Premises and Equipment - Lexham Garden Playhouse

We have designed our nursery with learning opportunities in mind. Resources are displayed in an attractive way which encourages discovery, imitation, improvisation and sharing with one another through imaginative play and role play.

We have kept the space open plan, so that children feel free to move between areas and make the most of their play experience.

We want our nursery to be each child’s “laboratory”, a caring and safe environment where they feel totally free to explore, use their imagination, try new things and learn through their play.

Main room

In our main room, you will find our:

Home corner
With a fully equipped wooden kitchen, dining table, laundry station, babies bedroom and wardrobe, Home Corner offers so much potential for fun and learning. The area provides a chance for the children to talk about past and present events, understand daily tasks and routines, realise how things work, learn about empathy, care and love by looking after the babies, to name just a few of the countless possibilities.

Shopping corner
Our market is full of colour and the imaginary scent of fruits, vegetables, bread and other things. Children play with tills, scales, baskets and enjoy taking turns, learning about quantities, seasonal food, money value, greetings, and politeness.

Construction corner
Children find themselves in an exciting world full of construction bricks, wooden blocks, a tool station, train tracks, roads and bridges and lots and lots of cars! During construction play, children practise and improve their motor skills, experiment balancing items, discover how things work, and let their imagination fly.

Toilet
Toilet facilities are child-sized, to continue promoting their independence and instil good hygiene habits.

Smart board
Children enjoy educational videos related to our weekly planning topics and learn about ICT by interacting with it, using the touch screen, practising how to write with the special markers or learning phonics with our fun programs.

Hercules
Our wonderful pet fish, stronger than any other fish in the world (which is how he earned this name), and able to courageously withstand constant shaking and banging to his home. Hercules has one remarkable skill: the ability to make any sad child happy, merely by appearing!

The children greet him every morning, feed him, sing to him… it is wonderful to see the love they have for our little Hercules!

Second room

In our second room we wanted to create a quieter area, providing a different environment, accessible to the children at any time. A space to enjoy every day while experimenting with messy play, painting, reading, sorting colourful pegs or searching the best object out of our treasure basket.

Here’s a little more about what’s on offer in our quiet room:

Maths corner
A space for the children to play and acquire some maths concepts in an easy, natural and fun way. Here, they can play with a clock, different sized elements, dices, puzzles, a matching numbers game, dominos, geometric shapes, bean bags, a big peg board to decorate with colourful pegs and create different dynamics, plus an attractive board with seasonal topics for them to identify some numbers, count or simply play a game of “what can you spot”.

Reading and Literacy Area
Besides our daily story time, the children can choose to go to our reading area throughout the day. We often find them sitting on the armchairs with their favourite books during free play. There, they can spot letters on our big wall alphabet, share stories or find a favourite soft toy to cuddle up with as a reading pal.

Sensory corner
A space for them to feel through their senses, finding different objects like shells, pinecones, grass, different sized pebbles, fabric, kaleidoscopes, sensory panels, a treasure basket, light boxes, funny mirrors, different trays, and a sandpit where we carry out different experiments with the most unexpected, sticky and fun materials!

Art corner
On these two tables, we see future Van Goghs, Picassos, Monets and Da Vincis working every day. We are so proud of their work, that we want to make sure they know, by hanging their masterpieces on our own Fine art gallery for everyone to look at. Our art resources are carefully displayed and easily accessible on a small sized art cart, encouraging the children to express their interests by choosing their favourite materials themselves.