Despite an increased drive over the past two decades in Western societies to promote children’s physically active play to improve their health, there are concerns that childhood has become less physically active.
Nature Play WA undertook a comprehensive literature review for the Education Department of WA that considers three critical elements to improving student experience and learning in school settings: outdoor learning, outdoor play and the school environment.
By going on walks every day, Anna connected her first graders with nature, with their community, and with each other. They exercised their bodies and minds simultaneously. Moreover, their walks provided an authentic context for literacy development. Learning on the move is not just effective, either. It is also a lot of fun!
This report, written to support Australia’s Outdoor Classroom Day, sets out not only a snapshot report on how much more playtime Australian children are getting compared to everyone else, but also an overview of why outdoor learning and play is so very important.
Findings from this study offer schools important insights into the barriers and facilitators of implementing a regular outdoor learning programme within the KS2 curriculum.
This paper draws on findings of comparative international research on students’ poetic writing about the natural environment in the context of the classroom and a naturalistic setting. The study involved 97, nine- to 10-year-olds in four classes: two classes were in an English primary school with their counterparts in a Western Australian primary school.
The outdoor space at childcare centres can be many preschoolers’ primary experience of outdoor play. Trends prioritizing risk reduction have diminished access to nature and risky play. We examined the effects of an intervention to increase opportunities for nature and risky play in the outdoor play environments of two childcare centres using a repeated measures mixed methods design.
Loose parts play (LPP) interventions introduce moveable materials and equipment to children’s play spaces to facilitate unstructured, child-led play.
The purpose of this scoping review was to determine what is currently known about how loose parts may influence physical activity participation.
