Early childhood environments provide the inspiration and space for children to explore, challenge, dream, and learn. Ensuring that spaces support and inspire a range of opportunities for play and learning is crucial when designing our outdoor areas. Creating a variety of spaces – small and large, natural and colourful, open and enclosed, level and flat – takes a team of dedicated teachers with a clear understanding of how children think, learn, move, and explore.

Chanel and her teaching team at Country Kids have designed specific elements of their outdoor setting with key goals and learning outcomes in mind. They describe how they deliberately chose to provide a range of colours, spaces, levels, and textures. Important decisions such as the colour of their shade sails, where to put their bug hotel, and how to use plants to inspire and engage children were integral to this design. Over time, they have observed how children use the various spaces, and adjusted and enhanced them accordingly.