Video
Packaway Roomscapes
Little Crickets Nursery
When Sian Bath, owner and manager of Little Crickets, found out that she’d need to pack her nursery away every evening she knew Roomscapes would be perfect for her. With furniture that is easily moved and sturdy enough to withstand daily manoeuvring she is able to make the cricket club look like a beautiful early years setting, every day!
We used to have to get here very early in the morning at half fiveish is the time I used to arrive with Catherine. These days have got it down to a bit more of a fine art and we probably arrive about 6 - 6:30. Catherine and I generally tidy up if there's any furniture left which is not happening so much now the cricket club got a lot more helpful with their furniture. So we tidy that one area.
We pull most things out of the cupboard and then we start to roomscape the rooms back to how we want them as nursery. By then the rest of the team show and turn out to help us. So we have a little army going and we all work flat out. We usually put a bit of music constitutes an going, make it tea and coffee. The children start to arrive at eight.
So generally by eight we have roomscaped everything and then between eight to nine a lot of the activities that for that day are set up and then on the pack away day in the evening, if we need to pack away at 03:00, we start to put things away tidy up and we start loading up the cupboard. It's very strategic, Cathryn and I are very bossy in the cupboard. Most people try and keep clear of us. Sometimes it's not me that's here or it's not Catherine that's here, but the whole team know how it works and we all work really well together.
We're very lucky actually, and we do think it helps build the team around, despite it thing hard work.
So in the very beginning, the cricket club really didn't want a nursery on their site. And there are some of the committee very anti us being here because we thought we were going to leave it looking like a nursery while they are playing cricket. So one of the criteria and one of the remit of our lease is that we absolutely leave no trace of ourselves in the building when we pack away. So in the turn I said That's fine. But you need to give us a cupboard that's on floor level with no barriers, no steps, no ramps, nothing that will allow us to pack away everything easily because in my mind when I first saw the building.
I thought it does need Community Play stuff, mainly because I want to transform it to look like a nursery. So the cubbies and all those things that give us an entrance and somewhere that sort of develop space, the children to put their coats and access to outside and then personally Tracy and I wanted Community Play equipment because it is so mobile because you've got the wheels, but you can lock things in place. We think that say for the children is paramount.
And also having furniture that creates proper base for learning is vitally important to generating a proper feel to a nursery. I had our first nursery was originally a pack away because it was originally in a cricket club and I learned a lot from that. And we had a lot of very flimsy materials that didn't really work. And we'd have sort of barriers that were just a little stand that children would knock over and the bays would lose their purpose and dressing up stuff would just be held everywhere because it would be over a chair and this sort of thing.
And it felt very unprofessional and didn't feel like a nursery. So one of the things we were really keen on was developing the use of the Community Playthings. We did inherit a bit of Community Play because they had used it in the old nursery and like this as well. So one of the other things that we really like about the Community Play is often when you have a different cohort children, you have to think about the room layout because different children use things differently. So, for instance, we used to have block play in this main room, and we found that as the children are creating bigger and bigger structures, the other children might come along and break it up.
And that became a big issue so the team sort of all sat down, thought about it. And because Community Play is so versatile and interchangeable and you can use it all with each other, each component works with all the other components. We were able to move the whole block area down to one of the changing rooms and that's kind of where we're at with it. So we would never go back with it now or we'd like a bit more space so we can add a bit more stuff.
We pull most things out of the cupboard and then we start to roomscape the rooms back to how we want them as nursery. By then the rest of the team show and turn out to help us. So we have a little army going and we all work flat out. We usually put a bit of music constitutes an going, make it tea and coffee. The children start to arrive at eight.
So generally by eight we have roomscaped everything and then between eight to nine a lot of the activities that for that day are set up and then on the pack away day in the evening, if we need to pack away at 03:00, we start to put things away tidy up and we start loading up the cupboard. It's very strategic, Cathryn and I are very bossy in the cupboard. Most people try and keep clear of us. Sometimes it's not me that's here or it's not Catherine that's here, but the whole team know how it works and we all work really well together.
We're very lucky actually, and we do think it helps build the team around, despite it thing hard work.
So in the very beginning, the cricket club really didn't want a nursery on their site. And there are some of the committee very anti us being here because we thought we were going to leave it looking like a nursery while they are playing cricket. So one of the criteria and one of the remit of our lease is that we absolutely leave no trace of ourselves in the building when we pack away. So in the turn I said That's fine. But you need to give us a cupboard that's on floor level with no barriers, no steps, no ramps, nothing that will allow us to pack away everything easily because in my mind when I first saw the building.
I thought it does need Community Play stuff, mainly because I want to transform it to look like a nursery. So the cubbies and all those things that give us an entrance and somewhere that sort of develop space, the children to put their coats and access to outside and then personally Tracy and I wanted Community Play equipment because it is so mobile because you've got the wheels, but you can lock things in place. We think that say for the children is paramount.
And also having furniture that creates proper base for learning is vitally important to generating a proper feel to a nursery. I had our first nursery was originally a pack away because it was originally in a cricket club and I learned a lot from that. And we had a lot of very flimsy materials that didn't really work. And we'd have sort of barriers that were just a little stand that children would knock over and the bays would lose their purpose and dressing up stuff would just be held everywhere because it would be over a chair and this sort of thing.
And it felt very unprofessional and didn't feel like a nursery. So one of the things we were really keen on was developing the use of the Community Playthings. We did inherit a bit of Community Play because they had used it in the old nursery and like this as well. So one of the other things that we really like about the Community Play is often when you have a different cohort children, you have to think about the room layout because different children use things differently. So, for instance, we used to have block play in this main room, and we found that as the children are creating bigger and bigger structures, the other children might come along and break it up.
And that became a big issue so the team sort of all sat down, thought about it. And because Community Play is so versatile and interchangeable and you can use it all with each other, each component works with all the other components. We were able to move the whole block area down to one of the changing rooms and that's kind of where we're at with it. So we would never go back with it now or we'd like a bit more space so we can add a bit more stuff.
Topics
Room design, Block play
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