Perhaps it was the COVID-19 pandemic that got you teaching preschool in your outdoor space or maybe something else entirely, like a visit to a nature classroom, that inspired you to try something new. That’s fantastic—research suggests that outdoor learning has many benefits for young children, including helping them to regulate their emotions and increase their nature knowledge.

We can support children’s development and learning outdoors through intentionally designed spaces and mindful interactions. As teachers who were already scheduled to teach outside due to pandemic precautions and then experienced an epic flood that ruined our classroom floor, we learned many things when teaching outside was not so much a choice as a mandate. Though initially we struggled and grumbled and got very wet, we came to a place where the practice is manageable and we are confident. Even now, as pandemic restrictions have eased and we have a lovely new floor, we still enjoy a vibrant outdoor classroom that’s paired with indoor learning.

Here are eight tips that we discovered to be essential for learning outdoors. We think you can use them too, whether you’re looking to establish an outdoor program, finetune an existing one, or simply get outside more often.

1. Consider your space. Include a welcome area for signing in and putting away personal items, and set up designated, predictable spaces for specific activities. Children thrive when there are opportunities for the creative arts, blocks and cognitive play, literacy, science, and movement. Select locations so that an adult can easily oversee several areas at once. For example, an adult could supervise both an art project table and a block table, but gluing and coaching children on trikes is much harder.
2. Articulate and document your daily schedule. Both children and adults appreciate having a daily plan: it helps children who struggle with separation or are anxious to track the time, and it makes teamwork go smoothly. You can adapt your daily schedule to accommodate the amount of time you have outdoors and the different interests, strengths, and needs of your group. For example, our schedule looks like “free play, cleanup, circle, snack, free play, cleanup, circle.” We take pictures of these events, pair them with words, then laminate the schedule and post it where everyone can reference it.
3. Let the environment and children’s interests guide areas of investigation and the time allotted to them. You can study insects all year long, moving from snails in the fall, to earthworms as it begins to rain, to cabbage caterpillars in the spring. Or you might have intended to explore seed planting one day, but you discover ice in the watering can. Go ahead and pivot! Be a person who models biophilia, or connecting to nature—it’s okay to let that pumpkin fall apart long past October, become compost, and even sprout into new pumpkins. Gooey can be interesting too! Or try making a river in the sand when it gets hot—it’s amazing what you can use as a boat!
4. Be a reader and a writer outside. Use easels to write down children’s ideas, and read what you write back to them. Bring books outside to read, and create a designated place for reading and resting. Be intentional about providing and reading environmental print. While you may not be able to label as many things as you would indoors due to weather conditions, you can bring out labeled bins. You can use props (such as cake boxes that have the image and word cake on them), and you can design your large- and small-group activities to include images and words.
5. Don’t forget about science and math. It’s tempting to say that everything outdoors relates to science or math and put that area on the backburner. Instead, invite children to learn about gardening, to create an insect tank and research what’s inside, and to use magnifying glasses to look more closely at the nature around them. There are so many things to count outdoors and so many sizes to compare. Once you do this, you can chart and graph what you find.
6. Use your sandbox for dramatic play. With just a bit of laminated money and a few cash registers or shoeboxes, you can create a store. Freeze colorful ice balls, and maybe it’s an ice cream shop. Ask families to bring in their empty grocery containers for home-to-school connections. Provide brooms for the children; they can help you sweep escaping sand back into the sandbox.
7. Plan for the weather. Weather happens. We had to talk with families about clothing choices and ask them to supply back-up clothing. We needed more towels to dry surfaces and dry wet children, more shelter, and more set-up and cleanup time. We also needed to be more careful with items such as easels, puzzles, and wooden blocks. We needed to be more intentional with our curriculum, putting it under our awning so we could stay relaxed if it rained. We learned that plastic toys and most science tools can handle getting muddy and wet, so we presented those in a separate, unsheltered area of our yard. You may find it useful to have mats, tarps, towels, pop-up shelters, folding tables, bins, and backup clothing available. Families, consignment shops, and garage sales can be great sources for these items.
8. Encourage adults to participate. While play and exploration are important, adult interaction deepens children’s learning. Is your staff sending messages that they are children’s learning partners? Make sure they’re comfortable being low to the ground, engaging in your space, and handling materials. Adults tend to stand and cross their arms when they’re cold or avoiding the mud. The deliberate placement of mats, use of tarps, and inclusion of low chairs can bring them down to the child’s level.

High-quality practice is possible, indoors and in the yard. The key is to be flexible, creative, and intentional in how you design your space and how you interact once you’re there. You also must be patient as you adapt to wind, rain, sun, fog . . . but you can do it!

Photograph: © Getty Images
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