Outdoor oriented practices for early childhood education (opiece) – building an educational play street in turkey.

Abstract

Playing outdoors and being engaged in outdoor physical activities contributes to children’s motor development, and physical and mental health. Considering that the streets should be areas used not only for transportation but also for playing and learning, and assuming outdoor play as a crucial venue for development and education, an educational play street is being designed and built in the city of Hendek, Turkey. Grounded on the theory of affordances, the design of the street elements and landscape aims to promote Turkish children’s motor and social-emotional development, independence and mobility. Given the input from the municipality, preschool teachers and parents, some guidelines were defined, regarding the (a)safety and supervision; (b)afforded types of play and social levels; (c)natural and man-made elements; (d)standardized and non-standardized organization of elements.