Turn your outdoor space into an ever-changing adventure with the Little Explorers Course by Naturally Inspired Play. Designed exclusively for Scholar’s Choice by early years experts and handcrafted in Canada from durable cedar wood, this modular outdoor play course invites children to climb, balance, step, cross, crawl and create their own physical challenges through active, play-based learning.

Featuring a versatile collection of grass-topped platforms, low balance elements and wooden connecting planks, the Little Explorers Course can be arranged and rearranged to create new obstacle courses and movement pathways. Children can travel from one element to the next, experiment with different routes and decide for themselves how to move through the environment.

This flexibility makes the course especially valuable for risky play and gross motor development. Children are given opportunities to encounter manageable physical challenges, judge distances, test their balance and make decisions about what their bodies can do. As their confidence and abilities develop, educators can adjust the configuration to introduce new challenges and keep outdoor play fresh and engaging.

The artificial grass-style surfaces bring a nature-inspired look and additional tactile interest to the course, helping it blend beautifully into naturalized playgrounds, childcare yards and outdoor learning environments.

Key Features

• Modular obstacle course: Individual pieces can be positioned in different configurations to continually create new movement challenges.
• Supports active outdoor play: Encourages children to climb, balance, walk, step, cross and navigate their way through the course.
• Promotes gross motor development: Helps children develop balance, coordination, strength, agility and body awareness.
• Encourages risky play: Provides opportunities for children to experience developmentally appropriate physical challenge while assessing their own abilities and limits.
• Grass-topped surfaces: Add tactile interest and create an inviting, nature-inspired aesthetic.
• Connecting wooden planks: Allow children and educators to build pathways and bridges between different platforms.
• Open-ended design: There is no single correct configuration or way to play, encouraging creativity and child-led exploration.
• Adaptable challenge level: Rearrange the pieces, alter distances and change pathways as children’s skills and confidence grow.
• Encourages problem solving: Children decide where to step, how to cross and which route to take.
• Supports collaborative play: Children can design courses together, create challenges for friends and negotiate how shared spaces are used.
• Nature-inspired outdoor play: Complements natural playgrounds and outdoor classrooms.
• Durable cedar construction: Handcrafted for active use in early childhood environments.
• Designed by early years experts: Created with young children’s movement, development and play patterns in mind.
• Canadian made: Proudly handcrafted in Canada by Naturally Inspired Play.
• Scholar’s Choice Exclusive: Designed exclusively for Scholar’s Choice.

Gross Motor Development Through Play

Young children learn about their bodies by moving them.

As children make their way through the Little Explorers Course, they continually adjust their balance, posture, footing, speed and direction. Moving between differently sized and positioned elements requires children to plan their movements before putting them into action.

These experiences can help develop:

• Balance and coordination
• Gross motor strength
• Core stability
• Lower-body strength
• Motor planning
• Spatial awareness
• Body awareness
• Agility
• Bilateral coordination
• Physical confidence
• Perseverance and resilience
• Problem solving and decision making

Repeated practice allows children to discover what their bodies can do and notice how their abilities change over time.

Supporting Risky Play

Risky play gives children opportunities to experience challenge, uncertainty and excitement within an environment where they can make decisions about their own movement.

The Little Explorers Course can provide manageable physical challenges such as stepping across a gap, balancing along a narrow surface or moving between different heights.

Instead of eliminating all challenge, educators can create thoughtful environments where children are encouraged to assess situations, make decisions and gradually build confidence.

Through these experiences, children can practise:

• Assessing physical challenges
• Making independent decisions
• Recognizing their own abilities
• Developing confidence
• Managing uncertainty
• Persisting after unsuccessful attempts
• Trying new movement strategies

Because the course is modular, educators can adjust the setup to reflect the abilities and needs of the children using it.

Play & Learning Ideas

Build an Obstacle Course

Arrange the platforms, benches and planks to create a pathway around the outdoor space. Invite children to determine how they will travel from beginning to end.

Change the configuration regularly to introduce new challenges.

The Floor Is Lava

Transform the course into an imaginative movement challenge where children travel between platforms without touching the ground.

