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