Reflecting on What Outdoor Play is in Your Setting.

In a time where there is a rapidly growing disconnect between children and outdoor play, we, as early childhood educators play an important role in ensuring outdoor play doesn't become endangered. By working collaboratively to develop shared understandings about outdoor play, we are better positioned to be strong advocates for the important role that outdoor play has in early childhood.

So what exactly are we advocating for?

Each setting will have it's own unique take on outdoor play and why it is valuable in that particular context. This will be reflective of geographical location, access to different types of resources, the various climates in which we live and much more.  In order to establish a shared language around outdoor play, it is essential that we engage in critical reflection and professional discussions. These processes help us to challenge our thinking and promote positive change in collaborative ways. 

Image by Author: Emily Clark

Lately I have been working with a group of teachers to navigate this journey and have developed some reflective questions as a tool for this process. The questions are designed to guide conversations, facilitate reflective discussion and invite professional debate. 

What barriers prevent us from providing or accessing quality experiences in our outdoor space? Are they real or perceived barriers? How can we respond to/move/shape these barriers? 

How do our practices value or ignore certain learning environments over others and why? How can we ensure our practices aren’t casting shadows over certain learning spaces?

What types of learning do we see occurring in the outdoor spaces? How does this differ from our indoor setting? In what ways do they compliment each other?

What do the informing policies/philosophies/frameworks/research say about outdoor play? What parts of these informing documents are silenced or promoted in our setting? 


In what ways does our setting promote risk taking? Who determines what 'risk' is? In what ways are we risk adverse? 

What are your strengths and passions in the outdoor learning environment? How can these be used to compliment others and to enhance the experiences that occur there?

These questions have been part of a long term process of critical reflection around outdoor play and have evolved as we have moved through the process. The rich discussions that emerge from these are creating a strong foundation for understanding the benefits of outdoor play in individual contexts and how to best advocate for it. 

What questions guide you in your reflections around outdoor play? 

Reflection cards, like the one above, that have been guiding our thinking can be found here

Articles to further your thinking around outdoor and nature play can be found here

Outdoor Play in Australia: Undervalued and Underadvocated

It is no secret that rapidly changing social and environmental factors are having a significant impact on the changing culture of children’s play in today’s society. Part of this change has brought about a growing concern around childrens declining access to the outdoors. We exist in a time where the importance of outdoor play in early childhood educational contexts is increasingly a necessity.

This importance is reflected within both the NQF and the EYLF, where the outdoor environment is recognised as an important space for learning within early childhood settings. Additionally, there is a growing body of research highlighting the affordances of outdoor spaces (Little, 2017; Miranda, Larrea, Muela, Barandiaran, 2017; Torquati & Ernst,2013.). Despite this, it is argued that teachers often overlook the potential of the outdoors as a learning environment (Torquati & Ernst,2013). 

 In an attempt to understand what prevents us from using the outdoors to its full potential, I recently posed the following question to early childhood professionals across several social media platforms. 

What barriers do you face in your context that prevent or limit children from engaging in outdoor/nature play?

I was convinced that the key barrier would be aligned with attributes of physical environments, such as; artificial play spaces, limited space, building structures, lack of shade etc. While these issues were raised in the responses, I was surprised to discover that the dominant barriers were the attitudes of families and staff, which prevented using the outdoor space to its full potential. Some of the staff and parental concerns expressed included;

·       Children getting dirty.  

·       A belief that children should not access the outdoors in certain types of weather (e.g. rain, wind, cold). 

·       A belief that illnesses are caused from being outside. 

·       Aspects of outdoor play perceived as ‘too risky’ 

·       Difficulties in ensuring children are appropriately dressed

I don't doubt that many of us can recall a time when we have fielded these same concerns (or similar) and hesitations from others. It can be difficult territory to navigate, when the staff and families are yet to recognise the overwhelming benefits that come from affording children plentiful access to outdoor play experiences. However, this also opens up a window for us to engage in discussions, advocate for, and share knowledge about outdoor play. 

Karen Green’s article ‘Outdoor play in Australia: why has it become such a challenge to early childhood educators?’ addresses the above concerns, and calls for educators to equip themselves with knowledge in order to become stronger advocates for outdoor play. Karen also includes the ways in which she responds to staff and families about their concerns in a way that informs and promotes the importance of  outdoor play. 

Rather than seeing these attitudes as barriers, let's flip the script and view them as invitations to engage in discussions around outdoor play. In doing so, we create opportunities to advocate for the value of outdoor play, knowing that we are backed by the NQF, the EYLF and a wide range of research. How will you advocate for outdoor play today? 

Credit: All images are sourced from Pexels 

You Don't Need a Jungle

If you are anything like me, when you think of children engaging in nature play, your mind immediately goes to a setting lush with greenery, full of trees to climb, flowing water, sandy embankments and a scattering of leaves, logs and stones across the ground.

Idyllic? Yes!

Realistic? Not really.

While there are a few of us, lucky enough to have access to spaces similar to the one I dream of, for many of us this is not our reality. When I allow my mind to wander this far into an imaginary world, it often limits me from seeing the potential that does exist in my setting. Nature play isn't dependent on having a jungle in your playground. When we dream of grander things, we often miss the things that are happening right in front of us.

Nature play can be as simple as........

Jumping in a puddle.

Feeling the smoothness of a stone beneath your fingers.

Running your hand over the bark of a tree.

Trying to catch the shadows as they dance on the ground.

Letting the sand trickle through your fingers.

Feeling the mud ooze up between your toes.

Collecting leaves, sticks and other natural treasures. 

Splashing, pouring and immersing in water.

Watching the clouds roll by in the sky.

