Developing Early Literacy Skills Outdoors

Book excerpt: Developing Early Literacy Skills Outdoors provides practitioners with practical planning for how to develop and enhance the outdoor area to facilitate literacy learning. The activities throughout the book are low cost and easy to set up, aiming to reassure practitioners and give them confidence to plan more literacy learning experiences outdoors. This is further supported with planning guidance and resource ideas, as well as advice on observation and assessment, including suggestions for how to reduce the paperwork burden and a useful observation template. The book is divided into sections that represent the different aspects of communication, language and literacy and includes: an introduction to each aspect, explaining why it is important and outlining the fundamental skills and concepts that underpin it; ideas for adult-led and adult-initiated activities that aim to develop children's early knowledge, skills and understanding in communication, language and literacy; suggestions for how to enhance continuous outdoor provision so that it promotes communication, language and literacy skills; pointers and tips about teaching mathematics in the early years and includes ideas for how to involve parents and carers.