Learning outdoors is fantastic! Exploring the benefits of playful - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Learning outdoors is fantastic! Exploring the benefits of playful activity outside for babies and young children • Dr Jane Waters • Associate Professor Early Years Education • University of Wales Trinity Saint David

Video 1

In this session … 1. Why take babies and young children outside? 2. Case studies • What are the challenges? • How have these been overcome? 3. How can adults support children’s learning outside?

Why take babies and young children outside? • Social development • Playing and learning with others • Physical health • Gross motor, fine motor, balance and co-ordination, vision • Cognitive development • Executive function • Early concept development • Positive dispositions • Curiosity, exploration, inquiry • Emotional wellbeing • Feeling ‘at home’ in the world • Sustainable futures • Sense of belonging and association with place

Social development Playing and learning with others • Outdoor space provides for: • Solitary play https://www.seriouslykids.com.au/learning- through-play/ • Parallel play https://www.tts- group.co.uk/blog/2018/03/03/how-to-do- outdoor-play-well-by-alistair-bryce-clegg.html • Group play • Cooperative/social https://www.operationplayoutdoors.co.uk/for est-school/ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File :Our_Community_Place_Sandbox.jpg

Physical health: gross motor, fine motor

Physical health: balance and co-ordination

Physical health: vision • In Asia up to 90% of young people are predicted to be short- sighted by 2050. • Spending time outdoors in childhood seems to protect against myopia https://www.theweek.co.uk/93139/myopia-why-do-so-many- (short-sightedness) children-need-glasses

Cognitive development • Neuroscience and the development of executive function or attention skills • Early scientific concept development occurs through play with the material world

Positive dispositions: Curiosity, exploration, inquiry, creativity • Disposition is a pattern of behaviour • In the early years we support the dispositions we want our children to maintain • Playing outdoors offers opportunities to strengthen C21st dispositions

Emotional wellbeing Feeling ‘at home’ in the world • If children are • In UK, there is an ‘protected’ from their increase in mental environment they health problems cannot feel confident • There is a decline in: within it • emotional resilience • ability to assess risk

Sustainable futures • If children are kept • ‘No one will protect what away from the natural they don’t care about; world, how can they and no one will care come to love, respect about what they have and look after it? never experienced’ https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and- radio/2018/nov/08/david-attenborough-to- present-netflix-nature-series-our-planet

Case studies I invite you to think about the role the adult takes in each of these case studies

Case study 1: Mount School, Wales • Problem: • The teachers were concerned about the lack of creativity in their young children’s play. The children range in age from 3-5years. • The children did not demonstrate imagination in their play.

Introduction of loose parts They can include some of the following, and can be material that would usually be ignored, recycled or thrown away: • Natural loose parts: • Sticks, rocks, pebbles, flowers, leaves, seeds, pinecones • Wooden loose parts: • Blocks and planks in various shapes and sizes, corks, clothes pegs, wooden beads, chair legs, dowels, wooden blocks, scrabble pieces • Metal loose parts: • Nuts and bolts, washers, bangles, pipe cleaners, tin foil, muffin tins, magnets, keys, forks and spoons

More loose parts… • Plastic loose parts: • Milk bottles, lids, food containers, pvc pipes, film canisters, hair rollers, curtain rings, straws, CD cases, beads, bubble wrap, cones, buttons, funnels • Fabric and ribbon loose parts • Chiffon, twine, ribbon, scarves, flags, hessian, cotton wool, cushions • Packaging loose parts: • Cardboard sheets, boxes, wrapping paper, egg cartons, paper scraps

Loose parts can look messy! • BUT: • Loose parts are wonderful for children

https://www.fantasticfunandlearning.com/out door-play-with-loose-parts.html https://www.theempowerededucatoronline.com/2017/05/outdoor- play-areas.html/

https://childhood101.com/a-new-years-resolution-to-encourage-unstructured-outdoor-play

Theory of loose parts… Creativity in putting components together should belong to the users of play spaces … not the designers, builders – or teachers!

Case study 2: Iceland • No natural free play area in small urban enclosure • Nowhere for children to engage in free play outside

Creating a ‘natural’ play area

Transition area • Accessible • Supports independence • Easy to clean and tidy

Case study 3: Thomas School, Wales • Small sloped tarmac area, very limited for play • Children unable to play and learn in a natural environment in school

How can adults support children’s learning outside? • Responsive • Relational • Pedagogy • A different approach to that taken indoors

Talk and noticing: shared attention

Talk and noticing: shared attention

Example: Daycare setting England • Providing babies with outdoor time to support development through movement in rich sensory environments • Creation of a flexible outdoor garden space for use every day by the babies and their key person • Early sensory and physical development; • Encouragement of curiosity; • Engagement with the world, supported by shared attention from the adult; • Development of fine and gross motor skills; • Supportive of body- and movement-confidence in the babies. • Video 2: 11 month old Lucas • 6 mins

Key messages • Playful experiences outside benefit young children • Loose parts are wonderful outdoors • Adults can be responsive and relational others • Babies and very young children need to be outside too