage in weekly forest school sessions as well as work on our allotment throughout the growing season. We are passionate about outdoor play and the benefits it brings to children. We love nothing more than taking the children into the woodland where we can explore tool work, cook lunch on the fire or give a wave to the deer we share our site with. Our allotment provides many opportunities to grow, harvest and cook our produce on the open fire, go pond dipping or help to weed and water our fruit and vegetables. It is amazing to see a child plant a seed and watch it flourish over time. Our children’s most proud moment to date is the harvesting of our pumpkins which they had painstakingly cared for throughout the Summer and Autumn season.

If you would like any further information about our role, the atelier or would like to discuss any current projects please feel free to pop in and say hello.

Tara and Lisa

Our Childsplay family is an important part of nursery life and when we work together we are able to provide challenging and inspiring spaces where children’s imagination and creativity flourish. We wanted to showcase the children’s incredible abilities by delivering some workshop sessions to our families. These included clay, woodwork, recycled materials and nature sessions. Our clay sessions were very popular and we were amazed by not only the children but also our very artistic parents! Who would have guessed we would have some outstanding sculptures in our setting? It was clear to see the high levels of engagement from the families and as they worked together the true meaning of collaborative work was visible to all.

Our clay sessions were a very popular choice with our families and over the week we had ten families come to work in our atelier. The sessions were introduced to allow parents and children to work together and explore materials they may not usually interact with. As well as clay, there was a selection of additional materials provided, however initially most chose to work with just the clay and their hands. Some families began to roll balls or sausage shapes and then as the creativity and confidence flowed, we began to observe the construction of creatures, people and animals to name a few.

Clay is an important medium within the preschools of Reggio Emilia. It promotes exploration, creativity and self-expression. Children thrive when exploring clay due to the sensory experience of engaging with the malleable material, which can be used in so many ways. The session demonstrated the high levels of engagement we see when children are challenged, motivated and inspired.

Parents play a huge role in their children’s learning and as we observed, we could hear beautifully valuable vocabulary and communication between the children and their parents. Parents were able to demonstrate their skills and show children how to create shapes and stick them together. This collaborative working develops children’s language and communication, self-worth, self-esteem and confidence as well as strengthening relationships.

Within the setting and outdoor environment, the children engage in woodwork. Woodwork develops children’s fine motor skills, self-regulation and self-esteem. We observe the children making their own judgements as they learn to risk assess independently. As children are inducted into the safe use of tools, we observe the development of their risk taking skills. Children use the tools safely and this prepares them for using some of the larger tools and equipment such as the billhook or bow saws within the forest school environment.

The children are very creative and are able to use the materials on offer to create something truly amazing. As the parents and children worked together, compromises were made to encompass everyones ideas. The children allowed their creative ideas to flow and engaged in some trial and error as they attempted to build, further developing their problem solving skills and experimenting with new ideas.

Woodwork for young children may be an anxious thought for parents however the staff engage children in small group activities to introduce ‘real tools’ to them in a safe and controlled way. We introduce children to hammers by providing activities such as the one above, where children attempt to hammer golf tees into fruit. This activity allows children to use the tools in a safe manner giving instant, achievable results. We move on by introducing balsa wood and nails, providing more challenge before eventually moving onto hardwood for the older children. We find this learning process develops children’s skills and confidence as we progress at the correct level of challenge for each child, providing children with a real sense of achievement.

Recycling plays a huge part in our philosophy and we always attempt to reuse, repurpose or recycle materials wherever possible. A cardboard box can become a castle, car or house. A tube can become a sword, a telescope or a fishing rod. The only limit is your imagination!

We introduced a recycling challenge to our families to see what they could make using only recycled materials. Each family selected an envelope and they were tasked with building whatever was written inside. One family were given the job of building a car whilst another a plane. Could they do it? Of course they could!

Exploring the outdoors and learning about our environment has always been very important to us as a setting. As we move into the future our aim is to focus more on how we can care for the world around us by becoming more sustainable and environmentally friendly. We try to be considerate when selecting resources and now have a resources centre within our loft space which allows us to collect and store materials which can be repurposed and reused. Our aim is to use these materials within our workshops. Yoghurt pots can be used as excellent bug collecting kits and cardboard tubes can be turned into a fantastic pair of binoculars to spot the creatures living around us.

We aim to nurture children’s natural curiosity and foster a love of outdoors through our trips to forest school and working on our allotment. We recently held a nature session where our nursery families could come and explore the local park and engage in some nature based activities. We made our own bird feeders, searched for mini beasts and completed some spotter sheets.