Up, Over and Under: Early Years Outdoors Learning

1. playnotes July 2009
Early Years Outdoors
risk-taking and support physical
development. Incorporating mounds,
banks and gradients into your space can
offer new possibilities for children’s play,
and opportunities for movement and
physical development.
For settings that already have mounds,
banks and changing gradients, a common
complaint is erosion – these places are very
popular, and grass will wear away if the
area is not carefully managed. In very wet
weather encourage the children to play
elsewhere, and regularly re-seed, using
a grass seed mix designed for very high
wear. If possible, do this on the last day of
each half-term to give the seeds a chance
to establish over the break.
If your outdoor area would benefit
from re-landscaping, look at incorporating
these type of changes in height, as the
benefits are immense. You will need to
take professional advice (see ‘Further
resources’) but once you have clear
designs, the physical work could easily be
carried out by volunteer staff and parents.
Up, over and under!
Do you remember ‘getting giddy, walking or technique (and then celebrating their
along walls and jumping off, climbing so success with them!) will not only boost a
high you could see ’forever’?1 How often child’s physical capabilities but increase
do young children today get to enjoy their confidence too.
challenging play like this? According to So what do young children want – and
early childhood specialist Jennie Lindon, need? Simply observing their current play
the risk-averse culture many of our will give you lots of ideas. For example,
children live in today is damaging their young children love jumping off points.
ability to grow, physically, intellectually They are drawn to raised levels to walk
and emotionally2. But the good news along. They like to be up high and look
is that early years outdoor play spaces down – a mound to us is a mountain for a
can make a significant contribution to two year old! Making the most of mounds, banks
rectifying this. Whether you want to rethink how and gradients
Whether climbing up, jumping over your current outdoor features are used, or Manoeuvring bodies and objects up, down
or crawling under, children want to you are planning new ground works, this and along slopes is great fun and will
experiment and try physical activities Playnotes can help, as it looks at creating encourage children to experiment within
beyond their capabilities – it’s in their and using stimulating and challenging all areas of their development. Some ways
nature, and it’s essential that they do so. landscape features, including: in which mounds, banks and gradients
Only then can they can build knowledge • mounds, banks and gradients could also be used include:
and skills through experience. • tunnels • exploring balance, using planks, beams,
Well-designed and well-used outdoor • paths and surfaces crates and ropes
spaces can readily offer children the • rills, gullies and beaches • expressing movement through
space and freedom to experience physical • walls. sound (music or voices) up and down
challenges with negligible risk. The key is gradients
to approach risk and risk assessment with Mounds, banks and gradients • rolling, crawling, jumping down a hill
a positive attitude – with young children Outdoor spaces in early years settings are for the sheer joy of feeling the body
recognised and respected as competent often topographically dull – flat, mainly connect with the earth
learners, so they can learn how to stay grass and tarmac. Even when full of • using the embankment as an
safe without being limited. Allowing exciting resources and enthusiastic adults amphitheatre for storytelling or
them to try, maybe to fail this time, and and children, the spaces themselves role-play
to try again until they learn a new skill could offer more variety to encourage • sharing and playing out rhymes, stories
Learning through Landscapes

2. playnotes • July 2009
paths and surfaces
Pathways are so much more that just a
route from A to B. Textured pathways not
only add visual interest to a dull garden
area and allow all-year-round access to
the whole outdoor space, but can also
sharpen mobility skills as children learn
how to manage uneven ground. Different
surfaces worth considering might
include:
• bark or wood chip
• tarmac
• concrete slabs, brick pavers or
stepping stones
• gravel or pebbles
• mosaics made from tiles/pebbles/
and songs ('I’m the King of the Castle'; Tunnels should have a good amount of shells
'Jack and Jill') hard-wearing surfaces at both ends – grass • closely mown grass or grass substitute
• problem solving – eg transporting or will quickly get worn out and muddy • sand.
