Responding to Louv's challenge requires more than us being convinced or us taking steps to change the physical outdoor environment the children experience. We need to change the thinking, the reactions, and the practices of the entire teaching staff and administration. How do we go about that? What policies need to change? What information needs to be shared to change staff practices and reactions? Do staff have to re-think their attitudes toward messiness and icky things, toward unstructured time, toward acceptable levels of danger or risk? How much do staff have to overcome their fears of nature? Do staff, as well as children, need to experience the benefits of nature as a de-stressor?
A related topic is that Louv presents us with a challenging dilemma. On the one hand, we need to learn to let go, to provide children more opportunities to structure their own experiences and environments, to give them the gift of unscripted, loosely supervised time in more naturalistic spaces. But he also says there is a need for adults to facilitate children's appreciation of nature and to model the sense of wonder and respect we want them to adopt. How do we learn this balance and teach our staffs to do both? How do we strike a balance between giving children more opportunities to explore nature for the sheer joy of it and the temptation to treat contact with nature as a series of teachable moments?
Practical solutions, personal examples, and found resources are welcome!
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I run an in-home daycare and not in my 24 years have I had a child take an unnessasary risk and get harmed. If my child was at school/day care and I found out that the "staff, let go" and my child got hurt, I would be furious!!! I have woods in my back yard and I would never allow the children out there to "explore".
Risks can be taught at home, not through staff.
A teachable moment, can be bringing in different kinds of plants, insects, materials from the outdoors that are safe for children and letting them explore. Bring the outdoors in or even in a "safe" area outdoors and eliminate all risks.
Staff do not need to let go, of losen up. They are paid to protect the children while they are on their watch. If I child went out side and caught poison ivy or got bit by an insect or ate something strange, it would be on the staff's back, not the child's.
Everybody has their own level of risk with everything they do. Risks with money, risks in relationships, risks with college courses, but I know I don't put mine into other people's hands, neither would I want my children's.
I agree that I would not allow children in our care to roam in the woods on their own. However, if I had woods at my program, I would definitely take groups to explore there under our supervision. This is no different than when we take the children on field trips to a Mass Audubon Sanctuary or a Trustees Reservation. We walk through the woods and every so often stop to listen to the sounds. I ask everyone to be very, very quiet and then let us know what they hear. Invariably, the first response is that they don’t hear anything. Then as they listen a bit longer, these preschoolers begin to pick up on the sounds of nature. It is wonderful to see their faces light up as they say things like, “I can hear the wind.” Or “I hear water dripping.” Or “I hear a bird.” Sometimes they will hear sounds that they are unable to identify and then this becomes a wonderful teaching moment. There is so much that children can learn and see in a natural environment that they would otherwise not appreciate. When they are out on the playground, there is usually so much noise from their own laughs and shouts that they are not aware of the sounds of nature. By removing the children from the distractions of a playground, we can help them to heighten their sensory awareness and give them the opportunity to appreciate those natural experiences..
Below is a site to check out for anyone who may be interested. It is the November issue of Community Collage and the topic of that issue is "Environmental Education for Young Children" Copy and paste the URL to get to the site. There are several interesting articles on the topic as well as some aditional resources.
http://by135w.bay135.mail.live.com/mail/InboxLight.aspx?FolderID=00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001&InboxSortAscending=False&InboxSortBy=Date&n=375435014
I took the opportunity yesterday to ask these questions of my lead teachers. I asked them how they balance the need and worth of natural experiences, unstructured by the teacher overlay, and keeping the children safe. The teachers clearly understand the worth of natural experiences but know that we must present them in ways that keep children safe - supervised field trips, in class presentations, free roaming playground time, recommendations to families for activities, etc. The teachers themselves remember exploring freely in the woods themselves and allowing their children to do so - they personally know the worth and excitement of that experience but they also know their professional responsibility for keeping children safe must come first. So they agree that truly free roaming natural experiences must be done through family experiences and not through schools and daycares.
We do present many in class and field trip presentations in our preschool and when we do so we offer the children and families open ended questions and suggestions. It is always more exploration and questions to be answered than it is lectures and presentations. Scavenger hunts for items that have eyes and wings but no feathers, etc. Making children and adults think and assess and come to conclusions on their own creates more personal and stronger learning and sharing. We love to see the parents coming up with answers and being excited about it. They do not get to explore and think creatively at work like this and it is fun for them to participate. It also creates patterns they can then take home and recreate with their own families as time goes on.
We encourage families to go to less well known places such as the Harvard Museum of Natural History which has amazing collections of everything from glass flowers to live insects. We tell them to allow the children to lead them through the collections - let them explore at their pace and where they are interested. It is an enormously family and child friendly environment and will support a museum shy parent in his/her quest to explore with a child.
As a home daycare provider I'd love to get my licensor's comments on this particular subject. I feel that the children in my care are limited to walks in the neighborhood, being inside a fenced in yard (same yard everyday) or a fenced in play space (again same play space daily). I completely understand from a state perspective that they are looking out for the safely of the children, but it also limits what we can and can't do outside with them. If I have a fenced in play yard, then I should have not the children wandering my yard, so I think it's not retraining the staff, it's more about re-training the parents and how to get them to get out there with their kids and explore. Yes, I can bring some of the outdoors in, but it's definitely not the same as being able to really explore the outdoors.
