Active learning outdoors

The outdoor learning environment offers motivating and different opportunities for learning. Most establishments provide safe, secure outdoor spaces where children have regular outdoor play, fresh air and exercise.

Some learning that takes place indoors can be revisited outdoors, and staff can make connections between indoor and outdoor learning across the curriculum. All aspects of the curriculum can be explored outside. The sights, sounds and smells of the outdoors, the closeness to nature, the excitement most children feel, the wonder and curiosity all serve to enhance and stimulate learning.

In support of an active, stimulating approach to learning, staff need to be open to the changing possibilities of using the spaces they have, and using them flexibly and differently, with children learning both indoors and outdoors.

Reflective questions

When considering learning indoors and outdoors: 

• How can you best organise the space you have available to provide an active learning environment?
• How do you ensure rich and varied opportunities for play and experiences that will stimulate children’s imagination?
• How can you best organise your space and furniture to allow children to have places to carry out different kinds of activity?
• How do you ensure regular opportunities for physical activity?
• How do you include the outdoor environment as a resource when planning children’s learning?
• In what ways can children be given opportunities to explore the natural world and their local environment?
• If there are barriers to learning outdoors, how can you overcome them?