If you’re lucky enough to have an outdoor space in your home - be it a garden, yard or balcony, it’s brilliant news as you’ll be able to offer lots of outdoor play and learning for the children you care for. If you really make the most of your outdoor setting, this will help your setting stand out and will appeal to families when choosing a childcare place for their child. That said, if you don’t have an outdoor space, don’t worry - lots of these ideas can be applied to outdoor environments like a local park, woodland or beach. If you don’t have access to an outdoor space large enough for children to run and move freely in, it’s important to take your children out to a park or nature space for outdoor play every day... yes, even if it’s cold or raining! There’s the old phrase ‘no such thing as bad weather, only the wrong clothing’! Let’s dive into some tips and ideas for how to enhance your outdoor space…

Why do children need time outdoors every day?

The benefits of outdoor play are well-documented and supported by scientific research. There are physical benefits in terms of supporting children’s development, strength and health. There are also mental benefits, with evidence showing that time in nature supports children’s mental health, and supports greater concentration. And there are social benefits too, as they learn interpersonal skills through interactions in less structured environments outdoors. Unfortunately though, there’s also evidence to show that children’s lives are becoming more sedentary and they are spending more time indoors using screens, taking away from the time spent doing active play. Statistics also show a worrying national rise in child obesity. So there’s every reason to maximise your outdoor space and support children to get active and learn in the fresh air!

Find out more in this unit all about Outdoor Play, which introduces the Forest School approach.

How can I set up an enabling environment outdoors?

Even if you have a small outdoor space, there’s lots you can do to invite curiosity, movement and learning. Take a look at this video, where we give a tour of a London garden that has been set up to offer intriguing provocations for children to explore all 7 areas of the EYFS:

Garden tour video

Here are some questions to prompt your thinking as you set up or develop your outdoor space:

BUGS! Not everyone likes them, but chances are, the children you work with will be fascinated by them and they offer so much learning. You could offer a magnifying glass to look for insects, or a spoon to encourage digging in soil to look for worms. If you have the space, a composter or wormery offers a great chance to learn about recycling food waste and the critical role worms play in soil health. Try hunting for spiders (and combine with singing Incy Wincy, or reading a lovely book about spiders such as Walter’s Wonderful Web or the Very Busy Spider)? Perhaps bring the Very Hungry Caterpillar book to life by getting caterpillar eggs online and grow them, feeding them with leaves, until they pupate and you can release the beautiful butterflies with the children. Maybe you can draw a track on the paving and have a snail race? Perhaps you can make a bug hotel with the children to invite in creepy crawlies.

BIRDS and ANIMALS: Even in very urban environments, there are opportunities to observe and learn about birds and animals. Can you make binoculars from loo roll tubes to spot them? In the winter, you can give hungry birds a helping hand by making bird feeders and putting them outside. Or perhaps you can build a little nesting box with the children to invite birds to make a home in your outdoor space. Can you spot magpies, crows, foxes or squirrels? Which animals hibernate in the winter and wake up again in Spring? What sorts of tracks might a rabbit, badger, hare, frog or hedgehog make in the mud?

PLANTS and TREES: Even on a small balcony or windowsill you can grow plants, and this gives children the chance to learn about how plants grow, how to care for them, and invites conversations about healthy eating too. Herbs that can be used in sensory play are a great place to start, such as rosemary, mint, sage, lemon balm, thyme. All of these can also be used to add scent to water play or homemade playdough, or can be added to breads for added flavour. Some food plants are easy to grow with children, and they will love harvesting the fruits of their labours! It can be a great way to introduce them to new fruits and vegetables too. Tomatoes, strawberries, beans, pumpkins and potatoes are all relatively easy to grow, and tasty to munch. In the Spring you can plant seeds with the children, perhaps in yoghourt pots or egg boxes to start them off. Sunflowers can grow excitingly tall … you can build in maths later in the summer when you measure how tall they grow! You can combine growing beans with storytelling about Jack and the Beanstalk. You can even grow new plants from food trimmings - carrot tops, celery and onion will all re-sprout if left in water to grow roots, and then can be re-planted in the garden.

Can you ‘adopt’ a tree in your garden, park or local woodland, and revisit it at different times of the year to observe how it changes with the seasons? Sticks, leaves, conkers, acorns and twigs are all excellent examples of (free! biodegradable!) learning resources and ‘loose parts’ which can be used or combined in many different ways by the children. Sticks can be counted, painted, measured or turned into wands, oars, hammers, drumsticks…. The sky's the limit with these resources.