Did you know this is National Green Week?! See a USA article on the issues we are discussing at:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-01-26-green-schools_N.htm
Not only do we have to educate parents, but we need to emphasize these points with EEC so that the regs can reflect the importance of unstructured play in natural environments. I agree with Debbie that this is hard in a fenced playyard. I am no longer in that role, but had all the bells and whistles in my outdoor play space when I did home child care. If I were still in that role I could see eliminating some of the excess equipment and putting in some more natural, loose parts. Children love to play around large rocks, tree stumps, etc. You could still have these areas as well as a garden in your space and be "safe".
Regarding parents, the more we invite them to participate in our field trips, neighborhood walks, and even backyard discovery times the more likely they are to feel comfortable letting their children explore the out-of-doors. I was always torn about asking for parent involvement though. Since I was a full day child care program I felt that I might be adding an element of stress by asking them to take time out of work to join us for an outing. I generally didn't plan anything I felt I couldn't handle myself. I imagine it is a bit easier for preschool programs where you have more stay-at-home parents.
I work at my children's daycare and do so largly in part so that I can still control what they are experiencing and the kinds of experiences they have. (I swear I try no to be overbearing.) Not only because I want to be able to see their learning for myself, because as we know most parents miss the cool stuff daily, but also becasue as a parent I want to know that they are not being spoonfed information but being allowed to "discover" things on their own.
Yes, staff has to come to terms with the part of their job that takes them outside of their comfort zone with living things and nature. Its part of the job to touch some of the icky stuff.
Yes, staff has to understand that risks are okay as long as they are there to intervene. I am not talking about unnecessary risks, like jumping off a 6 foot swing set, but what about jumping off the swing before it stops? Can we teach them that sort of thing by standing in the landing zone to catch them? Or by helping them understand inertia by measuring how far they jumped and how fast they were swinging. What about teaching children how to land safely when they jump off stairs or structures outside? My center is allowed to have a climbing structure that is a little higher than three feet tall. But the licenser will not let us take down a fence over a wall that is 2 feet high because "well, they may jump and oohhh that could be dangerous".
I agree that I would love for the licensers to see some of this research and try to break free of their own chains and give some things a chance...
The kind of balance that we need to be aware exists lies in the types of exxperiences we provide and how far we let it go.
Introduce a snail by bringing it in to the classroom and just listen to the questions, let the kids guide the learning. Let them feel it, feed it, research it, read about it, take care of it, look for more of them and discover where they love to live. If you just tell them all about snails, then you take the fun out of the discovery. If you have to plan the moments, try to guide them to the correct assumptions, or toward appropriate expericence without telling them the outcomes. Try to be open minded about where the learning can go. Sometimes teaching is mora about facilitation that teaching. When we are open to that, we learn more too.
This is a very hard topic for our teachers to come to terms with. Some teachers feel we should restrict everything that may hurt a child like jumping off of a structure or even running too fast. Other teachers feel outside time should be unstructured and free. We have a chain link fence surrounding our yard. The children enjoy climbing the fence, not to the top but just a step or two up...
Debbie Lynn-Roy
I agree about getting the DEEC on board. They are all about safety and are vigilant about outdoor experiences (we haven't used swings in four years and have actually removed them permanently now per licensor's request). I would love to see a response from them on this research.
2/3 of our parents are double income working parents and we are sensitive to their need to balance everything they do, but we do see it also as our responsibility to help them with information or experiences they may not have access to or time to research. Our working parents do drive our field trips - we do about four in the fall and four in the spring per classroom. With enough lead time and notice we haven't come up short yet!
Interesting article on National Green Week, I wonder if it will catch on widely. We do a week of curriculum around Earth Day in April that includes recycling, pollution, etc. This year we started routinely recycling plastics and cardboard from the children's lunches and our own snack foods. The children are great at it and we fill two bins a week with their food items alone. We put out a food and lunches newsletter at the beginning of the year recommending alternatives to Lunchable type meals. We recommend laptoplunches.com and other sites where you can purchase reusable, child friendly kits to send foods in. Some parents do it and some do not. Again we are just offering education, resources and alternatives. The parents seem grateful for it and there is never any pressure to conform.
Re-training staff is a component that we will have to place more emphasis on as younger teachers enter the profession. They are a part of the first generation that spends their childhood inside, plugged into the TV. and video games. They do not have the precious memories of days spent in nature to relate to.
Staff needs to move beyond their own attitudes and experiences to do what is best for the children. Everyone has their own beliefs and bias that must be challenged to effect change.
Safety is paramount for the children in our care. Parents entrust above all else to keep their children safe. Even so, we can certainly provide meaningful experiences including direct interaction with nature for the children in our care. Acceptable and safe risk and open exploration is possible even within the confines of a fenced play yard. Skilled teachers can provide preschoolers with developmentally appropriate interaction with nature and foster sensible risk taking.
I am enjoying all of the comments so far and would like to comment on a few. We definitely have to train our staff to be a bit less squeamish about the outdoors. I know that I have one teacher who over the past four years has gotten much better at not showing her aversion to insects. If the children see that we are not afraid then they will be less likely to be afraid and can explore more. I certainly agree that DEEC needs to be more conscious of the benefits of unstructured play. Although my licensor has not asked us to take down our swings, she does want to see that we have a ‘planned’ activity for the children. We are a full day preschool and although our parents work we plan field trips far enough in advance that some parents take a day off from work to join us. In the summer, we take all of our centers outside and incorporate the out doors into our learning environment including the addition last year of a garden.
