Nursery World - Nursery Equipment: Outdoors

The importance of outdoor play to development is well documented.
Julie Mountain explains how to get right both attitude and
resources.

The best classroom and the richest cupboard is roofed only by the sky.' Margaret McMillan's familiar quote is often used by early years practitioners, and it's an apposite reminder, if refurbishing or expanding, to go back to basics when planning for outdoor play.

While adults' - and policy - priorities may seem to change with the seasons, children still like to do what they've always done outdoors: construct, move and be noisy, investigate and get messy. The trick, as always, is to combine their natural and urgent need to play outdoors with your intended learning outcomes - and the best way to do that is to start with what children want to do outdoors.

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