86 ideas for fabulous outdoor fun (Part 3)

Out in all weathers!

I don't want to hear any excuses! Make sure your children (and you) are dressed appropriately, whether that means wellies or sun cream, and get outside! 

First up: a couple of ideas for Sunny Weather  

1. Have you tried shadow tracing? Get some chalk and a clean part of the path, or some big paper and encourage the children to experiment with tracing around the shadow shapes that they can see. You could let them trace each others shadow, try to trace their own (not an easy task!) or even use some construction materials to build models that will cast unusual shapes. This activity develops children's hand-eye coordination, imagination, and allows them to begin thinking about light and how it travels. You could extend this activity by creating some shadow puppets or exploring the way that shadows move and change throughout the day. What happens to the shadows on a cloudy day?
2. Have a water fight! What better way to spend a hot and sunny afternoon than throwing and catching wet sponges (spatial awareness, coordination, gross motor skills), running past the spraying hose (gross motor skills, confidence), and finding ever more ingenious ways to soak one another (logical thinking, problem solving)? On top of this, the children are learning about how water moves and can be transported, they are also learning about evaporation as they notice their clothes becoming dry in the sun. I recommend a thorough risk assessment of this activity as wet surfaces and running can often be a dangerous combination. Oh, and don't forget to have a change of clothes for yourself as well as the children! I have made this mistake before!
3. Sunny days are the best kind of days to go on a bug hunt! Encourage the children to think about what kind of creatures might live in the garden, then get out there and find them! Don't forget your magnifying glasses, bug books and creature catching pots to further their investigations! This activity allows children to appreciate the world around them, think about the many different creatures that share our world with us. It also develops their investigation and natural curiosity. 

There are so many more, but I couldn't possibly write about them all! Next, Rainy days

1. Rain Catchers are an easy way to bring some numeracy into the outdoor environment. A very simple method to create one is to use a 2 litre pop bottle, cut it in half and insert the top end into the bottom so that it forms a little funnel. You could allow the children to use a ruler and marker pen to create markings on the side of the bottle so that they can easily measure the volume of water. A lovely experiment that you and your children can carry out is to place a few rain catchers in difference places around the garden - out in the open, underneath a tree, on top of a slide... leave them for a time and when you return, investigate which contains the most rain water. Encourage the children to think and reason "Why could this be the case?"
2. As mentioned in my last post (No resources, No problem!) Splashing in puddles is a wonderfully fun, messy, and surprisingly educational activity! No resources? No problem!

Again, I have barely scratched the surface,  but let's think about Ice and Snow

1. The cold weather is a perfect opportunity for your children to learn about the different forms of water through Freezing and Melting. The children at my nursery love to go on an ice hunt first thing in the morning. Any little containers or places where water might pool is possibly hiding a frozen surprise. Allow your children to hold the ice in their hands. What happens? Why does this happen? Can we stop the ice from melting? You could also involve the children in making their own ice by leaving some small containers of water overnight. Why not drop a little toy into it to see what happens? Or some sparkly glitter? Or even paint! You could extend this activity to see if other liquids freeze in the same way - for example, Does ketchup freeze? Another extension would be to allow the children to investigate the effects of salt on ice. 
2. Building a snowman (or woman) encourages children to work together as a team. It develops problem solving and logical thinking as they work out how to move snow from one place to another, and how to build the snowman without it crumbling or toppling over. Another learning opportunity during this activity is to explore facial features and body parts. 
3. Have you ever tried painting the snow? If not then I urge you to try it! The snow absorbs the paint and the paint also causes the snow to melt a little, creating beautifully weird and wonderful patterns and designs. This activity allows children to be creative, and also develops fine motor skills (or large, depending on the equipment you might use) and co-ordination.

Last of all: Windy weather!

1. Let's go fly a kite, up to the highest height! A fun and calming activity that can involve some teamwork (getting the kite into the sky) and can also be used to encourage sharing and turn taking. And of course if you want to take it further, you could ask the children to think about "What is wind?" "Can you see the wind?"
2. Let's make our own wind chimes! Provide the children with a variety of items that will make a sound when the wind blows (spoons, keys, wooden tubes, bells, shells... you get the idea) and when the children have finished their creative, imaginative fun you can hang them around the garden, wait for the wind and listen to the wonderful sounds that they make. 

Next Post: Taking care of our environment

86 Ideas for fabulous outdoor fun (Part 2)

No Resources? No Problem!

Whoever said that you have to have tonnes of fancy resources to engage and teach children?
Here's a few ideas that wont cost you a fortune:

