What are our most popular outdoor resources?

[Mouse]

I've had a blitz of the garden and have now got a blank canvas to work with!

Bikes, scooters and footballs are saved for another area of the garden, so this area is just for playing (if you know what I mean).

I've got a small playhouse, sand & water tables, a play cooker and a couple of tables. Those are the things that are out all the time. I've also got tents, easels etc that I set up as & when needed.

I've bought one of those small plastic greenhouses and I want to put baskets/boxes of resources in it that the children can help themselves to. So far I've got:

soft balls
play food
play tools
ribbon twirling sticks
small bean bags
chalks

I'm looking for inspiration for other bits, hopefully some natural resources. Have you got anything the children particularly enjoy?

[loocyloo]

I've also got baskets of conkers, Fir cones, sticks (!), pebbles&shells and dried flowers/herbs. I have some herbs growing in pots as well.

I've also got some 'small world scenes' .... large trays planted with moss, small plants, gravel, big stones, shells etc ... currently the fairies and dinosaurs live there, along with some construction vehicles !

[Maza]

All mine gravitate towards the cooking stuff. It's just a wooden cooker that I got from a charity shop, real pans (real pans make such a difference) that I got from jumble sales, a variety of real spoons and ladles (wooden or metal) - again all charity shop, big bowls, pestle and morter, a variety of real jugs and trays, Yorkshire pudding/cupcake trays, colanders.... It's a real eclectic mix of stuff and I love it. They cook with the usual - pine cones, conkers, stones, herbs etc. They can use water too within reason, and sand from the sand tray and sometimes I make playdough or give them pots of glitter/sequins.

All of DDs friends absolutely love it too (6/7 yr olds) as none of them have anything like it at home - don't get me wrong, they have trampolines, beautiful tree houses and climbing equipment and a couple of them have swimming pools, but I think their parents would baulk at the jumble sale set up in my garden! I get so many great observations there, especially SST/COEL etc.

They also love our guttering and stands for water play. DD loves her crazy catch. x

[BallyH]

Other than what has already been mentioned I have one of those builders 'cement' trays and I find it is played with most days. On Thursday they made beds in it. Plus my guttering is very popular, especially the piece that isn't rounded as they can turn it over and practise their balancing skills as they walk along it. Plus they love any big cardboard boxes that I can get my hands on.

[blue bear]

Water, either in bottles, water butt, water tray etc but every day they play with water right through winter.

[FloraDora]

Like Loocyloo - natural planted small world scenes, we have a dedicated fairyland and a dinosaurland. A liitle house and wooden furniture flowers and moss, a stream, shiny pebbles in fairyland. A tree ( for diplodocus) spike you plants and mud bath area, we have a volcano that sits next to it too sometimes.
A digging area is a favourite - with diggers sometimes, trowels and containers to collect worms and buckets.

DH made an outdoor kitchen and it is the most played with. Like Maza we have real pots and pans and buntrays. They use it with the sand, soil, shingle,herbs are chopped, natural loose items......endless interaction, communication, finer motor, maths, imagination.....sometimes I set it up as a specific ...perfumery....washing clothes......preparing for a party etc..

Guttering on home made trellis and balls, cars, stones to run down ....but best of all water and things to make flow down.

I have a potting bench and everytime we go out the children plant something, depending on the season....to grow indoors or in greenhouse or just to live on their garden area.

Watering cans and caring for the plants takes up a lot of time, with tools and a wheelbarrow. As does feeding the birds, the containers are just inside the summerhouse and the children check and fill as a first job to do when we go outside.

Den building. We have a home made bird watching hide with binoculars that the children often use as a den too.

Small logs in a circle with a basket of books/ clipboards and markmaking plus in the nicer weather cushions for quiet moments. Books are usually linked to minibeasts, planting, weather birds etc...
I don't have climbing equipment but we put out logs and planks for walkways and areas to jump off.

Under the outdoor kitchen we store equipment for various water play - big brushes to paint with in water on the slabs, floating and sinking, fishing, pouring, pipettes and tubes....tea set.etc...bottles for water walls.

I don't take indoor toys out apart from smallworld, the children enjoy doing outdoor related activities.
Occasionally we make a little fire and cook bread sticks.

How wonderful to have a blank canvas. I think the outdoors is the best place to be....and it hardly costs anything to set up with lots of recycled stuff.

[BallyH]

Like Loocyloo - natural planted small world scenes, we have a dedicated fairyland and a dinosaurland. A liitle house and wooden furniture flowers and moss, a stream, shiny pebbles in fairyland. A tree ( for diplodocus) spike you plants and mud bath area, we have a volcano that sits next to it too sometimes.
A digging area is a favourite - with diggers sometimes, trowels and containers to collect worms and buckets.

DH made an outdoor kitchen and it is the most played with. Like Maza we have real pots and pans and buntrays. They use it with the sand, soil, shingle,herbs are chopped, natural loose items......endless interaction, communication, finer motor, maths, imagination.....sometimes I set it up as a specific ...perfumery....washing clothes......preparing for a party etc..

Guttering on home made trellis and balls, cars, stones to run down ....but best of all water and things to make flow down.

I have a potting bench and everytime we go out the children plant something, depending on the season....to grow indoors or in greenhouse or just to live on their garden area.

Watering cans and caring for the plants takes up a lot of time, with tools and a wheelbarrow. As does feeding the birds, the containers are just inside the summerhouse and the children check and fill as a first job to do when we go outside.

Den building. We have a home made bird watching hide with binoculars that the children often use as a den too.

Small logs in a circle with a basket of books/ clipboards and markmaking plus in the nicer weather cushions for quiet moments. Books are usually linked to minibeasts, planting, weather birds etc...
I don't have climbing equipment but we put out logs and planks for walkways and areas to jump off.

Under the outdoor kitchen we store equipment for various water play - big brushes to paint with in water on the slabs, floating and sinking, fishing, pouring, pipettes and tubes....tea set.etc...bottles for water walls.

I don't take indoor toys out apart from smallworld, the children enjoy doing outdoor related activities.
Occasionally we make a little fire and cook bread sticks.

How wonderful to have a blank canvas. I think the outdoors is the best place to be....and it hardly costs anything to set up with lots of recycled stuff.
Reading this makes me want to be 3 years old again.

[Mouse]

Thank you for all your ideas.

In other parts of the garden we have a planting area, logs to climb on, trees to climb, bugs to hunt etc, so it's the smaller things I was looking for.

I've now decided I definitely want a wooden kitchen outside. Not a mud kitchen, but a wooden one where the children can play with natural resources, sand & water. I've got lots of pine cones, shells, corks, small pieces of driftwood etc that I think would work well. I like the idea of real pans as well.

I'm not going to rush into filling the garden, but you've given me a lot of good ideas to be going on with :thumbsup:

[sarah707]

During recent ABD Does training Alistair was talking about the importance of children being able to make big movements from the shoulders when drawing.

We put up a big drawing board and got some lining paper ... it's working really well! :D

[Maza]

During recent ABD Does training Alistair was talking about the importance of children being able to make big movements from the shoulders when drawing.

We put up a big drawing board and got some lining paper ... it's working really well! :D

Yes, it's always good to be reminded of this. It ties in nicely with the gymnastic ribbons too, and the age old favourite of painting with water on the fence or the patio/paths.

[samb]

My oh used to work for an architecture company and he would bring home the end rolls from the giant paper that couldn't feed through the printer. I have 2 left. He has a new job now. I use them a lot for this sort of thing. The kids love it- I attach it to the fence of the decking for painting, lay on the floor for big drawing or even feet painting. It's great.