Zoning the Outside Space

In several of the courses I offer Early Years settings, I discuss the concept of zoning the outdoor area. This is not an original idea. Landscape architects who develop play spaces use zones to turn a “space” into a “place”. Each zone or area is managed for different play purposes.

During the past year, I have been lucky enough to work with the nursery staff at Southmuir Nursery as an RBS Supergrounds Advisor.  Their nursery opened in November 2001. The outdoor area consisted of a flat tarmac, surrounded by a high wire fence and some rather grim soft landscaping plants in one corner. As a result of increasing the gardening space, the staff decided to re-think the zoning of the outdoor area. Here are the results....!

Firstly, the main gardening area is outside the fenced nursery outdoor space and beside the entrance to the nursery. There are several benefits here:

• The rest of the school can visit the gardening area without disturbing the children.
• It sends a strong message about how the school and the nursery value gardening.

The water play has been situated beside the garden, on the other side of the fence.  It is right beside the outdoor tap. A hose is permanently available and can be used in the garden and in the water play area. There is a water butt and children can use the water here too. The height of the water tray has been adjusted so that a child in a wheel chair can access this resource. By sheer chance, the one dip in the tarmac happens to be in this area, creating a puddle too! The buckets contain a variety of different bottles and items for using in this area. The guttering is popular and plans are underway to create a water wall!!!

There is a mud zone. This has been expanded considerably. Children can dig in the soil or use the mud in the “bath”. There’s lots of pots, pans, stirring instruments and other resources in the area. If you look at the wall you can see one of the favourite activities - mud throwing! There are coveralls and wellies available so that children are suitably dressed for the activity.

The creative area is interesting. The back of this storage shed has been used as a storage place for natural materials. In each of the numbered bags there are different goodies including willow balls, shells, stones, sticks and twigs.

The seating is place for children to gather for drawing, snack and doing a variety of social activities.

Nearby, the fencing is used for artwork. The children are encouraged to photograph their work so that the next child can clean the perspex and create their own picture. I like the way hooks have been put on the fence so that the aprons can be stored here.

As with many nurseries using wheeled toys is very popular. The tractor tyres provide islands and the arrows indicate the direction of flow. 

Beside the fence you can see more raised planting areas and fruit trees. Perhaps surprisingly these work well beside the wheelie area. They also soften the tarmac-fence landscape and stop balls and other little toys going underneath the fencing. 

This little construction and small world pit is situated right beside a window. Children who are indoors and reluctant to be outside, find this a similar environment to being indoors as there are carpet tiles to sit on.

This is a very versatile resource - large wobbly logs. The children can sit here when putting on the “mud suits”. They are great for standing on and wobbling. But children can lie or work here too. 

Another fence separates the quiet, wilder, sensory area from the more active parts of the outdoor space. This is a lovely exploratory area with overgrown plants to make pathways interesting.  Herbs, bamboo and other interesting shrubs have been planted. There are plans for mirrors and other light catchers to complement the CDs and chimes. 

The baskets are old hanging baskets that have been placed at ground level for outdoor containers in the sensory area.

As you have probably noticed, there is plenty of outdoor storage. This play house is used to store the suits and other materials than need to go outside daily such as the carpet tiles.  

Finally, the zones have all been labelled. I think this is particularly useful for students and visitors coming to the outdoor space to help them understand the play value. The staff have found it easier to in terms of the planning and building on the children’s interests. They feel the re-zoning has led to better quality of play that is more purposeful. 

I would be really interested to know how your organise your outdoor space. Do you have clearly identifiable zones? Have you noticed the difference in what children do outside when you reorganise your zones? I find visiting schools, nurseries and other settings fascinating this way.

Scarecrows

Recently I was privileged to be invited to the Southmuir Primary Scarecrow Parade. The school was a recipient of an RBS Supergrounds Award. The money was spent on developing the gardens and encouraging nursery and primary children to work together on a mutual project as part of its approach to supporting children in their transition between nursery and primary school.  This is a celebration of the expanded and flourishing garden.

A couple of weeks ago, Teacher Tom blogged about a scarecrow his children decided to make in his nursery. It was a really good example of how children used their own initiative and ideas. This is a super post to read.

This project was very different in that the parents and children were asked to make a scarecrow at home to bring to school. Some of the scarecrows clearly had a lot of child input. Others were acts of labour and love by relatives and friends.

The Scarecrow Day was a lot of fun. The children got their faces painted and made paper scarecrows indoors.

The snack included baby carrots and lettuce from the re-vamped garden.

There were scarecrows inside too.

The children had painted stones to place in the garden where they wanted to see them.

Everyone made a flag that contributed to the bunting hanging on the fence.

At the end of the day, all the children paraded their scarecrows through the whole school. We all sang "I'm a dingle dangle scarecrow" to finish.

