Fire circle time is great for developing communication and listening skills, and we use this time to introduce and reinforce other areas of learning, too,’ Emma Harwood, co-founder and co-director at Dandelion Education told me. ‘We might use phonic clues to support children to work out what's in the day's Mystery Box; we immerse children in text as we tell or read the same story every day over a couple of weeks. Even our youngest are involved in our lunchtime Philosophy for Children discussions.’
There are many reasons for developing a high-quality outdoor space for young children, but arguably the main one is to ensure children are able to access a rich and compelling play-based curriculum throughout the setting. At each of the award-winning settings I observed evidence of a robust curriculum offer: for me, a truly enabling outdoor environment gives children endless opportunities for STEM learning – or better still, STEAM (the A stands for Arts).
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