I'd like to piggyback on what Dottie said regarding the expectations for more planned activities outside. I have heard the same feedback from DEEC to plan more for the children outside rather than just having outdoor time as a free-for-all. Although I certainly understand that we don’t want the children just aimlessly running around, I think we all agree that when given the opportunity, children will find a way for creative expression during that free play. The other limitation that sometimes comes into play here is that regulations require that playgrounds need to be enclosed with some type of fencing. Naturally, we want to make sure that our very young children do not wander off unattended – that goes without saying. However, when children only have access to a surfaced playground within the confines of a fenced in area, then there does not leave much room for exploration of those natural areas. I recall when I worked at another center many years ago, we had a surfaced playground area that was then surrounded by a vast grassy area. The playground area at that time was not enclosed. Children learned very quickly that they were to stay within the surfaced area of the playground during our outdoor time. But every so often, we would take them on an “expedition” through the field. They always felt like this was a great adventure. In the winter, they got to make brand new tracks in the new-fallen snow and of course there was plenty of room to roll snowballs for building a whole family of snowmen. In the spring/summer they picked dandelions in the lawn. Now I see that at this center the playground is enclosed and I wonder how often the teachers are able to take the children out for that time of exploration.
Working with fcc I feel it can often be the regs that are prohibitive...we are MANDATED to keep children safe! I think that keeping in line with the regs & providing enriching outdoor experiences is a balancing act & one that can be done with a bit of oput of the box thinking. I really do understand how liable we are for the children in our care & a lot of the providers I work with have concerns & the truth is they should...we live in a lawsuit happy society. The truth is I am constantly telling Providers to DOCUMENT DOCUMENT DOCUMENT & that is sad, but I am going off on a tangent here..sorry!
I am thinking that one way to train or re-train staff might be to have them have those wonderful natural experiences! In a world where funding would not be an issue (yes, that is the world in my dreams only...LOL) I would take all our Providers on a weekend nature excursion...immerse them in the experience & show them how simple it can be! How much more fun is it to have a workshop where we are actually participating & creating as opposed to sitting inside watching a power point presentation.
One of the challenges I often face in working with fcc providers is convincing them it is really ok to let the kids get messy & dirty. Some Providers, like some kids, just cannot stand to put their hands in dirt or play with bugs or even get messy...if they do not like it they often will not provide those activities for the children. One of the things I often do in this case is bring along a messy activity when I am visiting (ya, they love me..huh?). I will do the whole activity, the set up as well as the clean up & when they see how the kids LOVE it they will often try something similar.
For example, one day last summer I was visiting a Provider on a hot day. The kids were out in the yard, kind of dragging, playing in the sand box. The hose was nearby & gave me an idea! I asked the Provider if I could get the kids messy if I promised to clean them up. She laughingly agreed. She provided me with the long t-shirts the kids usually used for painting, we got the kids changed into these then put the hose in the sandbox for a bit. We had a blast making mudpies & cakes, burgers & castles & just playing with wet sand. After about an hour I helped clean the kids off with a bucked of water, towels & the hose & we hung the tshirts up to dry. The Provider saw how much fun the kids were having at a "messy" activity & saw that it really was not such a big deal to clean up. Of course it was easier with 2 of us! After this she started to try a few messier activities. This was just the start of how my co-worker & I have been helping her to become more comfortable with outdoor play that can be messy at times.
I have also gone to a Providers in the Fall with large plastic cups & took the kids outside to collect acorns. The Provider was stressed as she was afraid the kids would eat them! She had never even let them pick them up before because of this fear! We collected them, counted them,smashed them open, slid them down the slides, etc. She could see that with supervision this was really OK.
Sometimes I think we just have to demonstrate & let folks see how much fun these things are for kids!!
It's hard to reconcile the research and the regulations. We are mandated to keep the children safe and I agree that's our highest priority. But - structured, planned outdoor experiences are poor substitutes for the learning that occurs when a child is allowed the freedom to explore in nature without adult direction. Families aren’t always able or willing to allow for that when the child is home. While we can’t allow totally unsupervised play in nature we need to determine how we can strike some sort of balance.
As we all know, each center, each family child care setting is different. In the fifteen years my center has been opened we’ve gone through a transformation on our playground. We opened with no fence around the playground, a sandbox and the entire play area was grass. Within the next two to three years we were told the grass wasn’t impact absorbent, and we needed an area with a hard surface for “ride-ons”. We were (and still are) allowed to have a swing set and everything except for the hard surface had to have six inches of impact absorbing material. (Pretty dull looking then and still pretty dull looking now). We left one tree in the middle of a sand box and while it’s ok now, it came into question with one of our licensors: I’m so glad we didn’t have to cut it down. We’ve done some preliminary work on our playground and I am going to plant some grass in one of the areas and I’m hoping to plant another tree. Now, after reading this book, I want to add more natural things, rocks, flowers, taller grasses, etc. to the area. We have a garden area to which I’d like to add a bird house or two.
In addition, I’m going to prepare an in-service to acquaint my staff with the topic, the research and the benefits. Every center has its own personality and we have to determine how to best get our staff members to make changes. I’m considering coming up with some kind of incentive for staff members who attend additional trainings, conferences, etc. on this topic. I’m thinking of changing some of our standard field trips (children’s museum) to more nature learning experiences and requiring more documentation in the teacher’s lesson plans about how they’ll encourage more exploration and discovery. I hope it works!
I absolutely agree with Patricia’s approach to helping get some people on board with the messy stuff. I am a kinesthetic learner and as such still learn best when immersed in a situation. Because of this, I find it very easy to immerse myself and “get lost” in the kind of learning that we want to facilitate for our children. I have created and presented workshops on the subjects of facilitating scientific inquiry, and how to use the sensory table in several different atypical ways. (Any interest in them let me know) But until we actually put some teachers in that learning situation they don’t have the initiative to do anything like that. Many people have responded to my “hands-on” seminars in very positive ways, saying that they had fun, and enjoyed participating in the learning. I wholeheartedly agree that in a perfect world we would immerse ourselves in the outdoors in order to learn more.
