garden design – Hecklegirth Nursery

What do you think of our wall?

Now that the children’s ideas have been so fantastically transformed by Rory’s Mum and Dad into a piece of art on our garden wall, we asked them what they thought of it. We hope that you all enjoy their comments. The story of this design from beginning to end is in a book in the story corner for everyone to look at.

Layton: I like the Earth. It’s where we live and it’s got a bit of jig-saw attached.

Grace: I like the princess – she’s going to her castle.

Rohan: I like all of it. That lady’s called a mermaid ‘cause she comes out of the water and looks for a dinosaur and goes back underwater to hide.

Theo: I like the Loch Ness monster.

Neve: I like the princess’ dress.

Hannah A.: I like the planet. I think everyone dances on it.

Lee: I like the puzzle ‘cause it’s got a spider’s web.

Liam: the green lizard’s good.

Emily D.: the rocket flying past the moon.

Haydn: I like the Loch Ness monster that’s in the water.

Finlay: I like the butterfly and Stan the Star and the planet – I think it’s Mars.

Caleb: I like the spider in the web. It’s stuck.

Courtney: I like the princess. I like her dress best.

Lexie: the sunflowers are the best bit.

Our New Garden Wall

After lots of hard work by Rory’s Mum and Dad, our garden wall has now completed its transformation from a faded painting to a magical and exciting creation which stemmed from the children’s thoughts and ideas. We are delighted to have an original piece of art in our garden to provoke lots of questions and discussions: the children seem to notice things that we, as adults, might not have seen and it’s fantastic to be able to share it together.

We are extremely grateful to Rory’s parents for all their input, both in working with the children on their design ideas and in the hours that they have spent transforming their ideas into reality. We will post some of the children’s comments on our blog soon but there’s little doubt that they all love it. We would love to hear what you think of our new wall.

Click on the photos to see them more clearly.

new wall whole — What do think of our new wall?

Is that a monster in our garden?

Our garden wall is changing almost daily at the moment as Rory’s Mum and Dad continue to transform the children’s ideas into an exciting design that produces lots of questions and discussions.

Jana and Paul have enjoyed the “quality control team” who have often taken time out of their play to sit, watch and comment as they work. Judging by the discussions, we think that everyone is delighted with what is emerging before their eyes and, as well as looking fantastic, this artwork is providing the interesting discussion we had hoped for. We feel very lucky to have such talented parents and are looking forward to enjoying the finished work.

The Garden Wall is Changing

It was great to be back in Nursery today and everyone seemed happy to see their friends. We had a big surprise when we went in to the garden and saw that Rory’s Mum and Dad had been very busy in the holidays with our wall design.

There were some interesting discussions about what we could see. Was it a beach and the sea? Was that the Scotland flag, a lighthouse or a windmill? Did we have a green moon and was that a jigsaw being drawn on the sand? As you can see, it certainly produced great excitement. We will watch and wait to see what happens next!

The Design Team Working Together

Last week Rory’s Mum came back to Nursery to see what ideas we had gathered for our garden wall design. We all had a lovely time working together making our design boards of ideas. There were magazines available to select more pictures to stick on our boards and the room was full of talk about all the different things we could see in the pictures. Jana found some ideas that she particularly liked and she took photos of them to help her with her design sketches. We made sure that she took a photo of Ruby Rabbit and Stan the Star as everyone is very keen to have our favourite Nursery friends on our garden wall. We are all looking forward to the next stage of our project when we will see Jana’s design suggestions.

Here you can see us hard at work with Rory’s Mum, cutting and sticking our pictures to the boards.

A Giraffe, a Dragon and a Pink, Glittery Ball

Over the past week or two the children have been bringing in their ideas for the garden wall design. What a fantastic range of suggestions and ways of sharing their ideas we have had! Some children brought an object that they like, such as a giraffe, a dragon and a pink, glittery ball, others have painted a picture or made a model. Some have cut pictures from magazines and others have made large displays of all the things that they like.

We feel sure that Jana will be delighted with all the imaginative and interesting ideas the children have produced. Tomorrow she will be back in Nursery so we will be able to make a scrapbook of our ideas. Please remember to bring any pictures with you tomorrow if you want them included in our plans.

Garden Designers

As well as learning about Chinese New Year, this week we have begun an exciting project to design a mural for our garden wall as the current one is looking a little faded. As a local artist, Rory’s Mum has very kindly agreed to help the children plan a design reflecting their ideas. After an initial discussion with the children this week, she and Rory’s Dad will work with staff and the children to make a scrapbook of their ideas. She will then create a design for the garden wall based on the children’s ideas.

garden plan tools — Jana uses lots of different tools to paint.

It was so exciting for the children to meet a real artist and talk about where her ideas come from and what tools she uses to paint.

We loved all the pictures that she collects to help her – a row of pandas, a flowery dress, a child playing in the sea, a laughing dog, one huge eye and a road full of bikes. We hope that the children will be able to bring in pictures of things they like, to contribute to our scrapbook. It might be drawings, cuttings from newspapers or magazines, photos, pieces of ribbon or material, even a photos of a pattern on their Mum’s skirt – simply anything that they like.

This is a very exciting project for us and we are delighted that Jana is willing to help us with it. We greatly appreciate the time and effort that she will be putting in to help us with this plan and look forward to lots of ideas from our children and their families. This design will be in the Nursery garden for a long time so it is important that everyone has a say in how it looks.