Exploring the Outdoor Classroom: January 2014

It Not "Just Recess" Anymore!

Teachers often heave a sigh of relief when they take their students out to recess. Finally! The children can burn off the pent up energy they had been accruing for the past few hours indoors. But what if we change our outlook on outdoor play time? What if we create an outdoor environment that offered all of the learning opportunities that one would typically find indoors? What if children could run out to a well-planned play yard to find experiences in math, science, nature, dramatic play, water, building and construction, sensory activities, physical development, art and music? What if they play yard developed critical thinking, discovery, problem solving, and cooperative skills? The result would be that we wouldn't have "just recess" anymore. We would have The Outdoor Classroom!

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Melting Snowmen

I LOVE winter. A native of Canada, I grew up skiing, sledding and building snowmen. When it snowed, we donned our snowsuits, grabbed our 'crazy carpets' and ran to school so we could sled down the itty bitty little hill with our friends during recess. However, I now live in Southern California and the dream of a "White Christmas" (or any other snowy day, for that matter!) has long since left my mind. For the past few days, we have been waking up to crisp "winter" weather, but by mid-afternoon, we are shedding every piece of excess clothing just to stay cool in our 85 degree heat spell (rough, I know! lol).

However, despite our lack of winter, we still like to discuss and dream about snowy days filled with snowmen and winter fun at preschool. While this isn't really an "outdoor" activity, I just had to share it because it was so darn cute! The creative teachers in my young three's class introduced these "torn paper" snowmen and we've since displayed them in our front lobby. Not only are they SO CUTE, but it is a great fine motor activity, too!