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The Curiosity Approach: Where Imagination Meets Learning

The Curiosity Approach blends traditional wisdom with modern thinking to ignite a love for exploration and discovery.

The Curiosity Approach is a beloved and commonly used curriculum all across the UK, promoting curiosity, creativity, and holistic development in early years education. The Curiosity Approach aims to ignite each and every child’s natural curiosity and wonder in early childhood, setting the foundations for deeper learning later on in life.

Girl looking at plastic ladybird through a magnifying glass

What is the Curiosity Approach?

The Curiosity Approach philosophy is a modern day pedagogy that puts the curiosity, awe and wonder of the individual child at the heart of educational principles.

Each Curiosity Approach setting creates aesthetically pleasing play spaces that encourages children to be more active learners, allowing them to choose what they want to play with and learn about.

Founded by Stephanie Barrett and Lyndsey Heller, the Curiosity Approach was inspired by other early years educators, such as Reggio Emilia, Montessori, Pikler, and Steiner, with the purpose of creating students who are ‘thinkers and doers’ instead of passively learning from their nursery practitioners.

The child-led activities allows more room for progression, development and imagination grows with the freedom of choice with each and every child.

Two children reading books on a sofa with a colorful floral background and a doll beside them.

The Curiosity Approach Key Principles:

The Curiosity Approach ethos promotes curiosity, awe and wonder through a set of key principles that is designed to be easy to follow for all early years settings and nursery practitioners.

Curiosity

Curiosity is at the heart of the Curiosity Approach pedagogy – exactly as the name suggests! The belief is that curiosity provides the foundations for a more engaged learning process in early childhood.

Working simultaneously with child-led learning, it encourages children to think independently and explore their own interests to develop a curious mind.

This encourages them to become more critical thinkers later on in life and take charge of their own development.

Curiosity Approach nurseries create homely and engaging environments that inspires children to move around the room and try new activities through the freedom of choice to play and learn with what they are most interested in.

Curiosity creates the foundations for critical thinking, questioning, and exploring wider subject matters; skills that are important in all aspects of life.

Creativity

The Curiosity Approach is a completely play-based methodology using open-ended resources made out of natural materials.

Unlike playing with toys with a specific purpose, open-ended resources have no fixed identity which means that children can decide for themselves how they want to use that object in their play, opening up a new world where imaginations grow everyday!

Early childhood is a short and precious time in a person’s life, and play involving open-ended resources helps children be more creative, enthusiastic and engaged throughout their childhood and later on in life, making them lifelong learners.

Sustainability

The Curiosity Approach uses a lot of natural materials and recycled resources within its methodology, which is great for both early years stimulation and the planet.

Children learn from their surroundings, constantly reflecting and thriving within their environment throughout their childhood. Therefore, children are naturally learning the foundations of sustainability and recycling from an early age, a key skill that will be beneficial throughout life.

This encourages them to become more critical thinkers later on in life and take charge of their own development.

Curiosity Approach nurseries create homely and engaging environments that inspires children to move around the room and try new activities through the freedom of choice to play and learn with what they are most interested in.

Curiosity creates the foundations for critical thinking, questioning, and exploring wider subject matters; skills that are important in all aspects of life.

Authenticity

While the Curiosity Approach is a modern day pedagogy, it is rooted in tradition and authenticity.

This philosophy ditches plastic and introduces more natural, meaningful items with multiple purposes to spark the awe and wonder in early years children.

Using more natural and authentic items allows children to explore a wider variety of textures and ways to have fun with every day items, such as counting, combing or using them in role play.

Many open-ended resources can be used in collaborative play with peers, encouraging lifelong friendships.

How the Curiosity Approach Inspires Learning

The Curiosity Approach sparks awe and wonder in early childhood education in many ways:

Environments That Spark Curiosity

Settings which follow the Curiosity Approach pedagogy creates home-from-home environments using calming tones, natural light and engaging materials. This not only creates play spaces for children, but also helps children who are new to nursery life, settle into new surroundings.

Many Curiosity Approach settings will have open resources featured around the nursery room such as a curiosity shelf filled with vintage teapots, pinecones, and magnifying glasses. This provides children with an invitation to explore and use items in creative play as and when they please.

