Outdoor Planning

[Guest]

Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!

 

I know there have probably been lots of previous discussions so please forgive me if i am going over old ground, but some clarification is needed with regards to the scope and breadth of outdoor planning, what is right or wrong, what is enough, what are ofsted looking for???

 

At present, i changed my outdoor focus daily to reflect the focus of learning inside, i.e on a monday the focus is numercy, tuesday it is literacy, wed - physical dev, etc. Previously I was having a mirror like situation happening, whereby outdoor I had a markmaking area, sand, water, a book corner, outdoor roleplay, small world etc, etc; Both head and myself felt that this wasnt focused enough so we have daily focus. Could people shed light on the way that works for them, is a weekly focus better that incorporates all areas of learning, for e.g. im doing road safety and time this week so thought I would set up a road system and children could pretend to be police, lollipop ladies etc, reading road signs and ordering road safety instructions, linked to time I thought we could have some races e.g how many times can you pedal around the playground in a minute etc. What time does the clock say in the car park today etc etc. Please share your views as i do want to get it right and at the same time make it easier on me and my colleagues for setting it all up!!!!!!!!

 

looking forward to hearing your views

 

thanks

charlotte

[Guest]

hi,

i tend to have the outside set up simliar to inside with a writing area, role play, creative, sand, water etc then each week add different things based on the weekly theme.

this may be adding something new to the sand or adding weaving to the fence or building a den, something along them lines.

 

hope this helps.

 

the ouside area is something im trying to develop at my school but my head teacher is against everything he doesent want anthing dug up so i can have a digging area anything fixed like a den or climging frame so every day we have to wheel everthing out and in and fix bits up .

[Guest]

Obviously a tricky question, judging by the number of views and replies to your question! Our outdoor space is set up to reflect the indoor area, but on a larger scale. We try to have one focused activity outside each day but the children would not all get a chance to access it if we changed it too quickly (ie daily). A large part of the curriculum (indoors and out) is CI so we need to keep all areas available.

[Lorna]

We to try to represent all the different areas- book area, role play, writing, maths, construction, physical etc...

 

I made a set of A4 posters which velcro to the fence or close to the relevant area to help the children identify different areas and where to return equipment to after use... seems to work well.

 

It does take ages to set up each morning and my only solution has been to make sure the evening before my room is all set up for the next day, so I only have the outdoor area to do before the children arrive.

 

L