Finding out what children like at nursery

Top ten tips for consulting young children on what they like at nursery

1. Always try different ways of finding out what young children like to do and make this fun.
2. As the key person will have a greater knowledge of their key group, it is best practice to research other children.
3. Give children cameras to use to take photos of the nursery and ask them to take photos of what they like at nursery.
4. Ask the children why they took these photos, show the children what photos they took.
5. Ask the children to create a collage of the photos they took, talk to them while they are creating this.
6. Involve the children in printing out photos of different areas of your nursery, give the children some stickers and ask them to stick them on the photo showing their favourite place or equipment at nursery. Talk to the children about why they made their choices.
7. Talk to the child’s key person and parents to see if what the children are saying makes sense.
8. Take time to reflect on your information you have gathered.
9. Feedback to children about what you have found out.
10. Evaluate your findings and make changes to the environment if you need to.

Consulting with children on what they like doing can help develop their confidence and self esteem.It also demonstrates that the children’s interest are incorporated and followed at nursery which is highly important for Ofsted to see.