Children’s outdoor play almost always includes taking risks. Risky play helps children practice decision-making and self-care. Risk taking can have positive outcomes and is essential for healthy child development, like when learning to walk, or ride a bike. Responsible supervision involves identifying and managing hazards, so children can freely engage with risk taking within co-established limits. Learning Objective: Recognize the importance of outdoor risky play and see what it can look like in the school context.

What is Risky Outdoor Play?

Risky play is often the spark for emergent learning when children are provided with time, space, and freedom to explore the world around them. Teachers can scaffold curricular learning from experiential and emergent learning encountered through play. Learning Objective: Become more familiar with how curricular learning can be introduced through children’s risky play.

Bridging Risky Play and Learning

Risky play offers children an important opportunity to practice what consent looks like and feels like. Yes spaces also allow children to demonstrate personal and social responsibility. Learning Objective: Become familiar with play behaviors that may benefit from a ’yes’ space at school.

Creating YES Spaces

The role of the teacher in risky play is to observe children’s play and guide risk assessments, as necessary. Some play situations require direct instruction, like appropriate tool use or campfire management. Teachers also have a responsibility to ensure children’s outdoor play does not damage sensitive ecosystems. Learning Objective: You will better understand your supervisory role in children’s outdoor risky play at school.

Observation and the Role of the Teacher in Risky Play

Prepare for all weather learning by packing a go bag with seasonal supplies. Seasonal supplies ensure outdoor play and learning is comfortable for everyone. Dress in layers and stay sun safe in warmer months. Gear lending libraries can further facilitate outdoor learning experiences for everyone. Learning Objective: Identify gear gaps in your classroom and school and identify which resources you need to support all weather learning.

Prepare for All Weather

Core routines for outdoor learning include entry routines, gathering and reflection circles, sit spots, journaling, and safety routines. Core routines can become independent choice activities that allow for children to explore your school community, within defined expectations, established over time. Learning Objective: Develop core routines that support transitions to outdoor learning spaces.

Core Routines

Outdoor play and learning can be unpredictable. Dynamic decisions are sometimes necessary and are made with the best information you have in the moment. Teachers have a responsibility to identify and mitigate emerging hazards. Urban hazards may include unexpected encounters with drug paraphernalia, road traffic, and off leash dogs. Learning Objective: Identify and mitigate hazards in your urban learning environment.

Urban Hazards

Outdoor play and learning can be unpredictable. Dynamic decisions are sometimes necessary and are made with the best information you have in the moment. Teachers have a responsibility to identify and mitigate emerging hazards. Rural hazards may include wildlife encounters, open water, or high winds in forested areas. Learning Objective: Identify and mitigate hazards in your rural learning environment.

Rural Hazards

Having a well-equipped backpack or wagon ready to ‘grab and go’ makes outdoor learning easier for teachers. Weather-resistant supplies, like clipboards, magnifying lenses, art materials, field guides, and a first aid kit are sensible additions. Learning Objective: Identify and gather resources for an outdoor learning grab and go bag.

Grab and Go Resources

Engage with like-minded colleagues through local, provincial, or national networks. Stay updated on conferences and professional learning offered for teachers by joining provincial specialist associations. Learning Objective: Understand the importance of building a professional learning community around outdoor play and learning.

Finding Like-Minded Colleagues

Emergent learning is responsive to the interests and discoveries of children as they participate in the world around them. Learning Objective: Develop a conceptual understanding of how emergent learning enhances outdoor learning.

What is Emergent Learning?

Math is all around us – from number walks exploring local signs to finding shapes in your community, consider how engaging with symmetry, graphing, and sorting can be playfully explored outdoors. Learning Objective: Develop a conceptual understanding of how numeracy and mathematics can be enhanced through outdoor learning.

Numeracy and Mathematics Outdoors

Freeze bubbles to explore states of matter, watch evaporation in action, or melt snow for a warm cup of tea. Swap worksheets for hands-on activities that engage learners in playful learning outdoors. Learning Objective: Develop an understanding of how scientific concepts can be enhanced through outdoor learning.

Science Outdoors

Engage young learners with early literacy and mark making by providing sticks, chalk, and paint for outdoor play. Outdoor environments are perfect for exploring imaginative story play, forms, functions, and genres of texts. Learning Objective: Expand your understanding of how to locate language and literacy learning meaningfully outdoors.

Literacy and Language Learning Outdoors

Teachers can translate outdoor learning into mandated reporting formats using checklists, field notes, and nature journals. From time to time, teachers also capture student learning using digital tools and platforms for parent engagement and documentation of learning that includes student voice. Learning Objective: Observe effective strategies for assessment and evaluation of curricular learning outdoors.

Making Learning Visible

Loose parts are versatile tools for assessing conceptual understanding and competencies. Loose parts are useful when assessing diverse learners and can make visible a child’s understanding. Learning Objective: Learn how to prepare loose parts as an assessment tool for outdoor play and learning.

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