Sports Enrichment
Promoting Active learning
Here at Watermead Day Nursery we are passionate about engaging our children in a wide range of enrichment opportunities some of which are led by our sports coach. Activities include:
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Organised sports
By engaging our children in regular sporting activities, it improves their overall health and fitness and increases social skills and sense of achievement. We offer and encourage our children to take part in organised sports including football, cricket, athletics and tennis
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Obstacle Courses
We create exciting obstacle courses to enhance the children's development in balance, co-ordination, alertness, body awareness, strength and endurance. Our obstacle courses include the use of cones, hoops, balance beams, tunnels, and balls to build ultimate courses.
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Throwing
Throwing activities help to improve our children's hand eye coordination, motor skills and timing. We offer countless throwing games such as throwing balls through hoops, hitting targets using bean bags, throwing a javelin, or aiming an object at a larger target or set of cans.
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Skipping
Skipping is a fun activity our children enjoy which improves their cardio vascular fitness, co-ordination and agility.
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Parachute Games
Our parachute is a popular resource with groups of children. Parachute games help develop gross motor skills and inspire teamwork. We play various games using the parachute including crossing over and under, ocean waves and ball surfing.
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Walking
Walking is a regular part of our children's daily experiences. Walking not only increases physical development but also enhances our children's and staffs mental health whether its walking to the park, power walking across the fields or strolling through the woods.
Sport and Physical Education
Sports are great for children, whether team based or individual activities, which deliver a number of benefits, not just in the physical activity itself. Social skills can be developed through interaction with other children of their age and further enhanced through dealings with older individuals such as coaches and PE staff. Leadership skills, team building and communication skills can also be developed helping prepare the children as they approach school life. This has the added benefit of helping prepare them for careers and relationships in later life as well. A child’s self-esteem and confidence can be significantly improved through sporting participation as well as their self-confidence. They also learn to trust in their own abilities and push themselves.
Participation in sport can also help to motivate a child to excel academically. They can apply the same principles of dedication and hard work learned through sports participation to their studies. According to an article published on the website America, playing on a high school sports team increases a young woman’s chances of graduating from college by 41 percent.
Sports participation also promotes health and wellness not only through childhood but throughout a child’s lifetime.
Watermead Day Nursery is very proud of the sporting activities we provide to the children under our care. As a family we have always been active and enthusiastically encourage our own children to participate in extra-curricular sporting activities such as tennis, swimming and dancing. This desire to give our children every chance to be active and healthy has led to the employment of a dedicated physical education practitioner at the nursery. All the children in the nursery are given the opportunity to participate in physical activities, carefully supervised and prepared by the staff.
