Why Outdoor Play is an Important Part of the Curriculum
Whether teaching begins at home or at school, finding a way to engage children with their learning is top of the agenda. You can’t expect them to learn everything from a textbook. In fact, during the Early Years Foundation Stage, experts recommend that parents and teachers focus more resolutely on the importance of play, which includes outdoor play.
From the age of two onwards, children begin developing the emotional and social skills necessary to become independent and successful adults. In order to foster this individuality and self-expression, children need to be given the time and space to explore their surroundings and initiate friendships.
Pentagon Play provides children with a platform to do just that. All of Pentagon Play’s products are specifically designed with early stage development in mind, offering children a bespoke opportunity to explore, create and discover. The outdoors are crucial to a child’s physical, cognitive and emotional development, which is why Pentagon Pay supplies such a wide range of outdoor play equipment.
{Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Pentagon Play. I was compensated for my time in sharing this information. I only participate in sponsored posts that I would use myself. Please see my full Disclosure Policy for more details.}
Why Outdoor Play Such An Important Part Of The Curriculum
With grades and assessments given so much coverage in school rankings, it’s easy to forget that play is an essential part of childhood. Without play, children would never learn to communicate, use their imagination or even express emotion. Play is like a rehearsal for life and helps children put complicated ideas into practise. While formal learning helps children hone these skills at a later stage, it cannot substitute for the foundations that independent play creates.
Pentagon Play understands just how vital outdoor play is to early learners. The great outdoors is proven to stimulate healthy growth and provide children with a limitless resource for their games and activities. Our outdoor play equipment improves base skills such as gross and fine motor movements, decision-making and creativity.
Categories Of Outdoor Play
Active Play
Active play is the kind of activity many of us would associate with the outdoors – but outdoor play equipment can provide far more inspiration for physical games than just plain old running and jumping. For a child to develop sufficiently, they need access to apparatus that can help strengthen core motor skills, refine hand-eye coordination and aid with balance. Combined, these skills lead to improved performance in sports, as well as more intricate activities such as writing and sewing.
Children’s trim trail equipment is a perfect example of holistic active play. Incorporating varying levels and types of apparatus, trim trails encourage children to use every part of their bodies. Trim trails give you the opportunity to spot which core skills a child is naturally gifted with and which need further development. Pentagon Play also designs bespoke treehouses, which can be customised to aid these weaker skills.
Imaginative Play
Outdoor play encourages children to engage their creative side and participate in unstructured games. Creativity is incredibly important for the development of artistic skills, as well as helping a child gain independence and solve problems by themselves. Messy play and role play are two particular forms of imaginative play that enable younger children to begin expressing themselves.
Pentagon Play provides creative play equipment that enables children to exercise their imagination. Our mud kitchens and sand tables allow early years learners to make simple creations by building on their natural, tactile urge. The sensory development on offer from this equipment stimulates children to investigate, explore and gain a better understanding of the way things work. Den making can further this development, by allowing children to design and create their own individual spaces.
Learning Through Play
Outdoor play equipment can be a great learning aid for more standardized subjects such as maths, literacy and science. Sitting at a desk, especially on a sweltering summer’s afternoon, can be a complete brain drain. Outdoor play is the perfect way to keep the lesson in full swing. The tactile nature of play can make it easy for children to get to grips with difficult concepts. For example, burying plastic numbers in sand tables will provide stimulation for counting and simple equations. Being able to learn in an open and relaxed environment will also allow children to better engage with reading and writing. It’s far easier to imagine stories coming to life when you are surrounded by natural inspiration.
Connect With Pentagon Play On Social Media
To learn more about the products Pentagon Play offer or to keep up to date on the latest outdoor education news, be sure to follow us on social media. We regularly post new articles and blogs, all focusing on the best ways to get your children playing and learning in the great outdoors.
Other Outdoor Play Ideas
