Planning Outdoor Learning Playspaces For All Seasons

Before transforming our yard into our outdoor learning playspace, our early years team shared our hopes and dreams for the children in the space. We wanted it to provide opportunities for children to develop curiosity, exploration, creativity, innovation, resilience, problem-solving skills, risk-taking, collaboration, oral language skills, mathematical understanding, and connect with nature. We also kept in mind the natural lay-out of the yard(open spaces and wooded areas), our limited budget, the need to rely heavily on volunteers, seasonal play(e.g., snow, water), and access to water.

We began to dream and plan our outdoor playspace where children could be creative through art, music and drama, innovate, collaborate in large and small group circles, develop gross motor skills, develop literacy and math understanding, build, explore sensory experiences, and learn about the natural environment.  As we reflected on these experiences we recognized that our vision was very similar to what we set out to afford children indoors. We developed three main areas; The Enchanted Forest, the garden, and the open area beside the school.

Welcome to The Enchanted Forest

Above is a view of our wooden area we call The Enchanted Forest. In it we have a mud kitchen, several tables, a stage, a playhouse and a log circle for large group gatherings.

The logs were donated by a local arborist. Parent volunteers at our school are amazing and came together to help chainsaw and hammer spikes to attach them.

Mud Kitchen

Messy play here we come! My father-in-law built this amazing mud kitchen complete with stovetop and oven. It’s learning encompasses sensory, measurement, numeracy, and oral language.

Play Tables

This adorable table was also built by my father-in-law. I found these plastic gnomes, pots, pans, and utensils at yard sales. The wood cookies and tree stumps were free and cut up by my husband. Having lots of surfaces for children to explore on continues to serve our learners through play everyday.

Playhouse

This playhouse provides dramatic play opportunities all year long. The children in this photo are building an “addition” by framing the floor first. Having scrap wood, eavestroughs and ramps are an excellent way to extend mathematical learning.

Teepee

Our school is close to a Trading Post and the Oxtongue River where indigenous people would travel down. We decided to build this teepee from old cedar trees and drop clothes. This teepee lasted for 2 years and is down now. I need to get a couple of new poles and staple it back up there.

Construction Area

Children also have lots of opportunity to build outside with tree blocks and ramps. Here they have developed a construction yard and assigning roles in their play.

Music Wall

This amazing music wall was donated by a parent who collected materials and assembled it. It is an awe-inspiring piece that provides opportunities to explore creativity, rhythm, patterning, pitch, and song throughout every season.

Outdoor Stage

We have seen the impact of having an outdoor stage at our school as it’s a perfect place to make a rock band and retell stories, movies and plays. The curtains are used fabric from a wedding strung up on kite string between two towering pine trees.

 Open Area Beside School

This area has a lot going on as it’s close to the school and has access to water. We have a school community garden that provides so many opportunities for children to be stewards of the earth and learn about where food comes from. We also have picnic tables for art exploration, a water wall and water tables. We also bring out sensory bins with lids that we can easily transport inside and out.

Sensory Bins

We have 4 plastic sensory bins with lids that are easy to bring outdoors for sensory play. Above is a sample of what we might have in it. We often include measuring tools to encourage mathematical language. Other sensory bins contain figures and natural materials like wood cookies with letters on them to encourage storytelling and letter recognition.

Water Wall

This water wall was donated by our local Lion’s Club.

You might also consider making one on a pre-existing fence.

Art Explorations

Both children and educators bring art materials outdoors to play explore with on our two picnic tables. Exploring art is huge for us outdoors as well as indoors.

Outdoor Chalkboard

This is simply a donated old piece of plywood painted with some donated chalkboard paint. Voila! Free chalkboard.

School Garden

One of our parent volunteers has been instrumental in helping grow our school garden. This has been an incredible experience where many classes from our school plant and care for the garden. We also harvest the food and eat it in soups, salads, and french fries. 

Loose Parts in Outdoor Play

Having old tires and scrap wood offers children opportunities to problem-solve and take risks. Here the children have created a bridge and are practicing balance and stability.

A little spray paint with stencils and suddenly numeracy is embedded into play.
These bottles with food colouring and water are great in any season. Children use them as food prep, but also pretend their babies. Different levels of liquids encourage mathematical talk(e.g., half full).

Subtilizing dots and numerals zip-tied to this fence bring kids back to math. Some children have invented games with it to see who can touch the number or guess the number based on skills we’ve been working on(e.g., one less/more, how many more do you need to make 5 or 10, counting forwards/backwards).

Having lots of shovels has been a big deal for our outdoor play. Children have built so many snow and sand structures and holes with shovels. We highly recommend having lots of shovels, especially for winter play.

Outdoor Learning Tool Box

In an effort to be prepared for children to capture their learning no matter where they are we put together this Outdoor Learning Toolbox for their use. It has writing utensils, clipboards, paper, scissors, glue, bags and containers to collect nature treasures, magnifying glasses, scavenger hunts and more.

Connecting to Nature

We recognize that we are so fortunate to be surrounded by nature in Muskoka and we take every advantage of it. We strive for the children to be connected to their land. I just love the photo above as it reflects children following their interest in kites. It also captures a spirit of being free, together, laughing, and pride in their learning.

Storage

We are quite fortunate to have had our local Lion’s Club donate two sheds where we store trucks, shovels, sand toys, trikes, eavestroughs, tires, wood loose parts, tree cookies, tree blocks, ramps, etc.

Challenges

One challenge that we had wished we had thought about before transforming the outdoor playspace was how the spring thaw would affect certain areas. Organization is also another hot topic that we constantly circle back to in order to manage our playspace. However, everyday we live out how the positives far away these challenges.

Next Steps for our Outdoor Learning Playspace

Our next steps with our outdoor learning playspace is to develop our documentation outside. We’d like to have a more weather-proof ways(rather than ziplock bags) to display student learning outdoors.

What next steps are you considering while planning and creating your outdoor learning playspace?

View our Indoor Reggio-Inspired Classroom Design-Kinderland Tour Part 2