I also think that incentives are a great way to help teachers along this path of discovery. It is really too bad that we have become a society that a) has to consciously learn about the incredible wonders of the world because we have missed out on our natural explorative nature, and b) is usually only motivated by some form of incentive other than the well-rounded experience of the children in our care.
While reading about Louv’s descriptions of programs that have incorporated outdoor classrooms into their curriculum, I was reminded of two very popular programs that the Medfield schools do every year.
In third grade, children spend a great deal of time learning about the first settlers in our area. Someone comes to visit from Plimouth plantation to talk to them about what life may have been like in the 1600s. Naturally there is also a lot of reading and classroom discussion on the topic. However, what stands out is the way the social studies unit is culminated. Each third grade class goes on a field trip to Rocky Woods, a Trustees reservation where they spend the whole day in the woods reliving what may have been a day in the life of the Pilgrims. They prepare a Thanksgiving feast entirely outdoors. The children are divided into groups and then each group rotates through the various activities. For example, one group is responsible for gathering wood to keep the cooking fires going. Another group helps with preparing the food for cooking. Another group does some of the actual cooking. A fourth group is out on the field playing games that pilgrim children might have known. The feast itself consists of fire roasted chicken, applesauce (made from scratch and cooked over a fire), corn bread (also cooked outdoors in a fire pit), and much more. There have been many years when this event has taken place on very cold and even snowy days, thus adding to the authenticity of having to endure hardships while tending to everyday tasks. All of these things of course can be taught in the classroom but you can bet that these children remember the smells and the cold far better having personally experienced it even if for only a day.
Then in the eighth grade, children learn about local history. Part of this unit involves the integration of all curricular areas during a canoe trip down the Charles. As the children spend a day paddling, they stop to take water samples for analysis and observe the local flora and fauna (science), measure the depth of the water using various types of calculations (math), stop at different points along the river to hear about the events that took place there during the king Philip wars (history), and stop on the shore to take time and write in their journals (English language arts). Again, it is a lesson that is strengthened because of the experiential approach.
My own sons are all adults now, yet they will still recall these two units of study with a clarity that surpasses any of their other lessons.
Our staff needs to experience a nature program of their own to gain the insight and explore the possibilities of teaching nature to young children. I actually found a program to work in during the summer months since my preschool program closed each summer. It was by accident that
I came across a summer job at Blue Hills Nature Sanctuary working with four year olds at an outside nature camp. The program for four and young five-year-olds was new the year I participated in the camp. The camp prior to this year was for children 6-15 years of age running for two-weeks per session, the program ended with a Thursday night, overnight experience. The training was simple a 3-5 days of given examples of everything we would need to past the experience on to the young campers. Since I was the early childhood “expert”, I needed to adapt the information to fit the developmental requirements of the younger child.
The program I developed modeled the older children’s program introducing the children to a variety of nature themes. Craft projects developed from natural materials from nature and outside experience of finding and discovering bird homes, identifying types of trees and poison plants. Discovering natural food supplies by nature and identifying healthy and good food sources found on the hillside. We discussed natural resources and using and caring for nature. We did everything from taking berries and nuts and making dyes from them to making paper from recycled paper. I learned many new ways to introduce nature to young children. My program has benefited by my own experience and teachers I have taught with have enjoyed learning about the nature facts each summer when we run our own nature mini camp.
Personally, I learned a lot about nature from this experience and used most of it in the preschool where I work. If all teachers had this type of experience or training in a natural nature preserve it could reduce the fear of introducing the same to young children, lessening their own fears and misconceptions of eatable fruits and nuts and the safe and harmful plants and insects/animals.
Our staff needs to experience a nature program of their own to gain the insight and explore the possibilities of teaching nature to young children. I actually found a program to work in during the summer months since my preschool program closed each summer. It was by accident that
I came across a summer job at Blue Hills Nature Sanctuary working with four year olds at an outside nature camp. The program for four and young five-year-olds was new the year I participated in the camp. The camp prior to this year was for children 6-15 years of age running for two-weeks per session, the program ended with a Thursday night, overnight experience. The training was simple a 3-5 days of given examples of everything we would need to past the experience on to the young campers. Since I was the early childhood “expert”, I needed to adapt the information to fit the developmental requirements of the younger child.
The program I developed modeled the older children’s program introducing the children to a variety of nature themes. Craft projects developed from natural materials from nature and outside experience of finding and discovering bird homes, identifying types of trees and poison plants. Discovering natural food supplies by nature and identifying healthy and good food sources found on the hillside. We discussed natural resources and using and caring for nature. We did everything from taking berries and nuts and making dyes from them to making paper from recycled paper. I learned many new ways to introduce nature to young children. My program has benefited by my own experience and teachers I have taught with have enjoyed learning about the nature facts each summer when we run our own nature mini camp.
Personally, I learned a lot about nature from this experience and used most of it in the preschool where I work. If all teachers had this type of experience or training in a natural nature preserve it could reduce the fear of introducing the same to young children, lessening their own fears and misconceptions of eatable fruits and nuts and the safe and harmful plants and insects/animals.
