When planning for any topic, practitioners need to consider carefully how the chosen theme can be explored outdoors as well as inside. It is important to identify the opportunities that are unique to the outdoor classroom and which will add an extra dimension to teaching and learning possibilities in all areas of the Foundation Stage curriculum.
Look carefully at your outdoor area and consider how it could lend itself to exploring the theme of colour. Too frequently we take our outdoor area for granted. When considering the learning opportunities to offer to children, it is important to take a fresh look at the available resources, whatever they may be, and to view them in a positive light.
Buildings
All buildings offer the potential for exploring colour, whether it is the colour of bricks, wood or manufactured materials. Looking carefully at constructions of all kinds can inspire work not only on colour but also on patterns and textures.
Boards
Adding boards where children can use all manner of mark-making materials can enhance fences and walls. The boards may be painted with blackboard paint, or left plain with bulldog clips attached, so that children can experiment with running paint or other mark-making materials.
Plants
Plants will always add colour to an outdoor environment and this need not be an expensive undertaking. Planting brightly coloured, quick-growing plants with vivid blooms such as nasturtiums, marigolds and candytuft will add a host of colours to any environment.
Existing planting can be looked at in a new light - searching for shades of green, for example, or monitoring the changing seasons (see 'Nature's way', p8).
If you have the opportunity to undertake new planting, plan for colour at all times of year. Dogwoods, for example, have beautiful stems that look stunning in winter.
Weather
Remember that colours outside change not only with the seasons, but also with the weather, and time of day. The varying weather conditions offer excellent opportunities to look at the environment in all its moods.
The cheerfulness of a bright day, a frosty morning or the grey hues of a wet and windy spell all make for opportunities to have conversations with the children about how weather can affect our moods and emotions.
Equally, all the photographs in the world cannot provide an adequate substitute for being able to look at a real rainbow with a group of children, and wondering about how and why it happens.
Of course, many such opportunities occur by chance, but it is possible to be prepared for them. Collections of resources kept in 'weather boxes' can help you make the most of our changeable weather patterns.
Resources
With colour in mind, try to ensure that you have access to some, or all, of the following:
* prisms - for using on a sunny day, to make rainbows on white paper
* sunglasses - making effective use of dark colours to protect our eyes
* colour paddles so children can observe how colours change (see Resources, p16)
* strips of shiny materials and papers, to hang or attach to umbrellas
* spray bottles - for squirting coloured water on to snow
* reflective fabric and torches, so children can experience the value of fluorescent colours on a foggy day.
Creativity
Ensure that you have made provision for the children to be creative outdoors. Opportunities for all kinds of mark-making and drawing on a grand scale are particularly inspirational for young children.
Such opportunities are sure to be enhanced by the support of sensitive practitioners who are less likely to worry about spillages and damage in the outdoor classroom.
Mark-making
Ensure that you have a variety of mark-making equipment for the outdoor area. Long rolls of paper are ideal for both painting and drawing on a very large scale. Offering buckets of coloured water and large brushes means that children can experiment with the impact of colour on their environment in a way that is child-friendly and exciting.
Photographs
Remember to take photographs of the children engaged in outdoor activities.
Display these where parents can see them, with explanatory notes. Such displays help to give outdoor learning the status that it truly deserves.