If you haven’t got space to grow vegetables, consider joining a community allotment - a great way to connect to the land and understand how to sow, grow, harvest and eat your own food. Check out Tiney Childminder Beth Chiverton’s allotment space and pop up veg shop:

2. Can children really move their bodies here?

Does your space provide opportunities to run, climb, jump, balance, throw, spin?

Wheeled toys (scooters, tricycles, balance bikes etc) can be great for riding and building balance and leg muscle strength, but if you don’t have the space, terrain or resources for that, don’t worry - there’s so much you can do to support children’s gross and fine motor skills outdoors for free! Consider a trip to your local builders merchants and ask for offcuts of guttering, scraps of piping or tubing (ensure there are no sharp edges) - these can be combined with water or small cars to make ramps, tunnels, funnels and slides. Or get hold of some large logs or old car tyres, which can be rolled, stacked or assembled into an obstacle course. Using big loose parts will help to build children’s muscle strength and coordination, and will require teamwork to make big builds together with their peers. A range of containers outside (old pans, buckets, bottles, jugs or watering cans) can be combined with water and will require lifting, carrying and pouring. You can make ‘beanbags’ with socks filled with beans or lentils. Can you throw them into a bucket? Can you use chalk to draw a track or pitch on an area of paving to make a target for running or jumping?

3. Can children explore all 7 areas of the EYFS here?

We’ve already explored how outdoor play can support physical development, an understanding the world, and offer additional opportunities for personal, social and emotional development. You name it, it can be explored outside. In fact, the Forest School approach is based on the idea that all learning can happen outside. So ask yourself this question: What if your outdoor space was your main setting space, and the children spent all or most of their time there? How could you bring in opportunities to learn all 7 areas of learning? Here are some ideas:

Numeracy: Offer loose parts such as conkers, pine cones, sticks of different lengths, containers of different sizes, leaves of different colours… all these open-ended resources can offer chances to learn about capacity, volume, sorting, making patterns, comparing size as well as counting. Can you set up a Teddy Bear’s picnic outside, and share some cherries out equally between the teddies?

Literacy and communication and language: Take a rug, cushion and a selection of books outside and set up a cosy reading area outside. Nestle a book in a nook on a tree. Sing rhymes and songs in the garden - so many are set in a garden! ‘Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden go?’, ‘here we go round the mulberry bush’, ‘incy wincy spider…’. A big cardboard box or a sheet string over a washing line might become a tent or den for children to crawl inside, set up a ‘cafe’, or whatever sort of imaginative play their fabulous brains will invent.

Expressive arts and design: Mark-making doesn’t have to happen on paper at a table in doors. Release the crayons, chalk, paint! Bring a clipboard outside and draw up a scoreboard for an invented game or race. With a box of chalks you can make a train track, a rainbow, trace your shadows or around your feet. Mix coloured chalk, powder paint and water and a whole new world of creative possibilities opens up. Can you beat a rhythm with a stick on a tree? What sounds can you make with a leaf or blade of grass? Look at tiney childminder Beth Chiverton’s homemade wooden wind chime:

4. Make space for a bit of magic

Imagine a child’s joy when they enter tiney childminder Agnieska’s setting and stumble across a real treasure box, decorated with beautiful shells, and are invited to open it up and fill it with the ‘treasures’ they come across in the garden. What if you invited some fairies or gnomes to live in your garden? Make a little fairy door using lolly sticks, string up a tiny washing line and wonder together which miniature magical residents might make a home in your outdoor space. We all know children love to creep into a nook and cranny - can you make a Dragon’s Den or Monster’s Lair with a large cardboard box, or perhaps with a large sheet pinned over a washing line? You could always design your garden in collaboration with the children.... ask them what they would like to have in the space, or notice where they tend to gravitate once outdoors.

Hopefully you have some ideas and inspiration for how to make the most of your outdoor space - no matter how small - into a curious and intriguing environment for children to explore, play, move and learn in. Thanks to tiney childminders Caitlin Newell, Agnieszka Mandziuk, Chloe Payne, and Beth Chiverton for providing images of their delightful outdoor settings to support this resource :)
Once you've set up your outdoor space, please share pictures of it here (no children in the pics please) with the community to inspire others in turn. We can't wait to see what you create!