Outdoor Play Tops it All

We've been having the best time on our adventures to the brook and Southworth Park over the past month.  It's amazing to watch the imagination of these kids play out in the woods and at the water.  On our first trip or two it was clear that there was a wide variety of comfort level among the children when it came to playing outside getting wet and dirty.  The more we go, the more all of the kids are learning and getting comfortable using their natural surrounding to entertain themselves.  They're learning things as simple as when you go into the water above your boots (despite your teachers warnings) your feet get wet.  When you dig in the sand, your hands get dirty.  These concepts are obvious to adults, and we often forget that at one point we didn't know these things until we experienced them ourselves. While throwing rocks in the water they've observed that bigger rocks create bigger splashes and heavier rocks are harder than smaller rocks to throw far.  They kids are learning while laughing and playing, not even realizing that they're working their brains constantly.

As a group and individually we constantly talk about making safe choices in order to keep our bodies and our friends bodies safe.  Playing outside is a fantastic way for children to learn about this in a natural way.  Studies show that children who play outside, jumping off of rocks and logs, playing with sticks, moving heavy objects like long branches and big rocks learn about their strengths as well as their limits.  As teachers we are there to help them figure these things out in as safe a way as possible.

Even our walks to and from the brook and the park are growing opportunities.  Several children struggled to walk all the way to the park and back the first time we went, but the more we go the better their stamina has gotten.  By the spring the walk will hardly feel difficult to these kids.

The staff has also noticed that different friendships grow when the children play outside.  Frequently, kids who we've never seen play with each other in the classroom hit is off when we're in the woods or at the brook.  Those friendships are then brought back to the classroom and continue to grow.