The experience combines active play, motor planning and dramatic play.

Balance Challenge

Create a pathway using longer, narrower elements and invite children to experiment with different ways of crossing.

Can they walk slowly? Sideways? With arms stretched out? What helps them maintain their balance?

Bridge Building

Use the wooden planks to connect different platforms and investigate how placement changes the pathway.

Children can participate in deciding where bridges should go and how far apart the platforms should be positioned.

Create Your Own Course

Invite children to help educators design the day's obstacle course.

Ask questions such as:

Where should this piece go?
Should this gap be closer or farther apart?
How could we make this part more challenging?

Children become active participants in designing their own learning environment.

Move Like an Animal

Turn the course into an animal adventure.

Children might stomp like bears, crawl like insects, balance like flamingos or leap between spaces like frogs.

Follow the Trail

Create a movement sequence such as step, balance, cross, climb and jump down. Children can follow the pattern or invent movement sequences of their own.

Outdoor Storytelling Adventure

The course can become much more than an obstacle course. Grass-covered platforms might transform into islands, mountains, castles, forest hideaways or stepping stones across an imaginary river.

Open-ended equipment allows dramatic play and physical play to develop together.

Add Loose Parts

Introduce cones, hoops, ropes, balls, fabric or other open-ended outdoor materials and invite children to incorporate them into their course.

A hoop could become a destination, a rope could mark a trail and fabric could transform a platform into an imaginary shelter.

Early Childhood Development Benefits

Physical Development

Balancing, climbing and transitioning between different surfaces builds strength, coordination and body control while encouraging children to be physically active outdoors.

Motor Planning

Before taking a step or crossing a gap, children must determine where their body needs to go and how they will get there. This planning-and-action process is an important part of gross motor development.

Confidence & Independence

Successfully navigating a challenge can create a powerful sense of accomplishment. Children learn to trust their own abilities and make decisions about when they are ready to try something new.

Problem Solving

Children encounter authentic problems throughout the course:

How do I get from here to there?
Which foot should I use first?
Is this gap too far for me?
Could I find another route?

The answers are discovered through movement and experimentation.

Social-Emotional Development

Group obstacle course play encourages children to communicate, take turns, negotiate space and support one another as they navigate shared challenges.

Creativity & Imagination

Because the pieces do not dictate a single activity, children can transform them according to their own ideas. The course can be a playground one moment and an imaginative landscape the next.

Create an Engaging Outdoor Learning Environment

The Little Explorers Course helps educators create an outdoor environment where movement, challenge and child-led discovery are part of everyday learning.

Combine it with other open-ended outdoor resources such as:

• Balance equipment
• Logs and stepping stones
• Grass ramps
• Wooden blocks
• Planks
• Tunnels
• Crates
• Hoops
• Ropes
• Cones
• Loose parts

By changing how materials are arranged, educators can continually provide new provocations without needing an entirely new piece of playground equipment.

Why Educators Will Love It

The Little Explorers Course is designed to evolve with the children who use it.

Rather than offering one fixed route or one prescribed physical challenge, its modular design lets educators change the environment as children’s interests, confidence and gross motor abilities develop.

One day the pieces might create a simple stepping pathway. Another day they can become bridges and islands. Later, they may form part of a larger obstacle course incorporating ramps, tunnels and loose parts.

That flexibility makes the Little Explorers Course an engaging investment in outdoor play, active learning, gross motor development and child-led exploration.

Specifications

• Product: Little Explorers Course
• Brand: Naturally Inspired Play
• Design: Modular outdoor obstacle and movement course
• Components: Multiple grass-topped platforms and balance elements with wooden connecting planks
• Largest Piece Dimensions: 41"L x 22"W x 12.5"H
• Material: Durable cedar wood
• Surface: Grass-style play surfaces on selected components
• Use: Outdoor active play, balancing, climbing, obstacle courses and gross motor development
• Designed By: Early years experts
• Country of Manufacture: Canada
• Designed Exclusively For: Scholar’s Choice
• Made In: Canada