EarthPlay Resources

25 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR OUTDOOR SPACE
by Jim Greenman

1) Reconsider your use of space: Are you using your space effectively? What more could you do? Think of your space as an outdoor classroom and an environmental yard.

2) Improve your outdoor storage: The more convenient storage outside, the more loose parts. Add storage areas, sheds, benches, cages, boxes

3) Organize your outdoor storage: If you canít find it or get to it, you canít use it. Add shelves, hooks, crates, bins, sacks

4) Loose parts: Add trikes, wagons, wheelbarrows, balls, bags, jump ropes, buckets, shovels, sifters, bicycle tires, tubes, tubs, etc.

5) Increase your use of water: Add hoses, water tables, tubs, sprinklers, gutters, spray bottles, ice

6) Wrap your space: wrap a climber with a parachute or tarp

7) Improve your landscape: add trees, shrubs, berms, round boulders, drift wood, plants

8) Improve your outdoor art: add easels, chalk, big paint brushes

9) Natural materials: Take advantage of leaves, pods, driftwood, melon size stones, add a sand or mud pit

10) Create a Construction Zone: Add cartons, blocks, crates planks, sawhorses, rope, duct tape, poles with pulleys and clotheslines

11) Take-out science: magnifying glasses, measuring tape, jars, rain gauges, chemicals (food coloring, baking soda, paint)

12) Develop a pathway: Use pavers, wood rounds, stone, buried tires and posts, slats

13) Ornamental fences: picket or rail to define space, to climb, to trail your hands on

14) More loose parts: add fabric, dress up clothes, back packs, sacks wood pieces, wheels

15) Sites for drama: create a lean-to, a playhouse, a grotto, a platform

16) Garden plots or planters: Create multiple small plots or use planters

17) Birds and animals: bird feeders, bird baths, a rabbit area, a butterfly garden

18) Create skeletal structures: simple benches, ladder-like frames, hurdle-like structures

19) Use other outdoor space: your sidewalk, small patches in front or on the side, parks

20) Improve playground safety: Use the Consumer Product Safety Commission Guidelines

21) Picnic tables and benches: child size and adult size

22) Throwing area: create a safe area to throw beanbags, balls, stones

23) A jumping platform: create places to jump from 24 to 36 inches high

24) Create a multi-age family area or time on the playground

25) Create places to balance: beams, logs, stumps


		25 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR OUTDOOR SPACE by Jim Greenman 1) Reconsider your use of space: Are you using your space effectively? What more could you do? Think of your space as an outdoor classroom and an environmental yard. 2) Improve your outdoor storage: The more convenient storage outside, the more loose parts. Add storage areas, sheds, benches, cages, boxes 3) Organize your outdoor storage: If you canít find it or get to it, you canít use it. Add shelves, hooks, crates, bins, sacks 4) Loose parts: Add trikes, wagons, wheelbarrows, balls, bags, jump ropes, buckets, shovels, sifters, bicycle tires, tubes, tubs, etc. 5) Increase your use of water: Add hoses, water tables, tubs, sprinklers, gutters, spray bottles, ice 6) Wrap your space: wrap a climber with a parachute or tarp 7) Improve your landscape: add trees, shrubs, berms, round boulders, drift wood, plants 8) Improve your outdoor art: add easels, chalk, big paint brushes 9) Natural materials: Take advantage of leaves, pods, driftwood, melon size stones, add a sand or mud pit 10) Create a Construction Zone: Add cartons, blocks, crates planks, sawhorses, rope, duct tape, poles with pulleys and clotheslines 11) Take-out science: magnifying glasses, measuring tape, jars, rain gauges, chemicals (food coloring, baking soda, paint) 12) Develop a pathway: Use pavers, wood rounds, stone, buried tires and posts, slats 13) Ornamental fences: picket or rail to define space, to climb, to trail your hands on 14) More loose parts: add fabric, dress up clothes, back packs, sacks wood pieces, wheels 15) Sites for drama: create a lean-to, a playhouse, a grotto, a platform 16) Garden plots or planters: Create multiple small plots or use planters 17) Birds and animals: bird feeders, bird baths, a rabbit area, a butterfly garden 18) Create skeletal structures: simple benches, ladder-like frames, hurdle-like structures 19) Use other outdoor space: your sidewalk, small patches in front or on the side, parks 20) Improve playground safety: Use the Consumer Product Safety Commission Guidelines 21) Picnic tables and benches: child size and adult size 22) Throwing area: create a safe area to throw beanbags, balls, stones 23) A jumping platform: create places to jump from 24 to 36 inches high 24) Create a multi-age family area or time on the playground 25) Create places to balance: beams, logs, stumps
Jim Greenman is the author of Caring Spaces, Learning Places.
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