Getting Outside to Learn

Outdoor learning provides endless opportunities to explore and enhance knowledge with countless benefits. Endless research projects have highlighted to huge impact the outdoors has on the learning and development of children, allowing them to problem solve and explore open ended activities.

Natural environments are associated with space and freedom which is impossible to recreate inside a nursery building. Children naturally have a bigger drive to explore, investigate and play. Outdoor areas provide a widened learning opportunity where there are always things evolving where we can adapt and further explore.

Children become more active, motivated, independent and show positive behaviour when outside and experience an immersive learning environment, having the ability to move and explore. Leading to health benefits from running, climbing, digging, swinging, jumping. Increasing daily exercise for bone strengthening, muscle building and cardiovascular.

In terms of curriculum, outdoor exploration encompasses the Early Years foundation Stage and every element of learning can be developed upon whilst being outdoors. With this in mind outdoor play should always be part of the daily routine for all children.