What Are The 7C’s and How Can We Transform Spaces That Children Play?
Character, Context, Connectivity, Change, Chance, Clarity, and Challenge are the 7C’s that connect outdoor play environments to children’s development. To transform the spaces children play, educators can consider the following:
An inclusive, welcoming, and open environment that gives children a sense of belonging.
The size of the space, children ratio, location, and neighborhood of the overall space. E.g. a big space that’s located in a busy town gives children views and access to neighbourhoods to not only observe their surroundings, but to become active participants to their community.
Establish open pathways within the space to ensure connectivity between indoor/outdoor, and children of different age groups.
Have a variety of spaces within the area that suits the needs of children. E.g. a space for children to tumble play, space to climb materials/structures, space to pretend play, and a quiet space to sit down and read, and or be alone. Those spaces should have different textures such as sand, grass, cement, etc.
Give children the opportunity to explore nature in all forms, being messy zones, risky play, and mystery zones- catching insects and amphibians.
Create a space that is safe, and which provides entry and exit spaces.
Implement challenges to promote problem-solving, critical thinking, reason logically, along with testing the child’s limits and strengths in attempt to try on emerging skills in their development. Â
References
The Outdoor Playbook. (2018). The 7C’s.Retrieved from http://outdoorplaybook.ca/learn/play-research/the-7-cs/