balancing objects. – and should be long enough to add Creating new pathways can be simple
an element of imagined peril for young or complex depending on the materials
tunnels children, while being short enough and/or used and their location, but any new
Outdoors is often thought of as a place wide enough to allow an adult to access it surface will need a sound sub-base to
where children make big movements, quickly if necessary. help support the surface. A tarmac,
loud noises, create life-sized artworks and It may be possible to tunnel through paved or other hard surfaced pathway
experiment on a huge scale. But outdoors an existing mound to create additional might need several kinds of sub-base
also offers children opportunities to be play opportunities. If you are planning – for example, granular materials such as
small, to hide, to be close to one another on incorporating a tunnel into your compacted gravel laid with compacted
and to share intimate spaces and times. outdoor space in this way you will finer gravel on top. If you are considering
Tunnels and other enclosures (such as need professional advice (see ‘Further installing these types of pathways it
dens) are an excellent way of providing resources’). would be sensible to engage a builder
all this. Concrete pipes are a popular option or landscaper (see ‘Further resources’)
(metal tends to bake small children in to ensure the finished surfaces are level
hot weather!) and are readily available and not likely to subside or create trip
from builders’ merchants and pipework hazards. More informal pathways such
suppliers – check your Yellow Pages. as stepping stones or wood chip can be
You may well be able to get a length of created by volunteers.
concrete pipe for free. They can be buried When you are planning a new
under a mound, hidden under trees pathway think about:
or placed in a prominent position and • the width of the pathway
painted or decorated with mosaics. – can wheelie toys or two children
travelling side-by-side move along it
Making the most of tunnels comfortably?
With some additional resources tunnels • appropriateness of surface – a high
can be more than just a place to hide: traffic pathway should probably be
• provide cushions and blankets and the hard and continuous as it will get a lot
of wear.
tunnel will become a tent or a den for
role-play activities • location –- will it go over gradients, or
• use a hosepipe at one end and turn a under trees, and what will the effect
be?
tunnel into a culvert or raging torrent
• percussion instruments will sound • initial cost and longer term
entirely different inside a tunnel! maintenance – how will the surface be
up, over and under!

3. replenished or repaired and how often playnotes • July 2009
might this need to happen?
Making the most of paths and
surfaces
Pathways should help facilitate a flexible
environment for play and learning,
enabling children to promenade, access
different activities or spaces and use
their bodies fully as they experience the
different textures under foot. You can
enhance these opportunities by:
• providing a wide range of bikes
(some with and some without pedals)
that can be pushed or pulled
• locating resources in different areas
so children are encouraged to use the
pathways
• setting up trails
• providing blankets and sheets, carpet
tiles or off-cuts and table mats that
children can use to create temporary
and transportable pathways.
rills, gullies and beaches
One of the most rare and yet most
thrilling additions to an early years setting
is provision for outdoor water play. Most water from the gullies to re-use for
they are probably best situated to one side
settings already have an outdoor tap; if watering your plants in the garden.
of the garden in a space that isn’t used for
yours doesn’t then it should be top of
other play activities.
your outdoor play ‘to do’ list as it will Making the most of rills, gullies and
A ‘beach’ of cobbles or pebbles,
probably be the best value change you beaches
perhaps adjacent to a sandy area or a
ever make. The next investment is a
gulley is simple to construct. Remember In colder weather children need to put
hose-pipe. Then it’s worth considering
to include drainage underneath it, and on wellington boots to splash around
how the opportunities for water play can
perhaps cement in place several of the in; on warmer days bare feet feel good
be maximised by making changes to the
bigger cobbles to help provide a firm but check that children won’t slip up on
landscape itself. Fascinating water effects
structure. nearby surfaces. Make the most of having
can be created, observed and recorded
A soakaway (trench or hollow, filled a water feature in your outdoor setting by
by children once they have access to
with freely draining granular material such providing:
running water and interesting textures
as gravel) will be required underneath a • pieces of plywood, sieves and buckets
and gradients.
beach or at the end of a gulley – many so that children can create dams
Rills (small streams) and gullies (deeper
do-it-yourself or gardening books offer and fountains when water is running
ditches) are quite simple to create
advice on how to create one (see ‘Further through the rills and gullies
– they could be above the surface of the
resources’). It would also be sensible and • small world toys
sustainable to consider using water from • utensils and containers for mixing,
a water butt in the gullies, and collecting filling and pouring.
ground (in raised troughs) or dug into
the ground and lined with half section
drainpipes. More permanent ones could
be lined with concrete, stone (see above),
timber or metal. The main points to
consider include avoiding trip hazards
and providing appropriate drainage. Also,
up, over and under!

