Zebra Room
2 - 3 Year Olds
Our Zebra Room is a purpose built pre-school room, which offers morning and afternoon sessions for our 2-3 year olds. We are open for pre-school from 9:00 am until 12:00 Midday for our morning session and 12:00 Midday until 15:00 for our afternoon pre-school session, Monday to Friday during term time.
We operate a lunch club facility for afternoon pre-school children which begins at the start of our session at
12:00 Midday. Our lunch club facility runs for approximately 45 minutes during this session and our children bring a packed lunch from home. Our lunch club facility can also be added onto a morning pre-school session for
an additional charge, (see pricing structure) with collection of children from parents/carers at 1:00pm. Drinking water is available at all times throughout the sessions and is also provided at lunch club.
We operate on a ratio of 1:4 staff to children in our Zebra Room for our 2 year olds and 1:8 for our 3 year olds. We are able to accommodate up to 24 children in each Zebra Room session, with up to a maximum of 48 Early Years children on site at any one time in our Panda Room 1-2 years, Zebra Room 2-3 years and Giraffe Room 3-4 years combined.
All About Us
Our Zebra Room is led by Sarah Davis (Pre-School Deputy). We follow the Early Years Foundation Stage Framework and operate a Key Person System. Each child has a Key Person who will work in partnership with our parents to build positive relationships and provide a nurturing and enabling environment to ensure all children receive the best possible care and education whilst attending our setting. The Key Person will create a ‘Learning Journey’ for each of their children as a record of their time with us, regularly observing and planning next steps to support individual needs and interests of their key children and recording progress of their Learning and Development against the Early Years Foundation Stage to ensure the best possible outcomes for all of our children.
For our 2 year olds we primarily focus on the 3 prime areas of Learning and Development, which include Personal, Social and Emotional Development, Communication and Language and Physical Development. These 3 areas are broken down into: Making relationships, Self–confidence and self-awareness, Managing feelings and behaviour, Listening and attention, Understanding, Speaking, Moving and handling and Health and Self-care.
Each child’s progress is recorded and tracked each term, and a statutory assessment is provided in partnership with parents/carers and our Health Team, for each child who attends a minimum of two sessions per week and is settled between the age of 24 and 35 months.
Learning Through Play
In the Zebra Room we operate free flow play both indoors and outside in the Zebra garden area, providing a selection of good quality continuous provision for the children to access. This includes a ‘Snuggle Zone’ for quiet time, relaxation and sharing of stories or small group games, a mark making/writing table with a selection of mark making materials, e.g. pencils, coloured pencils, crayons, Chubbi marker pens, stencils, paper, rulers and magnetic writing boards, a large role-play area which is changed regularly to reflect interests of the children. Examples of our role play areas include: A Jungle, Bear Cave, Fire Station and People Who Help Us, Space Station, Polar Regions area with an igloo, Construction Site, Under the Sea etc which all have dressing up clothing and hats, a selection of books, small world play, a large role play vehicle with cogs and levers and visuals and props to support imaginary play.
We provide large and small construction activities like building blocks, Duplo, Mobilo, a selection of puzzle boards, a malleable area for play dough, cooking activities and floor activities with materials like rice, sand, water and ice. A selection painting resources or arts and crafts are also made available and children have access to self-select activity drawers.
Outdoor Fun
Our outside area is set up with sand and water play, a slide, a seesaw, fixed tyres and our new climbing crest for practicing gross motor, balancing and climbing skills, loose parts play with tyres and planks, a gardening area, outdoor reading and a chalk board area. Our children also have access to our Forest garden for free flow play when not being used for focused activities. During each session our children are provided with a nutritious snack and a choice of milk or water to drink. This is provided by a rolling snack bar which is run for 1 hour during the morning and afternoon session and is really beneficial for our children’s social and physical development. Our children are encouraged to practice good hygiene by washing hands before snack, involved in fruit preparation and are encouraged to help wash their plates and cups afterwards.
What Do We Get Up To?
During our morning and afternoon sessions once children are registered and head counts are complete, we operate free flow play so our children can access both indoor and outdoor activities of their choosing. A hand bell is rung for tidy up time towards the end of each session along with a now and next visual chart.
Children are encouraged to help tidy toys away and join a short circle time together to finish each session. Circle time in Zebra room is fun and interactive, with children joining in stories and rhymes using props, puppets, song bags, parachutes and musical instruments to support their understanding and learning. All sessions finish with our special ‘Pre-School’ song, which is signed as well as sung by our children and Early Years practitioners.
We are proud to deliver focused group sessions for our Zebra Room children which include our ‘ Lift Off to Language for 2’s’ sessions, our Forest School Programme and Teddy Tennis. We also have open Forest School sessions throughout the week too. (Please see Forest School, Lift Off to Language and Teddy Tennis for further details).
Snack Time
A typical morning or afternoon snack in Zebra and Giraffe Room:
A cracker with dairy free spread, sliced apple and a portion of banana. Milk or water is provided for a drink. Other variations include: bread sticks with dip and fruit, pitta bread, hummus and fruit etc.
What To Bring
We ask parents to provide a small rucksack or drawstring bag with nappies, wipes, nappy creams, comforters if needed and a change of clothes or underwear if toilet training and in case of wet play. In the warmer summer months, we encourage parents to send their children with a named sun hat and sun cream. We encourage parents to not send their children in open toe footwear or laces where possible. If your child attends lunch club, we ask that you provide a named lunch bag with a packed lunch for your child. Please note, to protect our children and staff with severe allergies, we are a NUT FREE setting and all of our children’s lunch bags are checked daily for nut products before entering the room for lunch club.
