Starter Course: Communication and Language Outdoors in Early Years
Course Summary
Build your confidence in supporting communication and language through meaningful outdoor play and real-life experiences.
This practical starter course will help you use everyday outdoor spaces to encourage listening, attention, vocabulary, conversation, storytelling and confident communication. You will discover how movement, nature and open-ended play can give children more reasons to talk, listen, notice and share their ideas.
Upgrade to a Gold Account to Access this Course
Course Level
Starter Level
Ideal for Early Years practitioners who are new to outdoor communication and language activities or who would like simple, practical ways to develop their current provision.
Time to Complete
Complete the course online and work through each module at your own pace.
What’s Included?
- Practical training videos
- Inspiring podcast content
- Simple tasks to try in your own setting
- Outdoor communication and language activity ideas
- Guidance for supporting listening, vocabulary and conversation
- Ideas using natural and reusable resources
- Support for children with SEND and different communication needs
- Downloadable prompts and practical planning support
- A CPD certificate on completion
- A special course crest to display within your setting or business
- Upgrade to a Gold Account to Access this Course
Module Content
Module 1: Why Take Communication and Language Outdoors?
Explore how outdoor spaces can create natural opportunities for children to listen, talk, ask questions and share ideas.
Learn how movement, sensory experiences and real-life discoveries can support children who may communicate less confidently indoors.
Module 2: Creating an Outdoor Communication Toolkit
Discover how to use simple, affordable resources such as hoops, rope, chalk, clipboards, puppets, story stones, baskets, sticks, leaves and picture prompts.
Learn how to create a small toolkit that can support many different communication and language activities.
Module 3: Listening and Attention Outdoors
Explore practical ways to develop listening skills through sound walks, nature listening games, movement instructions and quiet observation.
Learn how to help children focus on environmental sounds, follow simple directions and take part in shared listening experiences.
Module 4: Building Vocabulary Through Nature
Discover how outdoor play can introduce meaningful vocabulary linked to weather, movement, plants, animals, textures, position and actions.
Learn how adults can model new words naturally without interrupting children’s play or asking too many questions.
Module 5: Encouraging Conversations
Explore ways to create relaxed opportunities for back-and-forth conversation.
Learn how to use shared discoveries, open-ended resources and outdoor challenges to encourage children to comment, explain, describe and respond to others.
Module 6: Storytelling and Imaginative Play
Discover how natural objects and outdoor spaces can inspire stories, role play and imaginative language.
Children can create characters, build story settings, retell familiar tales and invent their own outdoor adventures.
Module 7: Questions, Thinking and Descriptive Language
Learn how to use thoughtful prompts to develop curiosity and deeper thinking.
Explore ways to encourage children to predict, compare, explain and describe what they notice without turning outdoor play into a constant question-and-answer session.
Module 8: Supporting Speech and Language Needs Outdoors
Discover practical adaptations for children with speech, language and communication needs, SEND, anxiety or limited confidence.
Learn how to use visual prompts, gestures, repetition, smaller groups, quieter spaces and different ways for children to respond.
Module 9: Planning Communication-Rich Outdoor Provision
Explore how to build communication and language opportunities into everyday routines, continuous provision and child-led play.
Learn how to plan clear opportunities for listening, talking and vocabulary development without over-directing children’s experiences.
Module 10: Your Outdoor Communication Challenge
Plan and deliver one simple communication and language activity in your own setting.
Reflect on how the children responded, which language opportunities emerged and how you could build on the experience next time.
Who Is It For?
- Nursery practitioners
- Reception teachers
- Teaching assistants
- Childminders
- Early Years leaders
- SEND practitioners
- Speech and language support staff
- Parents and home educators
What Will You Learn?
By the end of the course, you will feel more confident using outdoor play to support listening, attention, vocabulary, conversation and storytelling.
You will understand how to create communication-rich experiences using simple resources, real-life discoveries and thoughtful adult interactions.
What Will You Receive?
After successfully completing the course, you will receive a CPD certificate and an exclusive Communication and Language Outdoors in Early Years course crest to display within your setting, website or business.
This helps demonstrate your commitment to supporting children’s communication, confidence and language development through high-quality outdoor learning.
