In my last blog we looked at the extensive learning and play opportunities that natural spaces offer, helping children connect with their environment and helping to develop a healthy physical and mental well-being. I would encourage all early years’ practitioners to consider any opportunity you can to allow your children to play in natural spaces. However, it is so important to build your confidence in doing this. The Forest School movement has seen a huge rise in risk-taking outdoor activities however the thought of 2 yr olds around a fire has terrified some practitioners. Don’t panic; your children can experience meaningful learning and play in a natural space without this. This takes training and time, and many practitioners can’t offer this due to lack of suitable sites and staffing levels.

 

The first step – getting all onboard

 

Explain your intent to staff and parents including why it is important for a child’s development and well-being. Ask parents to provide waterproof clothing or invest in some yourselves. Explain some of the activities you plan to do and that children will be encouraged to take balanced, measured risks which are important to their development.

 

In mentioning risks remember that being around any new outdoor hazard for our very youngest is just the same as teaching them to climb steps or use scissors. So you and their parents are managing their play around many hazards every single day – just indoor ones!

 

More importantly, children need to experience risk to be safe in any environment. We can no longer rely on busy parents to teach their children about all the hazards they may encounter. If we do not expose children to various risks in a controlled and measured way where will they learn the skills to recognise hazards for themselves?

 

In support of this there is a national drive to move away from pure risk assessments and write risk-benefit assessments instead – highlighting firstly what the benefits of doing an activity then considering any control measures needed. If the benefits outweigh the risks then we owe it to our children to get them out there. Tim Gill gives a great understanding of Risk-Benefit in ‘Balancing Risks and Benefits in Managing Outdoor Learning and Play’.

 

In addition, every day we set our children up to fail due to our differing ideas of what risk a hazard may cause. For example, I encourage tree climbing however you might be horrified at the thought and therefore tell them to get down – what confusion for the child. Even if we feel uncomfortable with what is going on, that should not necessarily determine our next move as it may stop a child reaching their full potential. You need to agree with your adults and children the expectation of behaviour, boundaries and risk-taking within any area you use. Then start to expand your provision –

 

Offer naturalised/loose parts play at your setting

 

Begin by altering the resources in your outdoor provision:

• offer large loose parts play for construction and open-ended role-play;
• large areas of sand/soil and items for a mud kitchen for digging and imaginative play;
• natural materials for picture making;
• enhance water features for greater problem solving.

 

Ensure anything you offer gives open-ended play opportunities – I am so disappointed by the number of water ‘walls’ I see with fixed positions. By fitting hooks to the back of the channels/gutters the children can alter the positions thus working collaboratively to problem solve and experience various scientific phenomenon like speed and gravity. A simple alteration offers much greater learning opportunities. Check out Learning through Landscapes for more information on loose parts play.

 

Whilst observing your children experimenting and collaborating whilst using these larger and messier resources try to ban the words ‘no’ and ‘stop’ from your vocabulary, redirecting unwanted behaviour and allowing a more child-centred approach to their learning.

 

Next step – Getting off-site

 

When you first visit a new site give red ribbons/wool to staff and children to place on hazards they consider a risk to them (or get children to show their teddy). Then consider these three points –

 

• Is it something that you point out to avoid but leave in the area ensuring they learn for the future e.g. harmful plants?
• Is it something that needs a control measure to keep them safe e.g deciding where they can go?
• Is it something that could cause significant harm and needs to be removed or you need to work elsewhere?

 

Next walk/run around the boundary of the area you will be working in with your children then play a game to get them to run to the boundary and back but if you shout freeze they need to stop and look at you. Play other games in the area building your confidence that they know where to stay.

 

Then when you are confident allow them to explore and play by themselves, occasionally starting an activity they might like to join in with e.g. mark making in the mud, collecting leaves, making a natural picture, but remember to let them lead and choose to do their own thing if they prefer. I am sure once you see the benefit to your children’s development you will be hooked. And just remember that most accidents in the UK happen in the home not in a natural space!

