Developing children's imaginations - Cleddens Learning and Childcare Centre

About the nursery

Cleddens Learning and Childcare Centre in Bishopbriggs provides 170 part-time places for children aged 0-2, 2-3 and 3-5. It also has a parents' room and scope for visiting services to operate from the building.

The 2- to 3-year-old children at the centre were fascinated by the activities of fairies in the nursery garden. This inspired a range of imaginative activities and the introduction of Mary the Fairy who provided an excellent home-school link activity.

How the project started

The practitioner from the 2-3 room introduces the project:

'The idea for this book started after I had been to Claire Warden’s in-service on ‘the little folk’. I really liked the idea of having houses in the garden for the little folk to visit and I went back to the nursery with the intention of using the idea with the children in the 2-3 room. A few days later, one of the little girls in the room came into the nursery wearing a dress with fairies on it. A lot of the children commented on the fairies and seemed quite interested in them so I took this chance to introduce the idea.'