The preschool bucket brigade took place four weeks into an intensive study surrounding the unit Our Community. While this topic is very common in preschools, for these teachers, this community unit was almost all new. This was their first experience with
Ensuring that outdoor play is an integral part of your child care and education setting’s daily schedule supports early learning across all domains and unleashes a whole lot of joy—for you and for children!
Read the following story and teacher reflections from Matthew Lawrence, and use the Reflective Questions below to deepen your thinking and shape your teaching practices.
I think about being a parent and a teacher and observing children. Even experts can forget that there is a time to model and guide, and also a time to give space for the kind of learning that happens with uninterrupted play and exploration.
If the environment is the third teacher, there is no better classroom environment than the outdoors. I use our experiences and my notes and pictures as inspiration for our curriculum.
Salir a caminar o ir a un parque son excelentes maneras de ayudar a sus hijos a aprender. Además de pasar tiempo en los juegos, tomen tiempo a explorar: ¿hay árboles que puedan contar, vecinos a los que puedan saludar o señales viales que puedan leer?
Ensuring that outdoor play is an integral part of your child care and education setting’s daily schedule supports early learning across all domains and unleashes a whole lot of joy—for you and for children!
As an outdoor educator and “nature elder,” Heather Taylor tells two stories that stretched her personal views of what it means to allow children to have the freedom to make their own choices as they study nature.
Schools like Tiny Trees that offer place-based education rely on the surrounding landscape to teach life skills, such as staying warm and contributing to the community.
As children explore and observe nature, they become more aware of, and empathetic to, the plants and animals who share the natural world. Try these nature-based mindful activities indoors or outdoors with your tots!
As early childhood educators, we often have stories to tell about our own children as we play and learn with them at home. Here is a story from Julia Luckenbill about her family’s experiences with a rock hiding and finding activity.
Parents, educators, and other primary caregivers might not realize that a small patch of grass, a single tree, and a walk to the store are opportunities to observe nature, generate questions, and conduct experiments to find answers.
Not every preschool can implement a full nature-based approach. Small shifts in program practices can give children more meaningful experiences with the natural world.
