Outdoor Play

Play-based learning provides many opportunities for students to learn and explore. Through play, students use their imaginations to indulge in creative and engaging activities. Fall presents so many opportunities for students to enjoy the outdoors. Examining leaves are a great way to incorporate learning outdoors. Here we invited students to compare leaf sizes and group into small, medium and large.

Through outdoor play, students use their imaginations to create make-believe scenarios that they explore with their peers. After a read aloud where characters in the story build a campfire, students made connections to the outdoor by creating their own version of a campfire. 

We have been working on letter names and letter sounds in our class. Here one of my JK students used a stick to make the letter M. I must say he did a great job!

Many opportunities are there for students to observe their surroundings. Rainfall created several puddles outdoors that students had fun exploring. This puddle had a worm moving around. Students were simply fascinated with all the movement and spent quite a bit of time observing the worm and other items in the puddle. 

The benefits of outdoor play cannot be overemphasized. 

• Students get multiple opportunities to engage in inquiry
• Daily physical activity helps to improve students overall health and wellbeing
• The teacher is presented with many scenarios to observe students' social interactions
• Students' creativity and imagination skills are enhanced

Remembrance Day Canada

Kindergartener's Thoughts on Remembrance Day

Today, November 11, is a special day as we pause to reflect on the work of our many hardworking men and women in the armed forces who died in the line of duty. The day is observed as Remembrance Day or more informally Poppy Day. In our classroom, we had a conversation about the meaning of Remembrance Day and students were shown a video summarizing the poppy story.


At school, we had a Remembrance Day assembly where students quoted poems, sang songs and paid tributes by laying wreaths made in the classrooms. It was a solemn assembly and students were in a reflective mode. Our class created a poster for remembrance day with a poppy themed handprint of Flanders Fields. As part of our in-class discussion, students were asked what Remembrance Day meant to them or what the day signifies. Here are a few of their unedited responses:

• "It is when we sing a song."
• "On Remembrance Day we wear poppies on our t'shirts."
• "They were fighting because they were getting old."
• "They were fighting on the field."
• "It means when the people died."
• "People who fought, they fought the bad guys to make us safe."

Poppy themed handprint done by kindergarten class

It was a very interesting conversation with the kindergarten class. It is important that we continue to engage our students in conversations that draw on our history and the significance of main events. Even if we have to break it down so they can make connections. Today our class says thank you to all the members of the armed forces who fought for our freedom. 

We will remember them!

Wreaths made by students at Roywood Public School for Remembrance Day Assembly!