1. Make a daisy chain! 
   
   How many of us remember this one from when we were children? It allows children to use their observational skills to hunt out the daisies and also their fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination while poking a hole and threading the stalk through. You can count the daisies, notice the colours and make comparisons to other flowers, 
2. Flower pressing. Go for a walk with your children and allow them to pick some flowers. Then, trim your flowers and, using some heavy books with absorbent pages (telephone directories etc), place them in between the pages. Unfortunately, to do this properly, you do need to leave them for some time (I've heard it can take up to 4 weeks!) but for the purposes of learning and fun, you could experiment with different amounts of time. This activity allows your children to appreciate plants and flowers as they pick the ones that they love, they learn about weight and size and can make comparisons between different books when selecting the appropriate ones to use and of course, it can lead on to some fantasticly floral Artwork using the finished product.
3. Potions. One of my particular favourite activities! I have blogged about potions before...(http://piratesandprincesses.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/lets-go-outside.html). You can allow the children to choose their own 'ingredients' out of anything and everything that they can get their hands on - and let the learning commence! 
4. Splashing in puddles. Peppa pig loves splashing in muddy puddles and so do we! Just because it's raining outside doesn't mean we should stay cooped up! Splashing and jumping helps to develop children's Gross motor skills, they begin to make connections between how high they jump and how big a splash they can make, they can learn about how water moves and changes and they can learn about depth and volume. You could also extend this to look at the different clothing that is suitable for different weathers and find out how the water can affect different materials - "would a paper raincoat keep us dry?" "What about wellies made out of wood?". 
5. Climbing trees. Yes! It's so important to encourage and allow your children to take risks and manage their own safety! As long as there is an adult on hand to help if they get into a bit of a sticky situation and to ensure that this risky play doesn't turn into dangerous play.
6. Counting the rings on a tree stump. Around my nursery there have been a number of trees chopped down. The children noticed the stumps while we were out walking and while they were climbing on them and having all kinds of physical fun play, I asked if they knew about the rings. Surprisingly none of them did! This lead on to a wonderful discussion about the age of the trees and encouraged the children's counting skills. It also prompted them to begin wondering about the different types of trees and whether all of the big trees were old and small trees were young? (Mathematical language and comparisons.) 
7. Mud pies. Mud is fascinating. One minute it can be hard and solid, the next dry and crumbly, the next powdery and dusty and the next sloppy and wet! Making mud pies can encourage children to talk about these changes and experiment with some descriptive language. They can develop their hand - eye coordination while scooping and pouring and they can definitely use their imagination!
8. Cloud spotting. The next time you have a nice-ish day with some fluffy clouds, take the children outside, lay down on the grass and look at the clouds (yes, you can tell the boss that you're 'working!') Encourage the children to use their imagination and language skills to describe what they see. You can make this as simple or complex as your children's needs require - for example spotting shapes or extending this into telling a story using the 'characters' that they can see in the sky. You can also take this into Art and allow the children to draw the things that they have seen
9. Rolling down the hill. The children at my nursery LOVE this game. We are lucky enough to have a hill with a steeper side and a more shallow side so that the children can make decisions and assess what they feel comfortable and confident with. Again, allowing the children to manage their safety by showing them how to take turns or space themselves out appropriately is very valuable. And while the children are rolling down the hill, they are beginning to learn about gravity, and about speed and motion (and they just think that they're having fun!)
10. Hide and seek. This game works best in an area where there is plenty of space, but clear boundaries. An enclosed garden perhaps (at least to begin with) or an outdoor space that the children are familiar with. This game encourages turn taking, counting skills, spatial awareness, problem solving and logical thinking skills. It's also tonnes of fun!

Next post: Out in all weathers!

When bad weather turns into great learning!

Today I woke up full of ideas and plans to begin our activities and learning about tennis (following Andy Murray's spectacular performance not that long ago which many of the children were aware of and interested in) but the weather had other ideas. As I drove to work I watched the dark clouds roll overhead and saw a few spots of rain. "Not to worry" I thought, "we can still go onto the courts and throw the balls about, a bit of rain wont stop us!"

I arrived at work and before I started organising my plans, I began by setting up our computer so that the children could watch a news clip about William and Kate's baby boy (Congratulations!) We got into a discussion about what we thought the baby should be named and the children had some interesting suggestions, the most popular of which seemed to be Jesus!

By this time, the rain had really started to pour down and I was not feeling quite so optimistic about using the tennis courts. I was looking out of the window, deciding whether to brave taking a group out into the garden for splishy splashy puddle play when... A huge rumble of thunder clapped overhead... and another one... and another, all in a short space of time! 

A couple of the children were feeling a little bit frightened at this point, but most were amazed at this dramatic weather. Then we began to see the lightning and the children decided that they wanted to stand at the door and watch.

What happened next was like something out of a cartoon: The children were all stood at the door, watching the rain tumble down and watching for lightning. They were getting used to the thunder by now and were saying to each other "we're not scared are we? We like the thunder and lightning" 

Suddenly all of the nursery lights flickered off and on and then there was the LOUDEST clap of thunder that you've ever heard! Together as one, the children turned with looks of surprise and panic on their faces and ran into the arms of my colleague and I who were standing just behind them. It took a moment but when they were all feeling safe again they began to laugh. 

What a fantastic opportunity for some learning! We used the computer to find out what causes the thunder sound and then the children had a go at creating their own thunder sounds by clapping their hands and stamping their feet. They also listened to other sounds that they could hear around the nursery and spoke about whether they were loud sounds or quiet sounds. We then spoke about the lightning and found out what causes it. We talked about electricity and why the children thought the lights had flickered and we even talked about how light travels to our eyes faster than sound travels to our ears!

The children were very disappointed when the rain stopped and continued to ask throughout the day if the thunder would be back!

It just goes to show, even though I wasn't able to carry out my plans, the children experienced something really exciting and were able to learn so much through it!

Hooray for Scottish Summers!