Ways of consulting with the under 5s

1. Ways to consult with children on what they would like to play with 

Number of children:	All children
Suitable age:	7 months to 5 years (as young as possible)
Timescale:	No time limited as it can be free flowing
Environment:	Indoors / outdoors

How does it work? 

• The staff fully prepare the environment before the children arrive and match up the toys and activities with photo cards
• The photo cards of the toys and activities are placed into a play box
• When the children arrive at the nursery they have the choice to choose what they would like to play with
• This is done by the children choosing the photo of the toy or activity and placing it on the display boards
• The child then goes into the room or outdoors and plays with the toy or activity
• This is free flowing and on offer throughout the day
• The babies are also given choices of toys, if they point to certain items they can pass the toys to the children

What will you need?

• Toys labelled up in boxes and children’s height (for the older children)
• Selection of rattles and baby toys for the 7 months – 12 / 14 months

This is child led and allows the staff to interact more with the development and planning. Children are aware if they don’t want to take part that is fine, however, staff are on hand to encourage and praise in case they are just lacking in confidence. The older children are able to take pictures of the environment both indoors and out.

Activity supplied by Cardiff University Day Nursery

2. Ways to consult with children on purchasing new equipment / toys

Number of children:	All children
Suitable age:	18 months plus (as young as possible)
Timescale:	20-30 minutes
Environment:	Indoors / outdoors

How does it work?

• Children are shown pictures of new equipment such as :- table top toys - Lego and stickle bricks
• The children are given ‘sticky dots’
• The staff explain the activity to them that the Nursery is looking to buy new equipment for them
• The children would then stick the dots on which toy they prefer
• The toy with the most dots would be purchased and the staff would feedback to the children

What will you need?

• Photographs of the toys you which to purchase
• Sticky dots

The children like to choose what toys / equipment / resources as this gives them a sense of ownership. We have also use name cards or happy / sad faces instead of dots.

Activity supplied by NDNA Cymru

3. Ways to consult with children by using puppets

Number of children:	6 – 8 children
Suitable age:	2 years plus
Timescale:	20 minutes
Environment:	Indoors at circle time

Environment How does it work?

• During circle time introduce a puppet and place on a chair
• The staff introduce the puppet to the children
• They start by asking the puppet questions such as :- 
  o Do you like our nursery?  
  o Do you like our book corner?  
  o Do you like our display boards?
• The puppet responds by shaking its head
• The children can get involved and ask the puppet questions and at the same time the staff ask the same question back to the child
• This is recorded and again discussed with the child individually

What will you need?

• Puppet
• List of questions
• Paper and pen / post it / voice recorder / to record

To ensure that the children develop language skills this is an excellent activity. Where by some children may be more comfortable expressing their views in this way rather than in response to direct questioning. They are able to express their feelings in visual rather than verbal ways. We also did a role play with 2 puppets talking to each other, and included the children by asking them similar questions. Again, this is an excellent activity to develop speech.

Activity supplied by NDNA Cymru 

4. Ways to consult with children on food for the nursery via arts and craft activity

Number of children:	6 in a group
Suitable age:	18 months plus
Timescale:	Timescale 20 – 30 minutes
Environment:	Indoors at a table or on the floor

How does it work?

• Prepare a grid with days of weeks and meal times i.e. breakfast; lunch; tea; snacks
• The children look through magazines and pictures of different healthy meals and cut out what meals they like
• Then the children stick the pictures onto the grids of what meals they would like at different times of the days
• This is then passed to the cook / chef who will revisit the nursery menu

What will you need?

• Prepared grid for sticking pictures
• Scissors and glue
• Magazines and pictures and healthy meals and snacks

Activity supplied by Little Angels Nursery, Cardiff

Whilst developing language; maths and hand eye co ordinations skills it also promotes Healthy Eating at an early age. This is a way to cater for the needs of the child. We also hold taste session on the new meals and have also developed this further by introducing games such as matching pairs and counting.