Use your imagination

Role play brings children the same benefits outdoors as when it is done indoors, says Penny Tassoni . Show parents its value with this cut-out-and-photocopy guide

Think home corner. Think farm animals. The chances are that most of us will immediately imagine an indoor backdrop, but role play belongs just as much outdoors.

This is not really a new idea. Historically children have always played outdoors with materials that were to hand. Cooking mud pies, stirring rose petal perfume and hiding under the washing hanging on the line were commonplace activities for children. Today, many children do not have access to an outdoor area at home, and playing out in the street is considered by most parents to be too risky. For practitioners, this means thinking about ways in which we can offer similar opportunities for imaginative play outdoors that will encourage children to take control of their play.

This need for ownership, suggests Penny Cartwright, early years advisor for the London borough of Lewisham, may be the key for successful role play outdoors. She says, 'There is always a danger that we try to make everything too perfect for children and forget that children enjoy creating and using their own environment.

Putting out some props can give children enough hints to help them develop their own play. If we are introducing items or ideas that are out of the child's experience, though, we may need to model the language and activity by playing sensitively alongside them. These times can be considered as activities and so should be included in any adult-directed planning.'

Taking play outdoors does not necessarily require a lot of equipment and energy as Penny Cartwright, goes on to add. 'Sometimes simple ideas such as putting out buckets of water and sponges and adding a sign saying "car wash" can be very effective - children's own imaginations can take over.'

So does developing role play outdoors mean the end of putting out the tricycles and scooters? Not in the least, although it may bring about some changes in the way children play which can be helpful to all children. 'Adding new props can change the script a little and thus allow all children access to join in play and learning experiences,' says Shirley Eden, curriculum and assessment professional officer with a particular interest in the issues surrounding diversity. 'Props, however, have to be diverse, so that children's real life experiences are being represented. This increases the chances that we can meet the child's own agenda for play.'

Finally, it is worth remembering that as well as helping children to extend their play, there may also be some practical benefits to taking role play outdoors. Space is a vexed issue for many practitioners. Pushchairs and prams, for example, are commonly seen as indoor pieces of equipment, but they can easily create problems in a limited space as children try to navigate their way around the room. Once they are taken outdoors, however, along with other props such as bags, hats, scarves and shopping lists, they provide a way for both boys and girls to play out what they may have seen in real life. After all, is there anyone who hasn't seen a photo of David Beckham pushing a pram?