Rethinking Outdoor Space for High-Quality Early Learning
This brief provides concrete actions child care providers can take to enhance their OLEs. Virtual tours, practitioner interviews, and photos provide examples of how providers navigate small yards, urban settings, or limited budgets. Each of the featured programs created exemplary OLEs by training teachers, enhancing the physical environment, finding engrossing materials, and engaging families. The six featured programs were chosen because they demonstrate best practices for specific groups like infants and toddlers, children with developmental delays and disabilities, and children who have experienced trauma. The exemplars represent geographic and climate diversity as well as spaces that honor the culture of the families being served. These educators demonstrate that outdoor learning is possible across the spectrum of child care settings in the United States.
