Outdoor area is just one, big, waterlogged field. Help!

[Guest]

I've just started working in a new school where we have a very large space for outdoor learning, surrounded by trees and shrubs, with the rest being all grass. Apparently it gets extremely waterlogged in wet weather, so deep in parts that it comes over the top of little wellies. We have a tiny paved area for wheeled toys/bikes etc but it is really too small to offer any challenge. I've been mulling over the possibilities for development, but in reality there isn't the cash to install a large soft pour area (or anything similar) anywhere on the field, and won't be for at least another year. Some of the staff (we are two YR classes) have been on Forest School training, and we want to go with the whole mud kitchen/exploring/out in all weathers approach, but at the moment don't quite know where to start. There is also no water supply outside (oh the irony), and as we are in a two classroom prefab and the taps/toilets are in the centre of the building, installing an outside tap will be tricky (the classrooms are also too small but that's another thread altogether). I'm planning to get a water butt though with 60 children, 2/3 of whom are boys, who are outside at every opportunity, we may need more than one!

We know where we want to be, but it would be great to hear any ideas anyone may have for using what is essentially a huge field (I'm guessing it measures about 400m x 300m) with very few resources and next to no cash. I've got a whole album full of pics and ideas for inspiration and have also created pinboards on Pinterest, it's just a case of knowing where to start and the fact it's a field, so needs to be 'zoned' in some way.

We've had some resources donated / given cheaply by local builders merchants but not a huge amount. I've wondered whether it would be just as useful to take up some of the real grass and replace with artificial grass, simply to provide a more useable area all year around. This would cost considerably less than installing a soft pour surface. I'm currently waiting on HTs agreement (or not) to my suggestion that we abandon bikes on the small paved area and instead use these for perhaps an hour each session only on the adjacent KS1 playground, which although a shorter time, would enable us to provide more challenging learning opportunities for bikes/scooters etc. At the moment all they do is whizz around in a (small) circle as there's not enough space to do anything else.

Any ideas would be most welcome.

[finleysmaid]

ooh how excititng. When we first moved to our new building we were faced with a garden that had been bulldozed and re-turfed. It was a bit daunting so we decided that the best thing was to do nothing! we allowed the children to explore and made notes of what they did and where (given some lose parts) . then we developed areas for planting/sand/fairy garden/reading-quiet area.role play, mud kitchen etc etc without compromising the space. If you want to do forest school approach do you need a fire area? gathering space? etc. might be worth getting a few pallets to create a space off the grass to use in really wet weather? bark is a fairly cheap resource to 'dry up' an area. Have you got anyone chopping down a tree....can they give you the tree trunk? It would be worth planting some trees if you could (get grants for this)

have fun!

[Moorside]

Personally I wouldn't go near wet pour if I could dig mine up I would! If you are stuck for ideas on how to use your water logged area go to http://creativestarlearning.co.uk/ it is full of great ideas. You do however need waterproof clothing and good wellies for your children in order to keep parents on side. We only have a small wet pour area but now spend every Friday in a local woodland - whatever the weather - kids love it and the learning is fantastic. Spent last Friday making number lines with sycamore leaves with black spot, counting the black spots and threading onto willow number lines.

[Lumpty]

We've got an urban junk area (there's a recycling company in our area that provide us with things at a small cost each month) we've got different sized tyres, crates, plastic tubes etc. Then we have a nature art area where we've got small logs, acorns, conkers etc for the children to make patterns and pictures in a black builders tray. Also we've got a den building area with canes, wooden mallets and camouflage netting, blankets pegs etc. Also a gardening section with some large planters where we plant flowers bulbs and vegetables. Sorry to go on, but my class love the box of pots and pans for music making or mid pies!! Hope these ideas are useful :-) goodluck

[Guest]

Thank you for all the inspiration. I'm really happy that my ideas are along the same lines as everyone else's; the more I look at the field the less I want to cover any part of it over! I have spent HOURS looking through posts on Pinterest (what on earth did we all do before the internet?????) It looks like we will be able to use the adjacent playground for bikes etc (yay), and I saw a great post on ABC Does last week about offering challenge for wheeled toys, which the boss loved :-), so I'm fired up and ready to go.

It turns out we already have a stash of wellies and waterproofs, they were gathering dust in the shed, so I've re-organised the space outside to make them accessible at all times. We've a fair few trees already and a hill, so the possibilities are endless. I'm collecting some wooden pallets next week and should have a sink for my mud kitchen soon. As suggested, I've been watching the children over the last few weeks to see where they go/what they do. We had a short spell of rain last week and the digging pit suddenly became the place to be. One little boy who usually spends all of his time indoors in the construction area (and squabbles incessantly) spent two whole afternoons organising groups in the digging pit in a quest to find as many worms as possible, without a single incident. It almost made me cry watching them all so happily engrossed in their activities.