Today I took a long walk through the local state park (Nickerson State Park) with a friend & we discussed the ideas in the book. She recommended a book to me that was filled with ideas to use with children; "I Love Dirt" by Jennifer Ward. I took a look on-line & it looks interesting so I put a hold on it at the library. I just wanted to pass this along to you folks! Here is the authors website
jenniferwardbooks.com
No sooner did I sign off here and got an email from the friend I walked with today who told me I might also enjoy the following titles, she has both & has enjoyed them. She taught at the Audubon for several years also so I am excited to have her as a resource & sharing it with you folks!
"A Natural Sense of Wonder" by Rick Van Noy
"Beyond Ecophobia: Reclaiming the Heart in Nature Education" by David Sobel
I was so excited by our conversation today & by reading this book that I plan on continuing reading & researching about this topic & then am hoping to put together a training workshop for the family child care providers I work with!
I'd like to speak about the topic of the second paragraph in regards to balancing curriculum and freedom. We already do this in so many other areas of curriculum this is easy. Start with teachable moments inside. Subscribe to "Your Big Backyard" and teach animal ID and run with the concept of the magazine, nature is in everyone's backyard.As you take the children outdoors pause before you let them "free". On pg 57 Louv says "...As human beings we need direct, natural experiences; we require fully activated senses in order to feel fully alive." So before you release them have them descibe the day. Is it sunny? Cloudy? Cold? Warm? What color is the sky? Do you feel the wind on your cheek? Now close your eyes. What do you hear? Let them look for signs of spring.Play I spy with my eyes and describe something you see. This short activity done daily will create observant children that will automatically be aware of their natural environment. Then use their free time outdoors to have conversation (my favorite word in school) about what they are experiencing. This may fulfill your requirements for a planned activity, yet give the kids their freedom too.
When I read Theresa's post, I thought of my own time in our Center's garden. I'll often take 4-5 children out at a time to harvest vegetables, weed, or water the plants, and as the children are working, we have many interesting and lively conversations about the garden (eg. What do worms eat?, why is one plant bigger than the other, Can you pick the green vegetables? Why are some of the sunflower seeds missing from the flower? etc.) These are perfect teaching opportunities because the children are engaged and really interested in your response to their questions. The more they are given the chance to touch and explore, the more interested and excited they become. It gives them the opportunity to lead and question and the teacher can act as a facilitator and guide.
I try to take the children in my program out beyond the fence. The nursing home has a grassy field near the playground which we use often. Although it isn't fenced in, the children know the boundaries which they learn to respect. It gives them the freedom to explore the rough edges. We go to the "forest" and they know how far they can go. We have a field with a trail that leads to the elementary schools next door. The flowers tower above our heads. It's a great place to identify a variey of wildflowers and butterflies in the summer. Unfortunately, we don't use it much because of our fear of ticks.
We rarely "plan" activities for outdoors unless we see that the children need something to extend their plans. We feel that children need time to be free, to explore their surroundings on their own. Children, when left on their own or with friends, can find ways to use their natural surroundings. Teachers are the facilitators. We're there to answer questions and provide materials when asked for.
The children in our program collect lots of "stuff" such as wildflowers, pinecones, leaves, and rocks. We bring these treasures into the classroom and then find books in our library that we read to learn more about them.
I feel that my staff needs more training in nature education. My training as an Audubon teacher/naturalist included many hours learning about plants, animals, trees, the stars, wetlands, etc.and how to share this information with children and their families. I try to share this information with my staff. I use my experiences at Stony Brook to enhance my curriculum at MLA.
Some of my staff are squeamish around insects and other animals and discourage the children from interacting with them.
Recently one of my teachers decided that it would be fun to go tracking with the children after a snow storm. I thought that it was a great idea. I asked her if she could identify the tracks. She said no. She would let the children use their imaginations to guess what had made the tracks. I asked her to take it one step further and find a book about tracking so that the children could identify the tracks. Unfortunately she didn't think that it was important. I was on that walk with the children and helped them correctly identify the tracks. As a naturalist, I feel that children can observe and make educated guesses, but should also be given the correct information so that they can at a future time, correctly identify the plant, animal, or track.
I feel that there should be more training workshops taught by Audubon naturalists about nature, animals, insects, plants, etc.
Thank you, Kathleen, for the two book titles. I plan to check the library for these titles.
Did you ever read about in the Victorian Age bird identification and nature journaling were part of the schoolchildren's curriculum. It was also the beginning of many beautiful Urban parks such as those designed by Frederick Law Olmstead. They recognized then that fresh air and sunshine were important to children's health. This was in reaction to the industrialization of America (pre EPA!). Maybe all of this we are discussing now is just a reawakening and remembering of lessons that we did learn before.
Wouldn't it be fun to see those lesson plans now?
As far as teacher training, in our group we are preaching to the choir! We are the 8th area of multiple intelligence as Gardner described. What we take for granted however is not everyone elses gift. My biggest problem seems to be teachers that are truly not outdoor girls. They think I am torturing them to send them out on a winter day! One teacher today actually tried to stay out for just 5 minutes with her class. They are not used to being out every day and they don't like to wear a hat because it messes their hair. Help!I love them but...
