It’s true! Outdoor play in winter is just as important as outdoor play throughout the rest of the year. If not more important!
Outdoor play in winter offers endless benefits for children’s health, development and wellbeing, and at Newby Leisure, we know there’s no season that should stop playing outside. While we are in the depth of the winter months and the temperatures keep on dropping, it can be tempting to stay indoors. However, time outside in the fresh winter air helps to support stronger bodies, resilient minds and meaningful learning experiences. You can’t get those same experiences indoors!
Playing outdoors throughout winter supports a child’s physical development. Balance, coordination, and gross motor skills naturally improve as they move, climb, and explore outside. Keeping a child active during this time of year is so important! As well as enhancing physical development, the more a child plays outdoors the more they will improve gross motor skills. Not forgetting to mention the exposure to natural light and fresh air is fantastic for supporting immune health and vitamin D production.
At Newby Leisure, our timber play resources encourage outdoor learning and winter play, supporting creativity, physical development, and social skills in early years children.
As well as physical benefits, winter outdoor play leads children to learn to face new challenges, build resilience, and interact with others through creative exploration and group activities. With the right resources and preparation, outdoor spaces become vibrant environments for imagination, collaboration, and discovery even on colder days.
Within this blog, Newby Leisure shares practical ways to encourage winter outdoor play, with activities for you and your little ones to try at home. We’ll also explore the best ways to prepare for outdoor play in colder temperatures, helping schools, nurseries, and families keep children active, engaged, and inspired throughout the winter months.
Playing outdoors is best when children have the freedom to explore, experiment and create. Even simple items found in nature, such as logs, sticks and other natural materials can be used for balancing, climbing and digging, even in muddy conditions. Sticks can be used to mark out pathways in the mud, or they can be used for imaginative, sensory play in the snow. The options are limitless when your imagination is involved!
At Newby Leisure, we design and manufacture timber play resources to aid outdoor education and play all-year-round. For role-play fun, creating a dedicated play space outdoors can make a big difference. Children can use simple items like crates, logs and items you may already have at home to set up imaginative shops, or cafes. Activities like this are fantastic for sparking creativity and social interaction. For those that would like a more structured option, the Newby Leisure Outdoor Play Shop offers a durable space that also supports the same imaginative games as mentioned above. Encouraging imaginative play outdoors is great for developing communication, problem solving and everyday play skills.
Whether you’re using everyday items and materials found in the garden, or purpose-built resources, these setups keep children engaged and active, even in the colder weather.
With unpredictable winter weather bringing rain, snow, and everything in between, there are fantastic opportunities for outdoor messy play! Hands on activities with textures such as snow and mud provide sensory stimulation and support cognitive development in early years children, and of course, they’re great fun too. The messier, the better!
Why not follow a mud pie recipe or create your own magical potion using rainwater, leaves, and other natural materials your outdoor space has to offer? Children can become the head chef in their very own kitchen, mixing up imaginative recipes with nothing more than a bowl and a wooden spoon. If you want to create a dedicated outdoor space for messy play, the Newby Leisure Mud Kitchen and Messy Play Table are perfect additions, allowing children to fully immerse themselves in imaginative and creative experiences. It is important to encourage messy play for children, especially at this time of year when the outdoor environment offers so many opportunities for exploration and discovery.
This blog explores how winter outdoor play can be embraced rather than avoided, highlighting simple ways to keep children active, creative and engaged despite colder weather. It also shares ideas and resources to help families, nurseries and schools make the most of outdoor spaces all winter long.
Explore our range of timber play equipment or try these winter play ideas at home and outdoors to keep children active and inspired all season long.