Catching the rain as it falls.

Listening for the crunch of a leaf underfoot, a bird's song or a stone as it plops in the water. 

It's good to remind ourselves of the value in these small, but significant acts of nature play, while we aspire towards our jungles!


Credit: All images are sourced from Pexels. Pexels are licensed under the Creative Commons Zero (CCO) license. 

What is our obsession with lining up?

Before beginning, I should openly confess that I am writing this from a very biased perspective. I am  not pro lining up. Never have been and I can't really see myself changing that perspective any time soon. I just don't get it.

Now, I know that in life, there are times we use lining up as a tool for organisation. We line up at the supermarket, we line up waiting for the toilet, we line up to buy a movie ticket - these practices are embedded into society and have a function - it's so we know who is waiting next. but children won't fail at these societal expectations if we don't insist they walk in a line to their next class. Children will naturally encounter these constructs as they live their lives. What I struggle to comprehend is the heavy dependency on using the act of 'lining up' as a way of controlling a group in educational contexts, to move around as a group and to wait to enter spaces.

As a teacher, I am well versed in the art of moving large groups of children from one space to another. And sure, I get that it can be difficult at times. Some children resist the urge to bang on every window they pass, a little more easily than others. Some simply can't stop themselves from viewing a long corridor as an invitation to run freely, but I still don't understand why this unwritten law of moving about in a line is persisting.

Early in my career, I worked in Primary school settings and I'd often see other classes pass by our classroom in two straight rows, militantly walking in silence on their way to P.E. or music or whatever other classes that teacher could get their hands on in order to score some non-contact time. It was clearly an unwritten rule of the school, that when moving in large groups, children were expected to move through the school in this manner. Despite this, I just couldn't bring myself to force my class to do it.

When I am feeling conflicted about an idea or a practice, I often try and imagine how it would seem if these same rules were applied to adults, in an attempt to measure how ludicrous some of our expectations of children are. Imagine having to wait to enter your staff meeting at the end of the day by lining up outside - the principal not daring to let you in until you had shown them that you could form a perfectly still and quiet line. Or attending a conference, and as you break out into smaller sessions, being expected to move in human lines to your next session. It seems absurd and I'm sure we'd all simply buck the system if it were implemented in contexts such as these.  The practice is not replicated anywhere else except in the military. So why is it such an accepted practice in schools?

I was recently reminded of the practice when I took my Kindergarten class to visit the school next door. We reached the door of the classroom and the teacher insisted that the children line up before they would be allowed into the classroom. My class were perplexed, as this is not a practice we implement in my classroom, and after five minutes of explicit help & finally diffusing the 'game of thrones' type of approach that was taken to deciding who was the 'leader', we had finally formed a line. Feeling triumphant that we had unlocked the code to access the next level of going inside the room, we waited. Only to be met with the teacher standing in the most sought after position, as the 'leader', to explain to us what we were going to be doing once we entered the room.

As I watched this unfold, I realised that lining up is also a completely flawed design for delivering messages to whole groups. I watched the first four pairs in the line, paying close attention, then the middle of the pack, seemed more interested in staring at the hair of the person in front, as that's all they could really see, and then at the very back, they were having a nice little game of seeing just how close they could get to each other before someone crushed a rib. If you're speaking to a group in a line, a good seventy percent can't really see or hear you too well, because you're so far away up the front, being the 'leader'. I couldn't help but think that if this message had been delivered when we first arrived, as the children eagerly gathered around her, waiting with baited breath, how much higher the interest level might be and how much time we would have saved. What was the purpose of forming a line in order to deliver a message?

While I don't mind a little bit of chaos, I am not suggesting that we just send children off to their next class and hope for the best. I am simply saying, surely we can trust children to move calmly as a group, to and from spaces without the need for lines. In fact, I know we can, if we believe they are capable of doing so. I mentioned earlier that in my early days of teaching, I simply couldn't bring myself to insist on my class lining up, but I knew we needed a 'strategy', for lack of a better word, to get about the place as a group. I decided to ask my class what we needed to consider when moving around the school or waiting to enter into a classroom. Independent of my help, they were well aware that they needed to move through the school calmly, that they weren't to disrupt other classes and that we needed to stay together as a group.

We collaboratively discussed it, created guidelines and implemented it. We got to our other classes as a group. There were no fights over who was the leader. There was no bickering over who got to be paired with who, because they could walk with all of their friends.  If we came across another class in the corridor, we would all move to one side to let them pass. And finally, once we had arrived, we waited calmly as a group, outside the room. They moved responsibly and according to the guidelines that they had constructed. Sure, there were a few that needed a little extra support and because I wasn't policing who was and wasn't walking in a line, I was available to give a simple reminder, or gently take their hand and ask them to tell me a story as we walked to the next class. Sometimes I'd set challenges for them, such as; pretending we were spies that had to get to the music room, without anyone else hearing or seeing us. These little moments that are routine parts of our day, became special moments to connect and have conversations with children. They became times that were joyful and playful.

We often subscribe to a particular way of doing things, just because that's how they've always been done. But throwing out the grand old question 'why?' is so important, in ensuring we are adopting practices that value, trust and support the children in our care. If our classroom cultures are underpinned with respectful relationships, which encourage children to be aware of those around them, to understand their role in being part of a group and to feel like a valued member of a group, then it is easy to trust that they could move from A to B in a respectful and responsible way. We already challenge the art of placing desks in a row, so why are we not questioning the art of placing children in a row? So, go on, be a teacher rebel. Boycott the line. I dare you!

Credit: All images are sourced from Pexels. Pexels are licensed under the Creative Commons Zero (CCO) license.