As a former family child care provider(eleven years experience) I remain confident I offered my charges plenty of outdoor time, always supervised, yet more often that not their outdoor time was self-directed or if you will, unstructured. I passed every relicensing visit and used our backyard almost daily, fortunately I was only requires to install seven lengths of split rail fencing on our acre to appease my licensor. I do not think for a moment I took unnecessary risks by being outside so much. During initial interviews I expressed my philosophies and shared my curriculum with prospective parents. Parents accepted that children should be dressed for play and come with protection as needed (weather appropriate clothing and sun and bug protection). I also had the luxury of enjoying our abutting neighbor’s yard (25 acres), our over-sized swing set under a huge old birch tree, two sand boxes, a mulch pit, several gardens and many fieldtrips – I think our favorite might have been Borderland (Easton ) and the program that ran there for years called Kidlidescope. Each class, taught by a park ranger, featured an animal, a craft and a guided walk – all for a $1 a child. We also spent our time checking out what was around us; I so enjoyed Louv’s phrase “pay attention”. While I admit to the need to be aware of what was going on, safety has to happen to enable fun to occur; sharing our time outdoors was so memorable. We witnessed baby bluebirds flying out of their house, observed chipping sparrows build a nest, lay eggs and boy do babies ever chirp loud at feeding time, we chased garter snakes – I did put a halt to the older boys to timid to pick it up when they encouraged my own little explorer to pick –it up, we hunted for newts, tracked animals in the snow and twice it is believed by some, we saw flying reindeer in the woods on our annual December “late nights”, we once found the imprint of a “package and several elf footprints” out in the yard. There are many more memories, but most important I think is for caregivers and teachers decide for them selves the importance of nature and our outside and then share our beliefs with our children. MA DOE offers several wonderful trainings, Project Wet, Project Wild and Project Learning Tree; I have had the opportunity to attend two of the trainings and found them well worth my time. Inside we can offer children opportunities to touch nature through literature, projects both science and art, music. Butterfly cages, grow a frog kits, fish, water tables, plastic bug and animal collections with playmats, plants... my list could go on are all hopefully same , manageable ways to bring nature in – when you can’t get out or as you are re-training your staff to incorporate nature - most of the frameworks and guidelines are so easily incorporated with nature themes and most kids, given the time and space to become comfortable, do find they truly do enjoy the unstructured opportunities that nature and outdoors offers.
Jane Rotondi
Thanks Patricia P. for the information about Jennifer Ward's book "I Love Dirt". I put a hold on it at m;y; library and will probably buy a copy in the future. I love the outdoors and I am always looking for ;new ways to introduce nature to children so they may enjoy some of the same experiences as I did as a child.
I have just taken some time to reread these posts - thank you to everyone who took the time to share their thoughts. There is so much commonality! I have a few thoughts I would like to add.
I don't mind bringing some of those loose parts out to the playground with us, but I bristle at having to offer planned activities outside. Our kids are great at discovering play and "conversation" (love that term) outside. Our teachers help facilitate but otherwise follow the children's lead. The self direction is much more exciting for the children, especially those who are in care for 9-10 hours a day.
I love the idea of taking the staff out on a retreat or training that is nature based. How fun and what a great experience!! I will really have to think about that one. It's something you never see in all our training offerings. Perhaps we can set something up at our local Audubon Sanctuary - Moose Hill...
Book references are always helpful as well - I will find them and add them to my reading list.
Most of the push back I get is not from my staff but from my parents. They want their children clean and dry when they come to pick up. I love the scene of the t-shirted children playing mudpies - we do it all summer long in our playground. Then we hose the children off and send them home damp and happy. Not all our families share our vision on this.
I have to agree with Linda on this subject as well. I also run an in home day care, and with the regulations and rules they have implemented within the realm of EEC and OCCS, and with parents as well, putting any one else's child in any situation that may cause the parent to be upset, or even something as simple as a mosquito bite, can open a huge can of worms!! Teachers, care providers, staff, anyone who comes into contact with a child that is not their own, opens themselves up to risk. Because every little scratch, bump, dirty spot is looked at with such scrutiny and blame, one cannot be too careful. With my own children, they are free to do as they wish outside, and have a ball, but giving my day care children that freedom comes with risks. We all have fun and get out often, but not with the utmost freedom children deserve. Especially after a very unfortunate circumstance that happened to one of my day care children. After being thoroughly investigated both professionally and personally into my entire life and privacy, for two whole weeks by DSS, and let me tell you, nothing was sacred. I learned that people are only out to make a blame... instead of just fixing the problem and moving on, a full blown invasion of privacy was conducted. Come to find out, this child was hurt from tripping over her own cat at home. Not the point... its the fear and thought that everything you have worked for as a professional, and yes, even personally, can be taken away from you instantly. Because of someone elses child and the need to place blame. ( I wonder what the cat suffered!!)
So, it's not the re-training we need to do, it's the way of thinking we need to take a look at.
I’d like to revisit the blog Abigail sent about planned activities and I think she hit the nail on the head when she mentioned staff ‘facilitating’ the children’s activities. I think our responsibility lies in scaffolding each child’s curiosity about the world around them. Planning activities for them outside is just one more thing they don’t have control of during the day. If we show them the tools to use and have a space that encourages them to explore such as a garden or the loose parts and then ask them questions when they seem truly interested in something they would learn more than planning duck, duck, goose.
I have to agree with the other daycare providers when it comes to the parents "wanting it all", they want their children to remain clean but have a fun-filled day, this is not always possible when it comes to playing outside or with playdough, paints, markers etc. Sometimes I actually change the children out of their clothes into real play clothes, they have their messy play time, and then put on their own clothes before going home. I think it will be impossible to retrain the parents to understand that kids play hard, get dirty or even scratched, and it's okay, they are certainly much better off than having their faces in the TV all day.