I've put lots more photos on the Creative STAR Facebook page, so please do take a look! If you want more scarecrow ideas and activities, then check out this website.

Tyres

This past term I've been working one morning a week in a nursery. One of the first things I brought along were a couple of tyres. These have been extremely popular with all the children who seem to enjoy....

Rolling the tyres around - the freedom of space and the joy of movement

For socialising - there's nothing like hanging out together in your own tyre made paddling pool. Rub-a-dub-dub...

Hiding inside them - the feeling of enclosure and balance

Tyres are an amazing open ended resource that can be used by schools and settings for children of all ages and stages. They take hundreds of years to break down if sent to a landfill site, so opportunities to re-use them really make a positive difference.

Permaculture enthusiasts seem to have lots of ideas for using tyres in gardening projects. I would recommend the book Getting Started in Permaculture by Jenny Mars. Here's some ideas I've seen during the past few years:

It's hard to believe that this miniature pond at the Rosmarynek Permaculture Garden in the Czech Republic has been created within a large tractor tyre. It is possible to disguise tyres very well! 

Another clever idea is to use tyres as storage! Look at how this school has used tyres to hold their supply of bamboo canes!

This planter represents the sun in a "Rainbow Garden". I like the way the children chose marigolds to plant there. If you do paint tyres, it does look better if the flowers grown there complement the colour of the tyre. It's a good idea to line tyres with a porous mesh right up to the rim so that the soil can be contained should you need to move it about. Tyres can also be stacked up for plants that have deeper root systems, such as potatoes or to enable children to access them without the need to bend over.

The same school also created this "seagull seat" in the same garden. So simple, effective and easy to do. Again this idea came from children on the Pupil Council.

At this nursery, the tyre planters are used as traffic islands in the cycling area. However, an even bigger tractor tyre is used as a sandpit:

Sherry and Donna are two pre-school teachers who have a wonderful blog, Irresistible Ideas for Play Based Learning. They livened up their tyre sand pit by using bamboo sticks and materials to create a den or "cubby". They have kindly allowed me to show you what this looks like:

This sort of den would appeal to most children of any age! Another free play idea comes from a primary school who for several years now, have lots of tyres left on their playing field for children to use as  they wish at break and lunch times. The more different types and sizes provided, the more inventive and complex the play becomes.

Tyres also make good climbing equipment. Children need opportunities to climb, balance and jump in different ways. One nursery I visited recently, had a selection of tyres that the children would move about to create obstacle courses and to clamber in and out, up and down. As you can see from the photo below, the children add other loose parts to this form of play:

Many schools go for fixing tyres into the ground. If the tyres are placed closer together, then children can use them for stepping. They can also make a useful cheap boundary for different play zones.

It's also possible to create tyre tunnels by vertically placing tyres into the ground in close proximity of each other. 

Tyres make great places to store other materials. As well and sand and soil, consider, gravel, coffee beans, pine cones, shells and other natural materials.

Looking after your tyre collection

- Only accept or obtain tyres that are intact and have no exposed wires, strips and nails. Remember to check inside the tyre as well as on the outside surface. Use heavy duty gloves to do this, and remember to continue to check your tyres on a regular basis for wear and tear. Replace as necessary.

- Clean the tyres thoroughly using detergent and water. Check that the surface will not leave black marks on clothing. Some tyres are softer than others and cause more markings.

- If you paint your tyres, use gloss paint and make sure the surface is clean and dry. This is a good idea if you have tyres that may cause black marks. 

- If tyres get dirty during play, wash them down with a hosepipe. It's a lot of fun for children to do this!

- Remember that unless your tyres are covered up, they will collect rainwater! Watch this doesn't become stagnant and empty out daily.

- If you are worried about use of tyres during evenings and weekends, then running a chain through the tyres may help prevent this occurrence.

Finally, for me, the best use of a tyre has to be as a swing. Tied to a tree. Do you remember the hours of fun to be had?

(And yes, this tyre swing is in a school playground and children are encouraged to use it!)

Guess what's attached to this fence

Look at these purple tubes. Anyone have any idea what their original purpose was?

Still on Stones!

I'm wondering whether I'm going through a rocky time...this is my third post in succession about stones. I think I've been quite inspired through visiting other blogs and websites. For example, the Victoria and Albert museum have launched a World Beach Project that encourages you to submit beach art to their site. There's lots to see already.

Gwynneth Beasley recently blogged about outdoor art and this reminded me about some lovely artwork 6 and 7 year olds at Kinellar Primary School created as part of an outdoor art lesson last November. The photos have been kindly supplied by Lucy Brydon, Visiting Teacher of Art:

What I particularly like is that the stones used are the gravel from nearby paths! The children had to find a clear surface upon which to work, or create one by clearing away the leaf litter in the school garden.