Thanks for the responses - I won't be asking for any hard surfacing for the time being, as I can't think of a surface that would best meet the needs of the children. I'd rather the money was spent on other resources (I'm trying to persuade the powers that an additional TA or even two would be MUCH more effective in terms of improving outcomes for our children as the resources for outdoors can be found for little money if we are creative). It is all so exciting and I have to be honest I'm really enjoying the challenge of setting it all up from nothing. I've been out of school for a few years, working as an EYC, but am back in YR since being made redundant and I'm loving it. I'll keep you posted on how we get on. Thanks again.

 

PS - we have a paving circle just sat there waiting to be laid. I saw a great idea for what to do with it the other week but can't find the image :-(
Originally I had thought to lay it and put some kind of seating around the edges, so it could be used as an outdoor 'carpet area' and also as a 'stage'. Has anyone here used a paving circle and if so do you have any pics to share?
Thanks again.

[Melcatfish]

My summer project was to revamp part of our grass area where the grass didn't grow well and which turned wet and slimey in the winter (not quite water logged but certainly difficult to work with)

 

We already have a well used mud pie kitchen with the sort of mud they can dig well (not compacted and easily transportable) so instead I got hold of a massive load of car tyres. Bear in mind suppliers have to pay to safely recycle these so it was not hard to get a local firm to donate me 50 car tyres (plus two tractor tyres in addition to the two they had previously donated)

I painted these in varying shades of masonry paint in natural colours. With a bit of weed membrane underneath and tyres arranged in a circle on top they have created two "pits" one is a lovely large sand pit and the other is a bark pit. I have plans to further develop them and include balancing logs and stepping logs but for now there is a plastic slide in the bark pit (no more time or money just yet!) but the children LOVE it, especially the sand pit!

The photos are from the end of August so they are unused, there is now more planting in some of the tyres, some are turfed for sitting on or for playing small world games and some will soon have some fab tyre specific resources from the Cosy catalogue including tyre blackboards, exploration bowls and tyre mirrors.

With your drainage problem you may need to add a layer of gravel under the membrane although the sand or bark acts as a natural drainage aid.

 

Good luck with it all.

Mel

x

 

 

[Guest]

Pictures look fab! Can I just ask about tyres...

My head was adamant we are not to have used tyres in our outdoor area because its not safe. Any ideas on this? I have no idea x

[Guest]

My summer project was to revamp part of our grass area where the grass didn't grow well and which turned wet and slimey in the winter (not quite water logged but certainly difficult to work with)

 

We already have a well used mud pie kitchen with the sort of mud they can dig well (not compacted and easily transportable) so instead I got hold of a massive load of car tyres. Bear in mind suppliers have to pay to safely recycle these so it was not hard to get a local firm to donate me 50 car tyres (plus two tractor tyres in addition to the two they had previously donated)

I painted these in varying shades of masonry paint in natural colours. With a bit of weed membrane underneath and tyres arranged in a circle on top they have created two "pits" one is a lovely large sand pit and the other is a bark pit. I have plans to further develop them and include balancing logs and stepping logs but for now there is a plastic slide in the bark pit (no more time or money just yet!) but the children LOVE it, especially the sand pit!

The photos are from the end of August so they are unused, there is now more planting in some of the tyres, some are turfed for sitting on or for playing small world games and some will soon have some fab tyre specific resources from the Cosy catalogue including tyre blackboards, exploration bowls and tyre mirrors.

With your drainage problem you may need to add a layer of gravel under the membrane although the sand or bark acts as a natural drainage aid.

 

Good luck with it all.

Mel

x

 

 

Mecatfish those pics look fab, and spookily, I was just discussing this very kind of thing today at school. My job at half term is to secure as many tyres as I can (and a couple of tractor tyres if possible) and create this kind of area. If I get enough I hope to start with a digging pit and a sand pit. Exciting!!!!! And thank you again for pics, I love seeing the lovely things other people on here create :-)

[Melcatfish]

Pictures look fab! Can I just ask about tyres...

My head was adamant we are not to have used tyres in our outdoor area because its not safe. Any ideas on this? I have no idea x

I would suggest you ensure that they don't have any nails etc... in them but beyond that I don't know what safety issues there are. They sell them in the Cosy catalogue for use in early years and lots of the advisors use photos of settings using them.

We haven't had any issues at all so far...

Mel

x

[Melcatfish]

Mecatfish those pics look fab, and spookily, I was just discussing this very kind of thing today at school. My job at half term is to secure as many tyres as I can (and a couple of tractor tyres if possible) and create this kind of area. If I get enough I hope to start with a digging pit and a sand pit. Exciting!!!!! And thank you again for pics, I love seeing the lovely things other people on here create :-)

Thanks, in the end I hope to extend the pits and then have a climbing structure that straddles the two areas but still leaves plenty of free space in the middle. Even just introducing these two areas alongside our mud kitchen has meant the children are sooo much more engaged in their play. We are very happy with the result although it is an ongoing project.

Mel

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