Outdoors

Outdoors

 In our outdoor area, children have a chance to run, climb, ride, slide, and enjoy the outside! Children gain many skills in our outdoor area including:

• Social skills in sharing and working as a team
• A sense of accomplishment at completing a difficult task
• Gross and small motor development through practicing many tasks, such as climbing, running, skipping, jumping, throwing, kicking, etc.
• Cognitive skills through exploration of natural environment (e.g. counting rocks, comparing an ant and a beetle, measuring the height of a bush or a tree, etc.)
• Expand vocabulary through their exploration

Ideas for Home:

Enjoy the outdoors with your children! Take walks, go to the park, explore a nearby woods. Children are most active when they are outside, which is important to their health. It also provides them with the environment to explore, collect, sort, and understand the world around them. 

There are many activities you can do while you are outside. For example, you could use chalk to draw on the sidewalk, blow bubbles, jump with a jump rope, or play catch. 

Source:
Dodge, Diane T., Colker, Laura J., Heroman, Cate. (2002). The Creative Curriculum.
        Washington DC: Teaching Strategies Inc.