This chapter covers the ingredients that contribute to effective environments and how they can support children’s schematic development. It focuses on the outdoor environment and considers what it has to offer children through its ‘spaces and materials’. It also introduces the theories of loose parts and affordance as key foundations that help can practitioners to consider their pedagogies and practice, enabling children to develop a sense of agency and self-democracy as they develop an understanding of the world around them. You are encouraged to conduct an audit of your outdoor environment and the loose parts available, considering the examples and case study to prompt your thinking. Useful research is embedded into the discussions around these themes and risky play is also considered as influential in children making sense of their world. You are invited to read an article on Schematic development and the outdoors and then to evaluate your understanding and practice to help enhance EC provision which embraces the outdoors as a valued space for nurturing schematic development.