Epsilon Open Archive

Abstract

Outdoor play brings the physical surroundings into the play process. Children’s play in two Swedish pre-schools is analysed for complexes of play that unfolds in relation to the specific outdoor environment. Play is understood as a situated activity and descriptions are made of how it takes its points of departure in the character, design and content of the physical environment. “Dynamic areas” are encircled and used to visualize how different places are interrelated in a wider landscape. Video-recorded observations of play, including conversations with the children, were supplemented with notes taken during participant observation, interviews with groups of children and place mapping. Films were used to render children’s movement and handling of objects an intelligible part of play enactment, where important clues were children’s use of the physical environment to communicate play and expressions of playfulness and joy. Movement and sensuousness were salient aspects giving character to play and social interaction outdoors. An environment rich in contents to handle is a common interest among children, and such an environment makes it easier for them to share places and regulate social interaction. Formations at specific places and forms of the wider landscape are used to dramatize and coordinate actions and movements. The study suggests that strong play experiences are possible in a more demarcated play environment, when the environment gives children the opportunity to create their own places and coordinate collective movements through the environment, and when their interest in the surrounding landscape is recognized. Outdoor play is discussed in relation to densification and a more regulated time-space for children, both of which make the close surroundings of schools and preschools more important. When locating and developing these areas, children’s multidimensional use of them for social interaction, play and recreation should be considered.