Open-Ended Play

The Curiosity Approach has no set play structure, just materials that spark children’s imaginations and invite children to experiment with new objects. This type of methodology includes a lot of loose parts play.

For early years children, they don’t just see wooden blocks, corks or fabric pieces, they see the building blocks of a castle, currency to exchange with other children or blankets for napping teddies – the possibilities are endless!

Open-end play is not only fun but builds the foundations for problem solving and thinking critically, skills children will use throughout life.

Real-Life Experiences

Activities such as cooking, gardening, or woodworking are based on real life activities that children will see their family do around the home.

It not only teaches valuable life skills they will use when they are older, but also opens up a wide variety of sensory exploration and curiosity.

For example, when children prepare a fruit salad for an afternoon snack, they tune into textures, smells, and flavours. They can also learn the importance of good nutrition and cleanliness.

This also instils a sense of pride and accomplishment over the food they’ve prepared, plants they’ve grown or items that they have made, fostering a lifelong love of learning.

The Curiosity Approach embodies preparing children for real-world activities through their natural curiosity about seeing things around them.

Reflective Practice

Encouraging children to reflect back on what they have learned and enjoyed from the day is a big part of the Curiosity Approach philosophy.

The nursery practitioners asking simple questions like:

‘What have you learned from your building activity today?’, ‘What did you enjoy about the activity?’, ‘What did you find hard?’, or ‘How would you make your building stronger next time?’, helps children develop a deeper understanding of their chosen activity.

This can also be used as a group activity, fostering and encouraging respect for others’ opinions.

Children engaging in a colorful water play activity on a wooden table.

Inside a Curiosity Approach Nursery

The Curiosity Approach methodology can be applied to nursery settings in many different ways. Therefore, it’s important to visit your chosen Curiosity Approach nursery to understand what the environment and activities are like before committing.

That being said, here’s what a typical day-to-day routine might look like at a Curiosity Approach nursery and preschool:

Natural Play Materials – In the morning, children explore the nursery room, enjoying free time to play with wooden blocks, shells, stones and other items of their own interest. The open-ended resources establish creative play, engaging children’s minds before exploring the other activities for the day.
Mindful Lunchtime – For lunch, children come together for lunch set up with real plates, cups, and utensils. Older children are encouraged to serve their own food and drinks to foster independence and practice fine motor skills. All children eat together to develop their social skills and connection with their peers, while eating mindfully and showing gratitude and appreciation around food.
Child-Led Exploration – In the afternoon, children choose their own projects to work on based on their interests, whether that be painting, crafting, experimenting, collaborative building or more! Nursery practitioners ask questions about their activities and offer gentle guidance and suggestions to help them further their knowledge around their interests.

Children playing with sand toys at a sand table indoors.

Why Choose the Curiosity Approach?

The Curiosity Approach brings a wide variety of benefits to early years education. Here’s a few we like to note:

Promotes critical thinking and problem-solving – Through open-ended resources and the freedom of choice, children are encouraged to ask questions, explore new possibilities, and think creatively. This provides the foundations to develop confidence to make their own decisions and solve challenges independently at a young age.
Cultivates a lifelong love for learning and discovery – The Curiosity Approach nurtures a natural curiosity in each and every child and develops an intrinsic motivation to explore and learn. This provides the foundations to support a lifelong love of learning.
Strengthens social and emotional skills through collaborative play – Through collaborative play, children learn to share ideas, negotiate, and build relationships, fostering emotional intelligence and a sense of belonging within their nursery.
Encourages sustainability and respect for the environment – Using natural materials and outdoor spaces teaches children to value and care for the planet. They develop eco-conscious habits and a deeper connection to the natural world.

Child in striped outfit next to a glowing bubble lamp in a purple-lit sensory room.

Ready to Awaken Curiosity?

Many of our nurseries and preschools at Grandir UK follow the Curiosity Approach, putting the children’s interests at the centre of everything they do!

Find a nursery near you that follows the Curiosity Approach and talk to us about how we use this methodology to deliver the best possible Early Years education for your child.