Learning Centers Blog Hop Series: Playgrounds & Recess

We will be continuing the Pre-K Partners blog hop series.  In this week’s blog hop we will be sharing with you how we get children outside playing in nature.  

When it comes to our playground and recess time I like to think back to my own childhood and have my children’s parents think back to what they enjoyed most when they played outdoors as children.  Maybe they liked making messy mud pies, swinging on tire swings, playing hide and seek, or making fairy gardens among the plants in the garden.  I’m a big believer in providing children with some of these much-needed play experiences in the outdoor classroom and parents enjoy seeing and hearing about their children having those same experiences that they did when they were young.     

I like to look at my outdoor playground as an outdoor classroom.  In the outdoor classroom, children can play vigorously, use loud voices, release excess energy, and engage in large, messy projects.

It’s a place for children to spending unstructured time outdoors, where children can have the opportunities to discover and experience nature. 

Gross Motor Structure

​We are lucky enough to have two gross motor structure for climbing, swinging, sliding, balancing, crawling and pretending.

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We also have a large cement area that children can peddle bikes, pull wagons, play basketball, use sidewalk chalk, push trucks and use walking cups.

​Messy Play

Large Block Play

Sandpit Play

Gardening

Music Wall

Quiet Area

Outdoor Art Center

Dramatic Play

There are many benefits to a well-planned outdoor play space.

Time outdoors will provide children with opportunities to...

• Build Physical Strength
• Release Excess Energy
• Problem Solve
• Take Risks
• Increase Creativity
• Reduced Mental Health Issues
• Learn Empathy
• Discover and Experience Nature

We need to learn to view outside time as more than just “recess” time.  Outside time needs to be viewed as an invaluable part of each day’s learning activities.  We need to build outdoor classroom time into our daily activity schedule.
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When it comes to the outdoor environment, I like to include everything that you could find in the indoor classroom, just bigger and louder ways to experience and explore and learn with.
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As the teacher we can…

Look at the outdoor environment as an extension to our indoor classroom.

• Needs to give consideration to each curriculum area (such as art, music, science, language, math) to be explored outside?
• Maximize outdoor time by intentionally placing provocations throughout the environment to enhance play time.
• Follow the lead of the children.
• Facilitate their play.
• Allow children to take some risks.
• Allow children to actively solve problems.
• Refrain from teacher-led activities, they limit the possibilities for individuals, pairs, or larger groups of children to engage in their own self-directed learning.

I hope you enjoyed the tour of our preschool playground and recess.  To see more fun and engaging playgrounds hop on over to PreK Partners and take a tour.
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