Caterpillar Room 2025 - 2026

Our Caterpillar Room is thoughtfully designed for our 2-year-olds, offering a nurturing environment where children can grow in confidence and independence as they begin their learning journey at Highfields.

Inside the room, children explore a range of rich and stimulating areas, with opportunities to:

🌟 Build and Create

Investigate materials, construct, problem-solve and develop early mathematical and critical‑thinking skills.

🎨 Messy Play and Art

From sensory trays to painting and mark-making, children engage freely with textures, colour and materials - expressing themselves creatively and building early fine‑motor skills.

🧸 Imaginative Role Play

Our role‑play area supports storytelling, language development and social interaction as children take on roles, negotiate ideas and explore the world through pretend play.

When children need a moment of calm, they can relax and unwind in our dedicated sensory room, a peaceful retreat that supports emotional regulation and well‑being.

Focus Texts/Themes and Child-Led Interests

Each half term, we introduce focus texts and themes. These stories and themes provide a gentle structure and broaden vocabulary, while still allowing plenty of space for child-led interests to shape daily activities.

Whether it’s dinosaurs, cooking, weather, building, or anything else that captures their imagination, we respond to the children’s passions, ensuring learning feels meaningful and exciting.

This year, we've also introduced Scribble Club: a playful, child-friendly mark‑making community where children explore early writing skills through movement, colour, pattern and fun. It’s all about confidence, creativity and celebrating every mark.

Exploring the Natural World

Outdoor learning is a core part of our day. Children spend time exploring, imagining and investigating in our spacious outdoor area, taking part in physical play, gardening, water play and large‑scale construction.

We are especially proud of our enclosed forest area, where children experience nature first-hand - collecting treasures, spotting wildlife, climbing, balancing, and enjoying seasonal changes. Forest walks and woodland exploration help develop resilience, curiosity, and a love of the outdoors.