Deb Marchand
Again, I have been thinking of this particular subject within our blog, and I have another input... Not only do parents need to be re-awakened as to the need to get outside, but our children's school teachers and other educators are to blame as well. at our elementary school, the children have a play structure and separate swings and a slide as well. Unfortunately, most days that they are permitted to play outside, they are restricted to black top only. The swings, slide and play structure are not permissable because, now this is said every year, "we had 4 broken legs last year...." I have yet to see a child at that school on crutches!! Outdoor play is also restricted if it's under a certain temperature outside, if it's too wet or damp, if it's during mosquito season... there is a list entirely too long of the reasons and excuses they keep the children indoors for a recess that is restricted to ONLY 10-15 minutes anyway!! Now you must remember your school days... recess was every day, no matter what the weather, and at least a half hour. I remember it that way for me. What about the physical education instructor?? they teach the children indoors and very rarely go out for a good 45 minutes of ball playing or any sporting activity. Is it the fault of the educational administrators? Well, parents have a say in this also, your vote counts and your opinion counts, get involved, say your peace, and fight for the rights of our children, because if you don't, where is the outdoor part of their education going?... INSIDE those 4 walls.
I teach child development to high school juniors and seniors in a preschool classroom in a vocational high school. These teens were a generation that grew up indoors. When I asked them about their childhoods and outdoor play, no one really talked about free time in nature. Some talked about how far they could go from home alone, but it was to bike to a friend’s house, the store etc. A few talked about the beach and camping but others groaned that they did not like getting dirty.
The realities of their science deficits are overwhelming at times. When I asked a student, what animals lived in the seashells that she wanted to do a lesson with, she had NO understanding that they were part of a sea animal. Another asked, “What colors make red?” They do not understand sink and float. They scream when a child shows them a bug. They HATE that we play outdoors everyday. Some don’t own a winter jacket because they “don’t need one”. Several had no idea how to fill a cup with potting soil and plant a marigold seed. I often wonder about their own early childhood experiences. What happened in the years since to turn them off to these simple experiences? They say they are no good at “Science”. I see that it makes them nervous and feel dumb. Did MCAS academic pressure push science out of the curriculum? Or was it just another subject to memorize until you passed the test? There is a new science MCAS requirement (10th grade I believe). Will this help?
Adolescence is also a period of black or white thinking. They think in terms of safe or dangerous. It would be very hard to teach them to judge appropriate risk taking. It’s my experience that this concept is hard even for some very experienced teachers, because it doesn’t fit into clearly defined rules about what kids can and can’t do. I struggle with helping them become flexible and reflective thinkers. Our school’s philosophy is “Safety First” , my text book stresses safety and doesn’t mention risk taking as a form or growth and development.
My students are highly motivated future teachers! But we have so far to go. I feel so limited in my ability to teach them to enjoy teaching children about the world. If they cannot inspire little children to care about the earth, our future certainly is in trouble. I’m doing what I can but I’m not sure that I have a enough influence on a 17 year olds attitude about the great outdoors!
I have just finished rereading everyone's comments and have enjoyed discussing Louv's book. It is so important to help get everyone on the same page educationally when it comes to the children in our programs, the staff, administration, and especially the parents. Prehaps those nature education workshops should be offered to the parents as well. Participating in a workshop, I feel, is a way for teachers and parents to form a bond, to be able to share experiences, ideas, and feelings about how nature is an important part of a person's development and well being.
I participated in the Project WET workshop but unfortunately I was the only preschool teacher so it disappointing when it came to networking and sharing ideas. The others were elementary teachers.
I would like to respond to Tina in agreement with the comment that parents have a say. I just think that others parents, most of them my age at this point if I had to guess, are less worried about the nature curriculum because it wasn’t necessary for us to pass the courses and we are even more focused on MCAS scores now.
Although we are powerful in numbers, making an educated plea becomes hard when there are many other platforms to jump on as well. In these times where budget deficits are forcing layoffs of paraprofessionals and increasing the number of children in classrooms, I honestly don’t feel like outdoors are safe enough to increase the amount of time these kids spend outside. There are almost 100 children outside with only 3 adults maybe four, if we’re lucky. A friend of mine’s son actually broke his foot and none of the teachers noticed until his friends went to get someone. And even then, no on e actually took the time to walk him into the nurse. They told him to get up and walk it off. I don’t feel its safe enough to add more time, or loose parts, unless we can increase the amount of supervision (and more so in presence only, not for instructional purposes).
I wanted to share some links I have come across during the search this book has put me on!! I hope some of them are useful to you!
http://www.ericdigests.org/1998-1/early.htm
http://wilderdom.com/
http://www.naaee.org/maee/workshoppowerpoints/revised/Early%20Childhood%20Nature%20Activities.pdf
http://www.whitehutchinson.com/children/articles/childrennature.shtml
http://ectc.nde.ne.gov/media/bibs/nature.pdf
http://www.arborday.org/kids/working-forum.cfm
http://www.childrenandnature.org/uploads/Burdette_LookingBeyond.pdf
http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/pdf/every_child/ec0404_mudpies.pdf
http://www.sharingnature.com/
http://www.childrenandnature.org/
There has been a lot of interesting discussion here but I am going to bring it back to staff and the way in which we can help each other to once again become “aware” of nature and what it offers the young learner. I believe one possible way in which to re-train staff members is to meet separate from the children and engage them (the staff) in positive natural experiences. A field trip for staff may be in order – perhaps to the beautiful Arnold Arboretum run by Harvard University (www.arboretum.harvard.edu) and explore the fascinating world of plants followed by a tasty outdoor picnic! Allowing staff to have a stress free “team building” experience at the beach (exploring tidal pools) or forest and go on a scavenger hunt for items. Yes, these may be somewhat structured activities when Louv advocates unstructured but we are talking about adults not children and adults who are use to structure and may need to “get their feet wet” again with nature. Talking about it around a table at a meeting is far different than having an actual experience. Just having the time taken away from the classroom and put into the outdoors may help many of our colleagues to appreciate the learning potential nature has to offer first hand and in a non-threatening way. Maybe a good idea would be pairing one teacher that is less afraid of “messy and yucky” w/one who is more hesitant in exploring the natural world. Maybe prior to, during or after participating, it would make sense to encourage them to relate their own childhood experiences with nature as Louv did in his book for us. Throughout this book I could not help but to have flashbacks of my own! In taking off our teacher hats and remembering what it was once like to be children ourselves, we can bring that love and wonder we once experienced in the past back into the present in order to share it and begin our children's future experiences with nature.
