Outdoor Spaces

Team building is an ongoing process that helps a work group evolve into a cohesive unit.

This document provides information from the Ministry of Education with regards to working in shared spaces. It outlines Ontario’s view of the child, families, and educators, and also offers support and suggestions of how to make a shared space inclusive and inviting for all.

Outdoors provide endless opportunities for children to explore, experience risky play, grow and have fun.
The article by Zimany and Rossovska (2020) reveals the study's results, conducted at Humber CDC, highlighting parents' perspectives on their children's involvement with nature and its impact on their well-being and development.

This document and related promotional activities aims to create a sense of community within the outdoor play sector, provide a common vision for the sector to thrive and succeed over the next five years, and identify priorities for action. 

Exploring the outdoors for play and exploration on rainy days.  

The document provides information about the Child Care Design layout and the regulations and standards that centres must meet according to Government Standards.

Children, Outdoor Play and Loose Parts by Caileigh Flannigan and Beverlie Dietze 

This journal article investigates the development benefits of preschool children in a rural outdoor natural environment interacting with loose parts.

This resource will look at school readiness, the four frames of learning, mealtime strategies, and more.

This article discusses the benifits associated with connecting children with nature. You will read about outdoor learning experiences and environments to expand your knowledge.

Throughout this video, it discusses the three ingredients of outdoor play which are: time, space, and freedom and why these are important for children’s holistic development.  

Recognizing the environment as a teacher and creating a flexible space that is designed with input from children creates many possibilities for learning and growth.

This video discusses the concepts and the benefits of Forest Nature Schools and how it allows for inclusivity of all children to explore.

Water play activities can be simple, clever and are great for a group. They are cost effective and can be done using materials already found at your childcare centre. Try some water relay races. To increase the challenge add an obstacle course. Have the children use items such as plastic bottles, funnels, pool noodles, basins and plastic tie wraps to create a water wonderland.

This resource provides a series of activities that educators can use to engage with learners this summer. 

This resource discusses This resource discusses how to improve a school playground to better meet the needs of the students and children. There are suggestions of how to organize the space, monitoring practices, as well as other tips.;

With summer programming comes alot of outdoor play, this resource is for educators to create an engaging programming for the very busy child to remembering sun and heat safety.  Especially for the child who is unable to consider this on their own. With all that extra outdoor time summer can be an excellent opportunity to work on gross motor skills.

This resource povides some easy and inexpensive fun things you can do at your day care or at home with your family. These can be adapted for most ages and abilities.

This resource reintroduces the benefits of playgrounds. It helps us to recognize the importance of play for children as well as acknowledges the many benefits associated with playing on the playground.

With the arrival of the warm summer months it provides teachers with so many wonderful opportunities to incorporate the natural elements of the outdoors, into their program development. This resource provides some creative ways to engage pre-school and kingdergarten aged children in natural resources such as leaves, flat rocks and flowers. 

This article highlights 9 different books that promote exploration of the outdoor environments and provides brief descriptions of the 9 books listed.  

This resource will provide a general overview of outdoor learning, as well as some great books that can help educators learn about how to incorporate outdoor learning into their lesson plans.