4. playnotes • July 2009
case study:
earlham early Years centre,
norwich
Landscaping at Earlham Early Years
Centre has transformed a flat one-acre
site into an exciting and challenging
outdoor space. One of its main features
is a ‘magic mountain’– about eight
metres high – which was constructed
with spoil from building work. Water has
been incorporated, flowing down the
side of the ‘mountain’ into a waterfall,
on into a rill, across a sensory path
creating a splash area, under a bridge
and finally into a pond. From here it is
pumped back up the ‘mountain’ to start
its journey again. At any point the water
can be diverted – in the summer a roll
of plastic sheet laid down the side of the
‘mountain’ becomes a water slide, and for exciting and challenging journeys physically adept and learn to assess risk
all year round the children experiment on bike or by foot. And there are logs for themselves at an early age. Usually, if
with various methods (dams, hoses etc) to climb and balance along, a tiered they fall over they pick themselves up and
to divert water into the sand pit. There is grassy amphitheatre and various stiles try again because of the encouragement
also a long path, made from a range of and steps to tackle. Felicity Thomas, they get – not just from staff but from
materials including bricks and roof tiles, headteacher, says: ‘Our children are very each other too.’
that creating new walls is not cheap. Books
Also,walls should always be built by a
competent bricklayer.
• 1Playing and Learning Outdoors by Jan
White (Routledge, 2007) ISBN 13:
If you do decide to build a new wall, 978-0415 412117
consider carefully where it will go, how
high it will be and what it’s for. The wall
• 2Too Safe for Their Own Good by Jennie
Lindon (National Children’s Bureau,
might be an enclosure (for example, a 2003) ISBN 1-900990-97-0
raised bed or sandpit) or it might define
a space (for example, a quiet area or
• Exercising Muscles and Minds by
Marjorie Ouvry (National Children’s
an area for ball games). Children will Bureau, 2003) ISBN 1-904787-01-0
use walls for countless other purposes
and if this is accepted, the design and
• Outdoor Play in the Early Years,
Management and Innovation by
Walls placement of walls can maximise their Helen Bilton (David Fulton, 2002)
play value. ISBN 1-85346-952-1
Many settings already have walls of
varying heights – although children
Making the most walls
• Many gardening, landscape and DIY
are often forbidden from playing manuals provide excellent instructions
on or near the walls. There could be • Low walls offer children opportunities for carrying out landscaping works
excellent reasons for this – perhaps a risk to develop balance and co-ordination – visit your local library to see what is
assessment has identified issues such as and understand the forces of gravity. available.
extreme height, poor condition of the • Higher walls can be used as canvases • The Michael Littlewood series on
wall or perhaps it is too close to a space for giant art or for collaborative target Landscape Detailing (Architectural
where others are trying to work or play. practice and counting games. Press) provides drawn details and
In other cases, however, there is no safety • All walls offer storage possibilities – are frequently referred to by design
reason for walls not to be used to balance insert stainless steel eye bolts or hooks professionals. Your library can order
along, jump over, sit on or use for target into the bricks to allow baskets, nets, these books for you.
practice. chalk boards etc to be attached.
Adding gradients or steps made from
planks or boxes increases the challenge
of learning to negotiate awkward and
Further resources © This resource was originally
changing surfaces, shapes and routes. Available to download from the Member created as part of the Schoolgrounds-UK
Children can make judgements about Services pages of our website: membership scheme from the
their own strength and abilities, and • Playnotes Risk and challenge for children national school grounds charity
Learning through Landscapes
about length, height and width. from 0–5 years
operating in Scotland as
Walls (even low ones) need strong • Advice sheets Risk Assessments; Setting
Grounds for Learning
foundations and the correct mortar pebbles into concrete; Surfaces (registered charity no. in England and Wales
mix. They also need to be perfectly 803270 and in Scotland SCO38890).
level and soundly built, and the surfaces For information on how to find a garden To find out more about
around them need to be made good designer/landscape architect contact membership call 01962 845811
once the wall is complete. All this means Member Services on 01962 845811. or visit www.ltl.org.uk
up, over and under!