Inspiring Awe and Wonder

by Lisa Hennessey, Nursery Manager – West Twyford

At Hungry Caterpillars, we aim to inspire awe and wonder through the curiosity approach and play, every single day.

By inspiring children’s curiosity, awe and wonder, we enable the children to thrive in the world around them and learn through the seven areas of learning and development.

7 Key Areas of Learning and Development

The 7 key areas of learning and development are:

  • Communication and Language
  • Physical
  • Personal, social, and emotional
  • Literacy,
  • Mathematics,
  • Understanding the world
  • Expressive arts and design

Our activities inspire the children’s awe and wonder

Awe and Wonder is something we experience every day at Hungry Caterpillars. We carefully plan our activities to give children a magical experience at nursery by inspiring their natural curiosity, awe and wonder at the world around them.

Examples of activities include – experimenting with ice after a snowfall, planting seeds and watching the plant grow (and learning how it does). To a child this creates a magical learning experience.

Each child is different

Children of all ages are very curious of what they see around them, we create experiences through play and the children are excited to learn this way, as it captures their full attention in a fun and engaging manner.

Children join our setting with different learning styles, and as every child is different, as practitioners we need to get to know the children individually.

We get to learn about the child’s likes and dislikes which then determines the best teaching method for that individual. As practitioners we get to go on that magical journey with the children through play this is how we support the children in their development and growth in this world around them.

Embracing diversity

In our nurseries, we have a range of diversities and cultures so it is particularly important to educate and teach the children about the different cultures. We explore and celebrate these through play by holding festival days and playing dress up. The children love this and teaches them not only to understand other cultures, but also to be proud of where you are from.

We are always aiming to implement further education on different cultures across our nurseries, as we should celebrate all races, diversities, and ethnic origins not just on a specific day but throughout the whole year.

Expressing feelings and emotions

During activities, we engage language through play. Children get to understand words and emotions and we get to connect their experiences and describe them by getting the children to identify when they are happy, excited, and sad. These are particularly important so the child can understand and embrace their emotions.

As the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted, it is vital that we can look after our own wellbeing. We need to provide our children with the knowledge and understanding of their feelings and emotions. Our activities at nursery aim to create a bond of trust between the child and our team. So allowing, all children to speak confidently and express their feelings and emotions.

As a team, we strive to be the best at what inspires our children. They are our future, and we want them to be the best they can be and achieve that to the highest standard. The best way for them to achieve this by experiencing a rich childhood full of fun learning opportunities driven by their own curiosity, awe and wonder at the world around them.

If you’d like to know more, please visit our homepage, click here.

We have 10 nurseries based acrossed Buckinghamshire and West London, to find your closest nursery, click here.