Do you want to incorporate more outdoor play into your program? This workshop will consider the benefits and challenges of outdoor play. How can you and your colleagues conduct risk assessment of private and public outdoor spaces and understand your own boundaries around risky and adventurous play? How can your childcare centre respond to the challenges of extreme weather…or just regular rainy days? This workshop will help you reflect on your feelings about outdoor play, consider how to enrich children’s outdoor learning, and develop your own process of reflection to guide you in choosing and developing play spaces, planning around extreme weather, and preparing to do dynamic risk assessment in changing environments.

Living Inquiries:

Well-being and Belonging.
Engagement with others, materials, and the world.

Pathways:

Connecting children to the land in a playful and holistic manner.
Creating safer outdoor learning environments.
Planning a play space
Preparing for field trips to local parks.
Developing policies and procedures for inclement and extreme weather
Working with parents and colleagues to educate about children’s safety and the benefits of outdoor play
Understanding risk assessment and personal feelings about risky play

Suitable for ECE students, intermediate early care and learning professionals working with children of all ages, from infants/toddlers to school age children, including children with extra support needs.

Facilitator: Tricia Edgar

Tricia loves to connect people with their places. For over 25 years, she has worked as a nature educator, developing programs that explore the streams and forests of the temperate rainforest. She enjoys the time and space that children have when they play outside at forest school, and she loves watching children fill with enthusiasm and wonder in nature.