Getting Outside

A wise person once told me that there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.  In is hard to get outside in January, but cold and snow (and rain, in my case!) is manageable with the right things to wear.  And there are few places we can be as creative as we can be outdoors in nature.

Running downhill in the Belgian forest

It may be winter, but this weekend is also allows the first opportunity of the year to get out into any National Park for free.  If you are a parent, your children likely do not have school on Monday, and if you are a teacher, you likely don't work on Monday either.  Why not enjoy nature?

So take a look at what parks are near you, bundle up, and get out there!  If you are bringing children, make sure you take the time to just pick a spot and stay, and give them an opportunity to play anywhere  and do what they please - you won't regret taking the time to step back and watch open-ended play at its best.

Rubrics for Play

I'm not much for assessment, especially with very young children.  I think that we can learn a lot about children by being careful observers and facilitators in their work.

That said, this rubric from Play England, via playscapes, helps people who are designing play spaces to think about how they will be used by children.  It promotes thinking that makes each play space unique to its environment and the people who will be using it, encouraging collaborative planning among people rather than a flip through a catalog to find something within budget.

The 10 design principles that the rubric is based on are all about personalization and individuality and inclusion.  Reading through them makes me think that these principles are not only a good way to think about outdoor play, but indoor work spaces as well.

dangling

This is my favorite image from the year so far. Out in the forest, playing in little wooden houses, hanging from the rafters. I hope you're getting out with your little ones, too!

The Case for Natural Happiness

I loved this article and I love this picture. I definitely have summer on the brain.


We encourage children to go outside, but do we spend enough time outside? Over my spring break travels, we walked all over cities and small towns rather than getting in the car. Being outdoors is a natural part of my day because I don't have a car. But I'm not getting as much "nature" as I'd like.

If you live in a city, where do you get your "nature" and how often? How do you share nature with your students? If you live in the country, how much time do you spend outdoors?

An Outdoor Space

Have you ever had an idea one day that is so incredibly obvious you should have had it long before? Because everything was just sitting right in front of your face, not being used, waiting for you to notice it?

Last Friday when just a few children were up from rest time, working purposefully at the writing table, I thought I would go get the unit blocks that I put outside to dry out some tree stumps in September. Those unit blocks were rotted and black, and I could see them sitting there through the large glass door in our classroom that opens up to a narrow cement walkway about 40 feet long and five feet wide. A door from the other PreK class also opens onto that walkway, and opposite from the classroom doors is a four foot wall. Between the two classrooms, the walkway widens to about eight feet, and there is a small table weathered from being outdoors.

I hope you see where I am going with this.

I have an outdoor learning space attached to my classroom.
I did not notice it until April.
I am excited beyond words.



I immediately took the tree stumps off their rotten block stands and put three at each end of the walkway. Boundaries and seating and something to explore as well! The children came out the door to see what I was doing and began running back and forth between the two sets of tree stumps. One of my four-year-olds stepped up onto a stump and could easily see over the wall -- the view is a wooded area between the main road and school. It is brillant!

height assistance:

the view:

I used to be jealous that the two nursery classes have doors that open directly onto the playground. I thought of how great it would be to give children the freedom to choose between indoor play and outdoor play during choice time. The idea of a free flow between our classroom and the outdoors was appealing as well. With this space now, the children are within view, they have more choices, and can choose a new, engaging environment. Right now I honestly feel like I could write about this for hours. And hours. So I think I should switch over to my journal and maybe fill you in with more concrete thoughts at another time. Visions of sensory tables and planters are dancing in my head.

I am excited to brainstorm abou this environment. Do you have an outdoor space that is not specifically for "outdoor play"? Would you like one? How do/would you use it?

Let them move, and they will succeed...

An article in yesterday's New York Times states the results of a study done with 11,000 eight- and nine- year olds:

"...play and down time may be as important to a child’s academic experience as reading, science and math, and that regular recess, fitness or nature time can influence behavior, [and] concentration..."

I think that teachers of young children know this first hand. We may not have graphs and collected data and numbers, but we know. If our schedule puts too many sedentary things in a row, we will not be doing well by the third or fourth activity. The children need to move. (I also don't think I'm crazy for saying that I also need to move.)

You can find the study from the journal Pediatrics here.

Two things came to mind for me when reading this. First, we do not use the word "recess" in my classroom -- we always call it outdoor play. Wikipedia defines recess as "a general term for a period of time in which a group of people is temporarily dismissed from its duties." In preschool, this is all but true. The physical and social "duties" that the children have when playing outdoors are crucial to their well being and development, and are at the core of our curriculum.

Second, the article was titled "School Recess and Group Classroom Behavior". I know that I am lucky to have a flexible curriculum without rigorous testing or Teachers' Manuals or worksheets. I'm thankful for that everyday. I oftentimes teach using the children's physical energy and excitement as a route for learning. Not only is this a good way to engage children in an activity, you are also giving children who learn through doing a new way to get and retain information. I think teachers would also see "better behavior" (whatever that means) by using active lessons on top of that outdoor playtime.

For example, we were learning about weaving for our sewing projects a few weeks ago, and the concept of over/under/over/under is not easy for everyone, especially when you get to the next line of paper and it is supposed to be under/over/under/over. Phew! So I made up a game to play before we wove: we went over and under everything we could in the classroom. Tables, chairs, my desk, the light table...we did it all. And for some of the children, this helped them understand those words in a concrete way. It also catered to the high-energy level that the children had at that time.

There are always times that things do not seem to be going the way I plan -- bringing up new topics during a story, everyone needing to go to the bathroom when we sit down for meeting -- and I need to remember to go with the flow.

How do you create an active learning environment?