Introduction

As part of the Froebel in Early Childhood Practice course, we were to further develop an area within the setting that links to a core Froebelian experience. Observations showed that our current outdoor environment was not reaching its full potential, although the children enjoy daily access to the outdoors. We chose this area to develop as we felt the area needed more opportunities for challenge, risk taking, curiosity and nurture towards living things. To ensure this was embedded and sustainable, as a team we further developed our skills and knowledge on the benefits of outdoor play, so we can support the children within their outdoor play experiences. Froebel said, ‘To learn a thing in life and through doing is much more developing, cultivating and strengthening than to learn merely though the verbal communication of ideas’ (Froebel 1885:2).

Context

During this project the nursery has faced lots of challenges such as COVID 19 and lockdown, however I wanted to continue to make our garden a more inviting and rich learning space. Learning about the importance of having an outdoor garden space, made me really start to think about how to make the space accessible for all children. A place where they are free to explore and use their imagination, as well as take risks and challenge themselves. Developing our knowledge as a staff team, of the importance of the outdoors, the reasons, and the benefits from the outdoors, was critical in this process to make the garden a rich learning space. The space had so much potential however as it was, it did not allow for the rich learning experiences we wanted to take place. As a team we had to work hard together to build confidence and realise that children’s experiences to learn and develop are enhanced by being able to experience nature first hand (My World Outdoors,2016.)  Through research and training, staff were able to see that our garden space should have engagement with nature, risk, adventure, curiosity, and investigation (Tovey, 2018.)

The biggest challenge was deciding what we wanted to add to the space so we had team discussions, as well as discussions with the children and the children draw pictures of the things they would like to see in the garden. Once we had both staff and children’s voices it was clear I had to think of realistic and affordable ways to implement these ideas. I took into consideration the materials we already had in the garden and began to use them first before sourcing material out with the setting. We started small by introducing a tyre swing and we continued to use the tyres within the garden to make a climbing wall. We then began to revamp the existing flower beds through donations from our parents and children. The children took great ownerships and were all excited to plant the flowers they had brought into nursery and to continue to look after them throughout the school year. We were lucky enough to get donations from our local garden centre and used these donations to start our own vegetable plot.