Aug 10, 2024 | Developing School Grounds & Outdoor Spaces, Play Resources
*NOTE* This blog post was originally written in June 2013. At the time of writing, having loose stumps around your play space was commonplace. However, some local authorities may have guidelines that expect wooden moveable items to be safely locked away each night to...
Apr 11, 2023 | Community Involvement, Play Resources, Technologies
At a festival or event near you, there’s may be a lot of hammering, sawing and building by children and adults. Several years ago, on the edge of the Meadows, passersby were able to witness the growth of an adventure playground under the watchful eye of Woodland...
Mar 23, 2023 | Art & Music Outdoors, Developing School Grounds & Outdoor Spaces, Play Resources
I love surprises. The Frank Kitts Playground on the waterfront in Wellington gave me a brilliant one. I was walking along, minding my own business, when out of nowhere rose this wonderful play structure. If you look carefully you can see the albatross weather vane...
Mar 22, 2023 | Early Years Outdoors, Play Resources, Technologies
Most schools are feeling the pinch in terms of having money to spend on resources and equipment. Thankfully, working outside does not have to rely on expensive kits. Here’s a selection you can make from cardboard, paper and other easily available materials. Your...
Mar 6, 2023 | Early Years Outdoors, Play Resources
Nets are a forgotten resource that have tremendous value in education and play settings. Here’s a few examples to show you why Firstly, remember the fun to be had, clambering under a cargo net as part of home-made assault courses? Simply pegging a net to the...
Feb 28, 2023 | Developing School Grounds & Outdoor Spaces, Early Years Outdoors, Literacy Outdoors, Play Resources
One repurposed resource which withstands a lot of wear and tear is the cable reel or drum that is used to store electrical wires. They are very flexible pieces of outdoor “furniture” which are worth seeking out in your local area. With sanding and...
Feb 26, 2023 | Early Years Outdoors, Play Resources
Many years ago years ago, I started blogging about accessories that make a difference to facilitating learning and play outdoors. I was participating in a twilight workshop and one of the participants made a sage comment along the lines of being perfectly comfortable...
Feb 22, 2023 | Developing School Grounds & Outdoor Spaces, Play Resources
In recent years, several schools and settings with whom I’ve worked, have managed to acquire a boat which quickly becomes a much-loved and well-used feature. So here’s some reasons why I think boats are brilliant… 1) Boats are often treasured by...
Jan 23, 2023 | Developing School Grounds & Outdoor Spaces, Early Years Outdoors, Play Resources
Some practitioners work in settings and schools where they cannot leave equipment out overnight. Usually storage space is pretty tight too. Thus I wanted to look at ways of creating simple, portable water walls which children could create themselves. Many years ago I...
Jan 17, 2023 | Developing School Grounds & Outdoor Spaces, Early Years Outdoors, Play Resources
One of the big surprises many years ago was the versatile way in which children chose to play with a pair of Cosy willow lattice arches. When I first saw these in a Derby nursery, I could see they were very open-ended. I was not surprised that the children used them...
Nov 30, 2022 | Community Involvement, Early Years Outdoors, Nature Play & Learning, Play Resources
During winter months, many children who attend early learning and childcare settings are likely to be outdoors in the dark. This offers many exciting opportunities for storytelling, games and exploring the environment in different conditions. When I worked in an...
Nov 28, 2022 | Early Years Outdoors, Health & Wellbeing, Nature Play & Learning, Play Resources
Many years ago I remember providing a presentation about outdoor play to a large group of early years practitioners. At one point a collective gasp of shock and then lots of muttering happened because I showed a photo of children playing in an icy outdoor space. The...
Nov 22, 2022 | Early Years Outdoors, Play Resources, Science Outdoors, Technologies
Wind is about the movement of air. It’s the result of differences in air pressure. Air likes to move from areas of high pressure to low pressure. This can be demonstrated with a balloon. Inside a blown-up balloon are lots of molecules – many more than...
Aug 23, 2022 | Early Years Outdoors, Play Resources
Very often when I ran courses participants would tell me that they only have a patch of tarmac for the children to play on. Whilst in the long term, all sorts of changes can happen, in the short term, the space needs to be used cleverly. Permission is usually needed...
Jun 27, 2022 | Early Years Outdoors, Play Resources, Technologies
Several years ago, Sarah Lazarovic created the wonderful illustration, the Buyerarchy of Needs. It has always resonated with me, because I am aware of how resources dominate many educators’ thinking. There has been a trend towards removing plastic resources and...
Jun 26, 2022 | Developing School Grounds & Outdoor Spaces, Play Resources, Whole School
I am aware that confusion and controversy exists around the use of tyres. I hope this blog post is informative and helpful so that adults who work with children can make sensible decisions based upon their own specific context. It has been written in good faith based...
Jun 8, 2022 | Early Years Outdoors, Play Resources
Tarps and outdoor work go together like a cheese and pickle in a sandwich. They are such a useful and versatile resource. I have blogged about them many times. Yet the ugly truth is that they are large sheets of plastic. We need to be re-thinking whether we should...
Jun 1, 2022 | Developing School Grounds & Outdoor Spaces, Play Resources, Whole School
Please check your local and national guidelines regarding the use of sand. It would appear that different countries within and beyond the UK may have different guidance in relation to Covid 19 and hygiene requirements . Sandpits are one of the best features for...
Jul 21, 2021 | Early Years Outdoors, Health & Wellbeing, Nature Play & Learning, Play Resources, Whole School
Over the past few weeks I’ve had the pleasure of reading through a recently published book The Essential Guide to Forest School and Nature Pedagogy by Jon Cree and Marina Robb. This book has been a long time in the making and given its hefty size of 400 pages,...
Jun 30, 2021 | Community Involvement, Play Resources, Whole School
I’m sure that many of you remember your playtimes well – much more than your maths lessons or what happened in the month of March in Year 5. If you consider children are at school for six hours or more on a school day, then the hour or 75 minutes allocated...