 

 

About the Author

Kim Hudson is a qualified teacher and has worked in mainstream or environmental education for over 19 years. Trading for the last 10 years as Inspiring Outdoors she seeks any opportunity to encourage schools, early years settings and families to create lasting impressions for children of all ages. This includes a consultancy on embedding learning beyond the classroom, school grounds development, teacher training for Royal Horticultural Society and Learning through Landscapes, and a LOtC Mark and Quality Badge assessor for Council for Learning Outside the Classroom. She also co-founded Lincolnshire Forest School and Woodland Network, runs a woodland holiday playscheme and is now developing the Inspiring Outdoors Explorer Packs. The first of which is the Woodland Explorer pack available at www.inspiringoutdoors.co.uk.

 

 

The importance of child-led play in a natural space

By Kim Hudson

 

Compare a stick and a car and with a good imagination you will soon realise the amazing number of play and learning opportunities a stick can offer!

 

In an early year’s setting play and imagination can be limited by the resources provided. This can lead to a misconception of a child’s interest because the things they are truly interested in are not available to them. Place them in an outdoor natural environment and suddenly the possibilities are endless – a fallen tree becomes a train, a table for a giant’s banquet; a hole in a tree becomes a way to spot pirates stealing treasure or a target to throw stones through; cones and conkers soon come alive with googly eyes or a marker pen and join the adventures of their stickperson.

 

By allowing open-ended play in a natural space we support the development of not only the child’s imagination and creativity but also their physical and mental well-being. With childhood obesity on the rise, parents having greater demands on their time and an increasing technological lifestyle, early years settings play an essential role in ensuring that children connect with their environment and develop a healthy well-being. Exploring a natural environment, balancing on logs, dancing with rhythm sticks helps to combat obesity without children realising they are exercising, and gives real-world learning opportunities to problem solve, work collaboratively and understand the world around them. Sitting quietly listening to sounds or hunting for wildlife connects them to nature and their environment, and promotes positive mental well-being.

 

For 20 years I have worked outdoors with children of all ages, but it is the early informative years that fascinate me the most. Many of my friends have under 5 year olds and when walking with them outdoors they are astounded at how I ‘entertain’ their children – helping them create a stickperson, finding objects for instruments, sending them on scavenger hunts to encourage them to walk further. Despite being outdoorsy people themselves, many comment that they lack the confidence to let their children play independently yet don’t know what to do with them. This is the reason I wrote the Woodland Explorer pack. A little cotton bag with 30 weather resistant cards inside offering 27 activities to inspire play in a woodland setting. Some activities you will have heard of before like ‘Making a Stickperson’ but there are so many ways to develop these ideas further with a little more imagination.

 

It was amazing as I wrote the cards to consider all the learning potentials of each activity. Take for example the humble hole in the tree mentioned above. Simply looking for holes develops observational skills and communication. Using the hole to frame an area focuses their view helping them see the smaller things in the natural world which we often fail to appreciate. By describing what they see – colours, textures, plants develops language. Describing and creating an imaginary world the other side of the hole allows them to express their ideas and realise their imagination can be put into practice. Using the hole as a target to throw stones through develops their hand/eye co-ordination and collaboration if creating a game for others. The possibilities with learning and play in natural environments are endless and only limited by their imagination.

 

The important part for us adults to do, and which so many of us struggle with, is to let the child lead. Start the activity yourself but if they don’t follow don’t worry and if they take the activity in a totally different direction that is ok also. For instance, I was making fairy doors with a few children. Having seen the rectangular pieces of wood we had cleaved a child exclaimed, ‘Oh, credit cards, can I have one?’ I was mortified but by the afternoon they all had credit cards and had set up several shops around the woods selling building materials or refreshments. This is proof that great collaboration and communication can develop from one child’s imagination, and the importance of child-led learning.

 

About the Author

Kim Hudson is a qualified teacher and has worked in mainstream or environmental education for over 20 years. Trading for the last 10 years as Inspiring Outdoors she seeks any opportunity to encourage schools, early years settings and families to create lasting impressions for children of all ages. This includes a consultancy on embedding learning beyond the classroom, school grounds development, teacher training for Royal Horticultural Society and Learning through Landscapes, and a LOtC Mark and Quality Badge assessor for Council for Learning Outside the Classroom. She also co-founded Lincolnshire Forest School and Woodland Network, runs a woodland holiday playscheme and is now developing the Inspiring Outdoors Explorer Packs. The first of which is the Woodland Explorer pack available at www.inspiringoutdoors.co.uk.