Covering all 7 areas of the EYFS in the outside environment

[joannetalbot]

Hi Ladies

as the title suggests! how do you all go about covering these areas outside as well as inside? do you have separate resources for inside and out or do you take the inside ones out?

any thoughts/suggestions would be great, thank you !

jo x

[hectors house]

Any areas in particular you are thinking about?

I generally have indoor resources and they stay inside and have outdoor resources that stay out - some of them are similar but not the same eg: indoors I have duplo bricks and wooden bricks for building - outside I have off cuts of wood and planks inside I have felt tipped pens and pencils & crayons & paints - outside I have blackboard (or patio) & chalks and roller ball paints that children use on old cardboard packaging.

I do have a box of books that stays outside in the summer house, but I take outside books for story time. We count whatever resources, loose parts or nature objects that are available.

[FloraDora]

This document is quite good to read :

http://www.schools.norfolk.gov.uk/view/NCC105915

It's been written for nursery/ school but some good advice about the importance of an outdoor learning environment and the different important opportunities it can offer than indoors.

There are lots of good research around this if you Google lots comes up.

[Maza]

The first thing I did was an audit of my outside area to identify what it offered in each area of learning already. You can then identify areas for development. You then address these areas - sometimes that means buying resources - but not always. It might be that you plan to use specific vocabulary and show this on your planning. It might also mean reorganising what you have got.

Generally speaking I have different resources for outside. Some are replicas of what I have indoors - set of pots and pans, different set of writing materials, different chairs, counting equipment in terms of an ever growing pile of stones, pine cones, sticks etc, different paintbrushes and paint, chalk, easel etc. Some are specific outdoor resources - balls, gymnastic ribbons, sand tray, planting equipment, guttering and stands, loads of jugs etc. I have two outdoor pushchairs in the shed and a different one for indoor play. They do not mix - my carpet would not like it!

Some toys do go indoors and outdoors - dinosaurs for the sand tray or playing in an area of long grass, teddies for teddy bear picnic, some art equipment etc. I always know exactly what goes out so that I can count it when we go back indoors and give it a good wash.

[joannetalbot]

The first thing I did was an audit of my outside area to identify what it offered in each area of learning already. You can then identify areas for development. You then address these areas - sometimes that means buying resources - but not always. It might be that you plan to use specific vocabulary and show this on your planning. It might also mean reorganising what you have got.

Generally speaking I have different resources for outside. Some are replicas of what I have indoors - set of pots and pans, different set of writing materials, different chairs, counting equipment in terms of an ever growing pile of stones, pine cones, sticks etc, different paintbrushes and paint, chalk, easel etc. Some are specific outdoor resources - balls, gymnastic ribbons, sand tray, planting equipment, guttering and stands, loads of jugs etc. I have two outdoor pushchairs in the shed and a different one for indoor play. They do not mix - my carpet would not like it!

Some toys do go indoors and outdoors - dinosaurs for the sand tray or playing in an area of long grass, teddies for teddy bear picnic, some art equipment etc. I always know exactly what goes out so that I can count it when we go back indoors and give it a good wash.

thank you thats really helpful

[joannetalbot]

This document is quite good to read :

http://www.schools.norfolk.gov.uk/view/NCC105915

It's been written for nursery/ school but some good advice about the importance of an outdoor learning environment and the different important opportunities it can offer than indoors.

There are lots of good research around this if you Google lots comes up.

I found this really useful thank you !

[sarah707]

I am in the middle of doing our outside play audit at the moment.

I have found that we are strong in some areas and maybe need to develop others ... where possible we are getting the children to help us and decide what they want to use - there is little point filling the garden with lovely resources if nobody plays with them...

We are also finding out what they use at home and in pre-school (for the older ones) to make sure we are complementing their learning - it doesn't all need to be the same.

Hth