Our garden area is a secure area where your children will be able to enjoy the natural outdoor environment and gain plenty of opportunities to enhance their development through fine and gross motor skills i.e. riding bicycles, hopping, skipping, climbing, jumping, throwing, catching and lots, lots more.
We have two areas – one for our younger children and the other for the older children. At The Learning Zone, we aim to bring the inside learning area outdoors for the children.
- Feature Items
We have several pieces of large children’s play equipment within our garden including two large wooden adventure towers with connecting bridge, incorporating a twirling slide, a variety of climbing options and several other play areas underneath. We also have a wooden pirate ship with a raising flag, steering wheel and a ‘walk-the-plank’ slide for everyday imaginative play.
Our babies area is a sensory area, with wooden play equipment and natural wooden toys and materials surrounded by plants, trees and flowers.
- Educational Tables & Outdoor Toys
We have an large wooden ogtagon shaped play table with benches which doubles up as a picnic table, and a smaller play table for messier stuff. We also have a large variety of unusual wooden toys in the garden which incorporate the elements and natural materials.
- Den Building
We have traditional den building kit in the form of a tentipi tent, which is erected by the children using bamboo for outdoor learning and imaginative play, even in the rain. We usually take this with us when we go to Victoria Park.
- Recycling Project
The children are encouraged throughout the year to collect recycling to use meaningfully in our garden. Our first project is to collect 2L plastic bottles and build a greenhouse which we will use to grow a variety of plants, fruit and veg from around the world.
- Growing Project
The children love tending to their very own veggie beds and fruit trees throughout the year. We have planted some small veggies and are cultivating fruit and vegetables which we will be donating to the local community every spring.
Our Willow Tunnel and Willow Wigman is great fun in full bloom, during spring and summer time!
- Bug Hotel
Our children love exploring our home-made ‘bug hotel’. Specially-made to encourage all sorts of insects and mini beasts to visit our garden, the children get a chance to observe nature and learn all about insects in their own back garden.
- Bird Garden
We have rope attached above our new eco garden for birds to perch so that the children will be able to get a closer look. The birds enjoy the hanging bird boxes and eating the bird food we have left for them.
- Smelly Reflections
We are currently growing all kinds of plants and flowers for children to tend, grow and donate to the local community – lavendar, broom, seasonal flowers etc. This year, the children have decorated stones and written down on them people and memories that are important to them. We also asked our garden volunteers to decorate stones and place them in the garden, so that they will always be a part of what they have created.
Click on the large image below to scroll through the pictures.
The Eco Garden and Play Project was funded by Awards For All, Scotland, and made possible by all the hard work of the parents association and local community volunteers.