The Influencer Edit - Early Years Outdoor

Handpicked resources chosen by the experts

Meet Katie Taylor, a passionate Early Years specialist who loves inspiring outdoor learning! Some of you might already know Katie from her social media accounts ‘Early Years Outdoor’, with seventeen years’ experience teaching in Nursery, Reception, and Key Stage One, Katie has dedicated her career to creating exciting, hands-on learning experiences for young children.

A little bit about me:

During my time teaching, I completed a Forest School Leader qualification which ignited my passion for outdoor learning. I love sharing outdoor and nature inspired ideas on my social media pages ‘Early Years Outdoor’. I currently work as an Early Years Consultant, advising schools with Early Years settings.

A few years ago, I set up a small business where educators can download resources and gain ideas for their own classrooms, forest schools and early years settings. In 2021, DK published my book called ‘The Nature Adventure Book’ which is full of inspiring outdoor nature activities to complete with children. I am currently writing my second book, all about mud kitchens.

In this guest blog, I’ve listed below my favourite resources from Hope’s collection. Perfect for bringing curiosity, creativity, and adventure to your setting, or outdoor space.

1. Metal tea set

As soon as I saw this tea set, I knew I had to buy it! It’s the perfect size for little hands to make-believe play. The fact that it is metal, is an added bonus due to how robust and durable it is for young children. It’s perfect for outdoor play and will last for years.

We have had the tea set in the mud kitchen and set out as part of water play. Our favourite activities so far were making ‘citrus tea’ and ‘blossom tea’. The tea set, teamed with water and citrus fruits and petals from a blossom tree provided hours of fun in the summer sunshine.

Shop: Metal Tea Sets

2. Metallic reels

This set of gorgeous reels is great for playing in so many ways. They’re brilliant for children who are exploring the ‘rotation schema’. If children are fascinated by items that roll or spin, the reels can help by allowing them to explore this. Rolling the reels down hills and ramps encourages children to think about gravity and how changing the height of the ramp increases the speed of movement.

They’re also a lovely addition to a construction or small world area as children can use them as part of their play alongside bricks, material and small world items.

The reels are another durable product, that will withstand children using them in everyday play and last a long time.

Shop: Metallic Reels

3. Minibeast shadow creators

The shadow creators are one of my all-time favourite resources. Children love to see how the sun projects the image onto the ground outside and especially love making them move along by running with the shadow creators in their hands. It’s a brilliant resource to develop a better understanding of cause and effect. If the sun is shining, the image appears on the ground, but when the sun is blocked with clouds or an object, the image does not show on the ground.

The shadow creators are a nice addition to any bug investigation area too alongside other resources such as pretend bugs and books about bugs.

Shop: Mini Beasts Shadow Creators

4. Oversized outdoor peg people

The oversized peg people are a very popular item in play and it is enjoyable to observe how the children use them. I love the assortment of sizes and neutral colours that represent a range of skin tones. They have no facial expressions and are completely open ended. This allows children to be as imaginative and creative as they wish when using them as there are no restrictions as to what the peg people could become. They could be people from the children’s families, characters from stories or tv programmes, friends, people in specific jobs such as teachers, nurses, shop assistants or any person in the children’s play. The size of the peg people allows children to grasp them in their hands from a young age and help develop hand-eye coordination when using them.

Shop: Peg People

Which is your favourite resource?