Last year we worked alongside our Speech and Language Practitioner to introduce and promote words up into the ELC setting. Evaluation shows this is embedded indoors however quality interactions outdoors are limited and only seem to take place within the sand pit or at the vegetable patch. In order to encourage interactions outdoors we decided to develop our outdoor space creating specific areas for learning and increasing the opportunities for staff to put the words up strategies in place. This gave us another opportunity to get parents involved and they have been a great help providing ideas and resources to help us achieve our desired result. This project has been a huge success, with the whole team becoming thoroughly involved and enthusiastic. Observations are ongoing to record interactions, however so far we are seeing a lot more learning and communication between staff and the children.