Our Outdoor Learning Training: Let’s Learn Programme for English, SPaG & Phonics is designed to help primary schools deliver engaging, purposeful literacy teaching through outdoor learning. At The Muddy Puddle Teacher, we combine practical strategies, curriculum knowledge, and our soft resources toolkit to make reading, writing, spelling, punctuation, and phonics come to life outside the classroom.
Explore more helpful tips and tricks in our Outdoor Learning Training Hub.
What Is Outdoor Learning for English, SPaG & Phonics?
This specialised outdoor learning training course focuses on how to teach key literacy skills in an active, hands-on way using the outdoor environment.
Through our Let’s Learn programme, you’ll learn how to:
- Deliver structured English lessons outdoors
- Teach SPaG (Spelling, Punctuation and Grammar) in meaningful contexts
- Support phonics development through movement and play
- Engage learners who struggle with traditional literacy approaches
Outdoor learning transforms literacy from something abstract into something children can experience and enjoy.
Learn more about our training. Request a quote or ask us a question.
Why Teach Literacy Through Outdoor Learning?
Many children find literacy challenging when it is taught in a purely classroom-based, written format. Outdoor learning offers opportunities to explore language physically, verbally, and creatively, improving engagement and understanding.
This approach helps to:
- Increase motivation and enjoyment in literacy
- Support language development through real experiences
- Improve retention of phonics and spelling patterns
- Encourage creativity in writing
- Build confidence in communication
By making learning active and multi-sensory, children are more likely to succeed.
Using the Let’s Learn Approach
Our Let’s Learn outdoor learning programme combines structured teaching with child-led exploration, ensuring learning is both purposeful and engaging.
A key feature is our soft resources toolkit, which includes simple, adaptable resources that:
- Support phonics and word building
- Encourage sentence construction and storytelling
- Provide visual and tactile prompts for learning
- Help scaffold understanding without overwhelming learners
These resources allow all children to access literacy learning in a way that suits their needs.
What You’ll Learn
This outdoor learning training course is practical, creative, and ready to implement:
🌿 Phonics Through Movement & Play
- Active phonics games and activities
- Reinforcing sounds through outdoor exploration
- Supporting early reading skills
🌿 Teaching SPaG Outdoors
- Making grammar and punctuation meaningful
- Practical ways to explore sentence structure
- Engaging approaches to spelling
🌿 Developing Writing & Storytelling
- Using the outdoor environment as inspiration
- Encouraging creativity and imagination
- Supporting reluctant writers
🌿 Communication & Language Skills
- Building vocabulary through real experiences
- Encouraging discussion and storytelling
- Supporting oracy and confidence
🌿 Using the Soft Resources Toolkit
- Supporting literacy through tactile and visual tools
- Adapting for different abilities and needs
- Creating inclusive learning opportunities
Learn more about our training. Request a quote or ask us a question.
Who Is This Training For?
This course is ideal for:
- Primary school teachers
- Teaching assistants
- English and literacy leads
- SENCOs
- Schools looking to develop outdoor learning provision
It is particularly effective for supporting children who find traditional literacy teaching challenging.
Benefits of Outdoor Learning for Literacy
Schools using our Let’s Learn programme often see:
- Increased engagement in English lessons
- Improved phonics and spelling retention
- Greater confidence in writing and communication
- More creativity and enthusiasm for storytelling
- Better outcomes for a wide range of learners
Why Choose The Muddy Puddle Teacher?
We specialise in outdoor learning training for primary literacy, offering:
- Practical, curriculum-linked strategies
- A unique soft resources toolkit
- Inclusive approaches that support all learners
- Training designed for real-world application
We help make English, SPaG, and phonics engaging, accessible, and effective through outdoor learning.
Learn more about our training. Request a quote or ask us a question.
Book Your Outdoor Learning Training Today
If you’re ready to transform literacy teaching in your school, our Outdoor Learning Training: Let’s Learn Programme for English, SPaG & Phonics is the perfect place to start.
Get in touch today to book your training and bring literacy to life through outdoor learning.
Learn more about our training. Request a quote or ask us a question.
