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!

Sunday, December 11, 2011

A Forest in the Sandbox

Our creative younger pod added a festive forest to their little sandbox on their patio.



They supplied mini trees, real tree branches, pine cones, plastic forest animals and tree cookies. Tree cookies are just the chopped ends from Christmas trees...available NOW for FREE anywhere Christmas trees are sold!!


We love them so much that we ask our parents to gather the cookies when they get their trees at Christmas. My coworker does a lot of exploration with tree cookies in the project room. For more ideas, visit her blog at I Work 4 Kids!








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