Naturally using whatever happens to be lying around is great for art work, creating minibeast habitats and many other activities. This Zen Garden in a Czech infant school is a lovely example of an attractive gravel pit. Children can make large scale stone art by drawing and raking in the gravel and moving around the stones. The ones on the side are actually green potatoes left over from a potato harvest.

I frequently get queries from course participants about my collections of painted stones and other rocks and how to source such material. In Scotland it is important that the Scottish Outdoor Access Code is followed. Always check by-laws at beaches and observe the Fossil Code. It is important to never remove rocks and stones from walls, no matter how derelict, without the landowner's permission.

DIY stores and garden centres are often good places to look for a variety of rocks and stones. Decorative pebbles can also be bought from stores such as Ikea or Hobbycraft.

The pebbles used in the maths activity in the above photo have been bought from Au Naturale. They are semi-polished river stones.

Many children love throwing stones. This worries a lot of teachers who are put off using stones for play and learning purposes. The trick here is to teach children to throw stones safely. This will help them judge distances between themselves and other objects in space. Let them take turns to throw stones into a bucket of water, puddle or large body of water. This almost always works as a focus. Ensure there is plenty of distance between the child and other people, buildings, windows, cars, etc. In the UK it would be sensible to write the rules and routines around using pebbles into a risk benefit assessment. 

Finally last year I blogged a couple of times about rocks: Reflections on Rock Collections and This Place Still Rocks. However, perhaps my favourite idea comes from Eric Gyllenhaal and his wonderful Salt the Sandbox blog. He also has more rock activities in his family's Neighborhood Nature blog. The link takes you to the Collectors Garden on his front lawn. It's a place for anyone to come and look for interesting rocks and fossils. What a unique contribution to benefit his local community!

Play Features That Use Stones

When I was collecting my photos for my previous posting about stones, I got increasingly enthusiastic about other uses of stones. For example, Jennifer, in her Let the Children Play blog, has several postings around the theme of dry creeks. I would recommend using the search facility on her blog to have a look.

Squiggle Mum has a super post about how to make a dry creek. The same principles apply in the UK. Just choose native plants to border the stream. You may also like to see the dry creek in the Hush Garden at Irresistible Ideas for Play Based Learning.

Perhaps surprisingly I see very few dry streams in Scotland. Yet our climate is made for them! The above photo is from an outdoor nursery in Sweden. Children sometimes fill this with water. Other times, it's a place for small world play. It can be filled with sand, soil, gravel or any other loose material.

At the Morton Aboretum just outside Chicago, there is an amazing Children's Park that has a dazzling array of different natural features including the dry stream above. I like the combination of fixed and loose parts. It's also big enough for little children to sit or stand in too. Below is their paddling area which is an interesting wetland mix including bog, stepping stones and shallow water. This was one of the most popular parts of the park.

Having other materials nearby can increase the play value of a dry stream. Below is a lovely example of a dry stream in a Highland Garden. The feature has been simply created from river pebbles between two hillocks covered with bark chips. However, children may not play there - yet!

Pebbles can be used as an interesting edge. This school pond is shallow and the pebble border helps highlight the pond:

Finding a source of boulders can be surprisingly challenging. At Inveraray Primary School, the most popular play feature is the stones and nearby large log. When the new car park was being created, the kind contractor ensured these "rescued" materials were moved into the grounds for the children.

If you have rocks with sharp corners or edges, it is worth paying for these to get sanded down before installing them. You may wish to decide, depending on the amount of rock available, if the children want a larger feature to climb, such as a boulder terrace or hill:

Another option that mixes play and learning is to have a geology trail that is large enough for children to climb or sit on. Here's an example from a park in Sweden:

Approximately one third of any boulder should be buried for stability. If a series of stepping stones are being made, then watch out for foot traps and take height into consideration. In the UK there are guidelines and advice available - ask a landscape architect in the first instance. It is also good practice to use local stone if possible. Otherwise use a reputable supplier such as Purbeck Stone. 

The photo above is  of a play park in Stirling Council which has several fine examples of natural play spaces. I like the versatility of this boulder arrangement - as a boundary, seating and stepping stones.

Small scale features can also use stone in creative ways. At one nursery I visited recently, the staff have built a wee drystane dyke and left the end for the children to work on and use as a source of rocks for playing with:

I think this is a good idea for any stone wall in an education or play setting. It provides greater interest and challenge to a garden border. Also it's a place for minibeasts to live so children can have fun removing the rocks and seeing what creature might be underneath.

Finally, in case you are wondering about where these photos came from. Back in 2008 I was fortunate enough to gain a Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship which enabled me to visit North America, Sweden and the Czech Republic to look at outdoor technologies. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. As part of my current work, I make site visits to schools and nurseries to provide advice, ideas and support to develop the grounds. This is on behalf of Grounds for Learning, the Scottish school grounds charity. Lastly, I just ask schools and organisations that I'm visiting, if I may take photos.