The importance of Outdoor Play - Den Making

Learning through play is all about being active, interaction and most importantly for the child, self-discovery. The value of play is extremely important for a child’s development and learning (Wood e Al, 2010) .
I believe it is important that all children have access to play in an outdoor space as well as an indoor space.
Growing up as a child, I can’t remember playing anywhere else than outside, even when it was raining! Playing outdoors gives a child a chance to improve their confidence, both physically and mentally (Johnson e Williams, 2008). It also enhances motor skills, builds relationships, has endless opportunities for team work, improves communication skills and enhances spatial awareness.

Outdoor play also gives a child much more opportunity for independence with the feeling of freedom in exploration of wide open spaces, rather than controlled space in indoor learning (Garrick, 2009). There is also a positive improvement in language development, when a child is involved more in outdoor play. This could be because the child may be more confident of their use of language outdoors rather than indoors in front of adults (Garrick, 2009).
"Provision needs to be made for children to develop control of different parts of their bodies and this can be achieved by carefully organising the outdoor space" (Edgington and Titchmarsh, 2002: 19).

One aspect of outdoor play I particulary find interesting is den making.

My younger sister is seven years of age, and loves making dens in the back garden during the summer, just using a blanket and the washing line.  Last summer she literally spent hours in our garden pretending to be a cave woman, which was interesting because at the time she was actually studying 'The Stone age' at school. This shows her cognitive development, as she is using what she has learnt in school, taking it home and then building on it through imagnitative play.
It's really interesting to watch her play, and then to listen to her stories after the adventures she has been on. It is also interesting to see her imagination and her independance develop.
When used in the correct way, making dens can be a great way for children to develop commincation skills, team work skills, spacial awareness, and as mentioned independance and cognitive development.
In our module of 21st century learning, we looked at an article called 'Den Making in Different Contexts'. It was interesting to see how sustained shared thinking could be brought into something so simple and have a big effect. The practitioner helped the children to solve their own problems without telling them the answer, they were just led to the right conclusion.
In one of the studies the children were given the materials in a secure environment but had a lot of space. This element of freedom I think is very important for a child as it helps them develop in many ways.
I think by using the outdoor environment along with a child's imagination used when making a den, it creates such a great element of excitement and is a great environment to build on exsisting knowlege and learn new things.

Reference

Garrick, R. (2009). Playing Outdoors in the Early Years. Continuum.

Johnson, J., & Williams, L. N. (2008). Early Childhood Studies . London: Pearson Education .

Wood, E., & Al, E. (2010). Play and Learning in the Early Years: From Research to Practise . London: Sage .