Outdoor Play Research

Words: 969
Pages: 4

Introduction
The research of practitioner’s perceptions of outdoor play is relevant and interesting to the researcher due to her experience of working in a Pre-School, with the generally time spent in the Foundation Stage, working with children aged three to five years. The researcher’s idea about the chosen topic came from the setting as she identified a lack of outdoor play in a day to day practice. This study will look at outdoor play in general but mainly focus on outdoor play in the Early Years Foundation Stage in a Pre-school. It became apparent that there might be a lack of understanding of the importance of outdoor play. Following many observations, the researcher concluded that there was fewer activities that took place outdoors and
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She recognised that many poor children were lacking both care and education in their most formative years. McMillan visited schools and was appalled at what she observed, she seen children in the poverty they lived in. She described the children as ‘dirty, ill-fed and wretched’. (Pound, 2005, p23) After this she advised parents on hygiene and nutrition and became an expert in the health and well-being of children. Her political and religious beliefs helped her into ways to alleviate the effects of poverty. ( Pound, 2005) By 1917, the Rachel McMillan Nursery school had been established for 100 children and this had an extreme emphasis on being outdoors. The named the classrooms as shelters and they were built with verandahs. The windows could be folded back so there was enough light coming into the rooms. There was a large beautiful and when the weather was awful, the room verandahs gave children the opportunity to benefit from air and space provided. McMillan’s theory stressed the health and well-being of children, for children to be able to express themselves so they could have a place in society. Good means, exercise, baths …show more content…
both definitions of kindergarten are stated by Froebel and reflect his philosophy about children.(Pound, 2005) Froebel ideas was to motivate children to develop in harmony with nature, Froebel gave each child their own small garden to tend. The idea was for children to observe plants and wildlife and the aim was ‘to nurture children’s spiritual awareness’ (Garrick,2009,pg15) The garden was also a place for children to exercise and play. Frobel’s vision is still clear today, the early years are important to provide the right environment and resources to facilitate learning and this can be seen in the Government scheme ‘Every Child Matters’ as this has the right guidance, information that can assist in providing good, safe environment and appropriate resources for children’s