Sue Cowley: 10 Outdoor Play Ideas for Open Air Learning

1. Building a Bug Hotel

The outdoor play idea: Children work together to gather materials to build a bug habitat to house insects over the winter.

*What you need: *

• Outdoor nature area
• Recycled building materials
• Craft supplies like glue, tape and string

How you do it:

• Talk with the children about where insects go over the winter.
• Go on a minibeast hunt to find small insects, such as woodlice, snails and slugs.
• Explain to the children that you are going to build a ‘hotel’ for these minibeasts to stay in when it gets cold.
• You might introduce the term ‘hibernation’ and see if the children know what it means.

2. Planting Bulbs

The outdoor play idea: The children plant and label spring bulbs, observing them as they grow and flower.

What you need:

• Plant pots
• Compost
• Trowels
• Labels
• Pens
• Spring bulbs (Daffodils and crocuses are effective and inexpensive)
• Outdoor space

How you do it:

• Talk with the children about how bulbs grow.
• Show them how to plant the bulbs – use the trowel to put some compost into the bottom of a pot, put in the bulb, cover with more compost.
• Label the pots together, letting the children make marks on the plant labels. Add their names if you wish.
• Water the planted bulbs well and put in a sheltered part of your outdoor area. Keep an eye on them over the winter, making sure that they don’t dry out.
• Watch as the plants appear over time, and when they flower you might spot an early bee coming to visit them.

3. A Listening Walk

The outdoor play idea: Go on a walk around your neighbourhood and collect ambient sounds.

What you need:

• A suitable walk for your children (e.g. to a local park)
• Adults to chaperone
• High-visibility vests for your children
• Recording device
• Notebook
• Pen

How you do it:

• Take the children on walk in your local area.
• Explain that during your walk you are going to listen out for sounds and collect them.
• You could either make a note of the sounds you hear, or take a recording.
• Encourage the children to listen carefully and pick up on background sounds.
• Talk about the sounds you hear – which of them are from nature and which are man-made? This is a useful activity for developing phonological awareness.

4. Shape Hunt

The outdoor play idea: Children and practitioners go on a hunt for shapes in their local environment.

What you need:

• Safe walking route or outdoor area

How you do it:

• Explain to the children that you are going to act as detectives, and you will work together to hunt down as many shapes as you can.
• These could be shapes seen on a walk (e.g. road signs and markings, shapes in nature, shapes in buildings) or shapes seen around your setting.
• Work as a team to try and find examples of all the different kinds of shapes. You might take photographs of these to refer to later on.
• With older children, use mathematical language to talk about the properties of the different shapes you find.

5. On the Road

The outdoor play idea: Children and practitioners create a road network to explore with ride-on toys.

What you need:

• Outdoor area
• Various ride-on toys/li>
• Materials for making road signs (e.g. broom handles, cardboard and paint)

How you do it:

• Using outdoor chalks, get the children to design a road system to drive around on in their ride on toys.
• Talk together about how you should design the roads and what you need to take into account for driver and pedestrian safety.
• Create signs for your road system, for instance ‘STOP’ and ‘Roundabout’.
• Make sure you include a zebra crossing so pedestrians can cross.

6. Balloon Keepy-Uppy

The outdoor play idea: A fun balloon activity helps children improve their focus and develop their coordination.

What you’ll need:

• Balloons (one per child)
• Open space

How you do it:

• You can do this activity in an open outdoor space, but if the wind is too strong, you may have to move indoors.
• Give each child a balloon.
• Challenge them to keep it up in the air for as long as possible by hitting it upwards and not letting it touch the ground.
• This requires focus to catch it before it hits the ground. It also requires coordination, to ensure that they don’t hit the balloon too hard.
• The children could write their ‘best score’ on their balloon.
• They could also work in pairs to do this.

7. Sorting Ourselves

The outdoor play idea: The children work together to sort themselves into groups using different criteria.

What you need:

• Open outdoor space
• Hula hoops (or another way of marking different spaces)

How you do it:

• Talk about the words ‘sort’, ‘similarities’ and ‘differences’ and what they mean.
• Explain to the children that they are going to group themselves according to different criteria.
• Try some simple sorting criteria, for instance eye or hair colour.
• You could also sort into categories such as ‘favourite’ (food, season, etc.).
• Then try some trickier ones that require a lot more cooperation as a group, for instance sorting themselves into a line by month of birth.

8. We All Freeze!

The outdoor play idea: Children learn how to respond quickly to instructions.

What you need:

• An open outdoor space (can be moved inside in case of inclement weather)
• A drum or other percussive instrument

How you do it:

• Get the children to stand in a space in an open area – this might be outside or in a hall if you have access to one.
• Explain to the children that you are going to play a game of ‘freeze’.
• They should walk around the space, making sure they do not bump into anyone.
• When they hear you bang the drum, they should freeze like a statue. When you bang the drum another time, they should start walking again.
• Repeat several times, challenging the children to ‘freeze’ as quickly as they can.
• Give the children the chance to bang the drum and control the freeze as well.

9. Escape from the Ice

The outdoor play idea: The children explore natural materials frozen in a block of ice.

What you need:

• Outdoor area
• Natural materials (e.g leaves, pine cones, shells and flowers)
• Plastic tray
• Water
• Large Freezer
• Tuff Tray

How you do it:

• Fill the plastic tray with water and then add the natural materials.
• Place in the freezer overnight, until the materials are frozen inside a block of ice.
• Put a Tuff Tray in your outdoor area, and turn out the block of ice into it.
• Explore with the children as it melts over the course of the day.
• Talk about the changes that occur, and about how water feels and behaves in different states.

10. Autumnal Transient Art

The outdoor play idea: The children make art using natural materials.

What you need:

• Outdoor area
• Autumn leaves
• Twigs
• Pebbles
• Flower petals
• Andy Goldsworthy artwork images

How you do it:

• Show the children some pictures of Andy Goldsworthy’s work – Goldsworthy is an artist who works outdoors, creating art using natural materials.
• Discuss the patterns that you can see in his work – you might use words such as spiral, circle, and star.
• Go outdoors to create some art of your own using natural materials.
• Talk with the children about the patterns they have created.