Risk & Adventure in Early Years Outdoor Play
Learning from Forest Schools
- Sara Knight - Teacher and Forest School Leader
This book will give you the confidence to offer the children in your setting adventurous and challenging outdoor activities, as well as ways to utilise natural resources to their best advantage. There is clear, practical advice on what you need to do, which is underpinned by the theory that supports the benefits of this approach. Examples from settings are included, to illustrate best practice and to show how things can be achieved.
Issues considered include:
- being outside in 'bad' weather
- the importance of risk-taking
- the benefits of rough and tumble play
- observing and assessing children in this mode
- how these experiences improve children's learning
- explaining activities to parents, colleagues and managers
- ensuring health and safety requirements are met
- the role of the adult in facilitating these experiences.
Suitable for all students and practitioners working with young children from Birth to 8 , this book will not only give you ideas for outdoor play but also help you understand exactly what you are doing, why it is educationally sound and developmentally important for children, and where it connects with the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) in England, the Foundation Phase (FP) in Wales and the Curriculum for Excellence in Scotland.
Sara Knight is an experienced early years educator and Senior Lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University. She is a trained Forest School practitioner and author of Forest Schools and Outdoor Learning in the Early Years.
An essentail read for anybody supports the understanding of why the outdoor and natural environemnt is so importnat to young children
links nicely to professional development portfolio module
A fantastic, very easily read text that gets straight to the heart of the biggest obsticle standing in the way of outdoor play for many practitioners.
Due to the organisation of the text it has made it very easily to recommend as a key text, focasing in on the relevant areas.
I found the level of the writing spot on for this level 5 course too.
This is a highly recommended text for both yr1 and yr2 students to support their understanding of outdoor play and also to support their preparation for assignments. Many students have commented how useful they've found this book. Thank you.
This book gives the learners a good insight into risk and challenge. The underpinning theory is clearly supported by practical examples.
Fantastic links to current curricula agenda particularly the Foundation Phase in Wales.
This books looks at some interesting concepts for out door play. It considers how beneficial 'risk' can be when managed in a sensible and informed way. The author also discusses the potential harm that risk free play can have which challenges especially the level 4 trainees to think beyond providing the same expereinces in a different environment.
What a great book full of ideas and lots of opportunities to ensure the children enjoy the great british weather
This book is recommended as a support book for those student teachers wishing to explore the use of forest schools. Very supportive reading for unit in level1 caring for children.
I have used the first book written about Forest School in Sara Knight to great effect as it was one of the first of its kind. This second book will now update the information I have used to be able to write and teach a degree unit on Children in the Outdoor Environment. The risk rating and assessment together with the HSE sections extremely useable in practice as are the activity examples and chapter on implications for practice - the role of the adult.
The appendices give useful contacts and links. Activity ideas eg 'muddy face' and 'smell pots' are again highly useable in practice and stimulate ideas that can be easily planned and resourced. Links to the EYFS are outlined helping to make planning clear and easily achieveable by anyone working with children and not necessarily undertaking degree studies.
Informative photos convey a thousand words.
An excellent resource for the Cache Level 3 unit 4 which includes challenging play and Forest School type environments for children. Essential text for this group.
