I attended the morning meeting/briefing again, the week was discussed again as some members of staff were arriving late due to delays on public transport. Again, I noticed references from a couple members of staff regarding it being Friday. One walked in and seemed very openly excited about it being Friday in front of the deputy head and other members of staff. Between the time the briefing was over, prior to children beginning, I was shown the timetable for the day regarding where all staff would be; I saw my name on the timetable stating that I would be indoors with the children today as opposed to outdoors.

One of the key workers that I had not met during my first visit was showing me around the nursery which I thought was odd since I had already attended the last week and for a formal meeting with the deputy head. I was being told information I already knew, which in some sense was helpful, however I felt the key worker was perhaps tired and was not too keen to be taking on this responsibility. Consequently, I felt not needed for the first time during my visits however remained friendly and professional. She then went on to show me what the other key workers had planned for the day in terms of what they wanted to encourage children to do during their play. I learned they aimed to encourage play with puzzles, matching games, pretend play and play-dough.

Throughout the day, I frequently played with children in the puzzle/matching game area and play-dough area. The play-dough area definitely seemed to encourage pretend play as children used their imagination to make cakes, animals and much more. As I played with them, I felt a heavy sense of nostalgia as I played with play-dough during my early years at school. Although I had attended a nursery when I was a child, the nursery was part of a primary school therefore was perhaps more academic in that the room was set up like a classroom and spent less time playing. This was interesting as I could see the differences between my learning and the progressive learning of children at my placement.

After lunch, children were asked whether they wanted to go swimming or not as the nursery has a heated swimming pool in the building; the fact that staff asked the children for the children to make their own decisions jumped out to me as I had thought upon knowing the nursery has a swimming pool that all children would go swimming at the same time and have no say. Perhaps I was thinking this way as I have been in more academic settings throughout my life where we were not given much choice as what we were to do, rather most activities were adult led.

Themes: Structure of the day, Free-flow Play – children given a choice, Fridays.