I realize at our last face-to-face there was limited discussion on the DOE programs Project Learning Tree, Project Wet and Project Wild. Having taken two of the three programs I can strongly recommend them to others. These workshops are intense, hands-on and filled with practical ideas to bring children into nature and help them to connect and appreciate the great outdoors. When the course is completed you leave, having completed 10 or more of the actual lessons in the book that you get to keep. The book it loaded with ways to help busy teachers bring nature projects into their classrooms. The class is fun to take and made feel inspired to include more lessons like the ones I took part in during the workshop with the children I work with.
Eileen,
I really like your ideas about training staff. Taking the time away from the children to become "children" ourselves and exploring different natural enviroments such as the beach or forest is a great idea. You might also want to include the wetlands and even vernal pools. Perhaps also visiting the different Audubon sanctuaries and other conservation areas that are located near each program. Each one is unique in what it has to offer.
I can't wait to bring this to my director's attention.
Eileen,
I really like your ideas about training staff. Taking time away from the children to become "children" ourselves and exploring different natural enviroments such as the beach or forest is a great idea. You might also want to include wetlands and vernal pools. Perhaps also visiting the different Audubon sanctuaries and other conservation areas that are located near your program. Each one is unique in what it has to offer.
I can't wait to bring this idea to my director's attention.
Retraining Our Staff-
In order for us as educators to promote a healthy interest in the things of nature, we should be committed to be advocates of outdoor play and nature exploration. We can begin by communicating our beliefs about the importance for children both verbally and through newsletters or articles. We can also share our teacher resources or offer to host a training at your program. I know there are many budget concerns these days and maybe you could combine with another program to cut the cost. You could provide some inexpensive science props , such as magnifying glasses, binoculars , clip boards , and bug catchers to help spark the staff’s interest when exploring the outdoors. These are some ways that teachers and directors can help their fellow colleagues in the area of feeling more comfortable with nature as well as encouraging healthy risk taking and provide open ended activities.
The following are some Teacher Resource books-
• Hands On Nature by Vermont Institute of Natural Science
• Natural Playscapes by Rusty Keeler
• Early Childhood Almanac by Newmann
• Discovering Nature with Young Children by I. Chalufourt and K. Worth
• Hollyhocks and Honeybees by S. Starbuck, M. Olthof, and K. Midden
• Snails, Trails and Tadpole Tails by R. Cohen and B.P. Tunick
• Words, Shadows, and Wirlpools by K. Worth and S. Grollman
• Learning and Caring for Our World by Gayle Bittinger
These discussions have been great; I've really enjoyed reading and re-reading your comments.
I think the idea of a "field" trip for teachers is an excellent one but in my case I don't know how we'd pull it off. We really don't close our center for periodic in-service trainings and to accomplish something like that in an evening will be hard. Trying to get all of my staff together on a Saturday is virtually impossible.
As much as I would like to kick off a series of trainings with a field trip I think I may just have to wait for a summer evening (when it stays light longer) and get my staff outdoors then. I just know that I want to share this with them and hopefully ignite their interest. Some of my staff members were never the outdoorsy types at all!
Thanks to all for the suggested readings and the web-sites. I've been exploring those and have procrastinated in posting my comments!!
I know a field trip may be hard for staff and that it is hard to find time to meet outside of the children....I think each center would need to make that kind of choice for themselves as to when it takes place - but here is some food for thought: In the early childhood field we often work longer hours than elementary school teachers. The elementary schools have in-service workshops throughout the year and parents are forced to find other ways for their children to spend the day. Isn't it funny that we in the early childhood field won't allow ourselves that kind of in-service time for professional development? Perhaps we feel guilty in taking that time and making parents find other care for that day. Should we feel guilty though? Would they feel their child would not benefit from your seeking training for your teachers? Parents are going to have to adjust to that soon enough once their child is in elementary school. Couldn't we build a day or two into our calendars at the beginning of the school year just as the elementary schools do and let parents have plenty of notice? I think in the long run it would be worth it to increase our prof. development, team build and increase the staff morale ultimately benefiting the children and the individual center. I know I may be a little Polly Anna like here but still, I can see immense benefits to allowing your teachers to have that kind of option for training. I think if you were to make the plan to ask staff to meet on a Saturday, you would need to offer a very nice incentive of some kind - perhaps two days off for the one you take?
I completely agree that we should have in-service built in to our programs but often with private paying parents it can be tough. They're always looking to lessen their payments and if we take a day off it's been a big deal. I know that when they get to "school" in the next year or two they'll be in for a surprise but somehow, whether they like it or not, they make it work.
In my case, money is so tight that I'd love to offer the Saturday thing but can't afford two days off for one in training. We are literally just making it these last few months. While times are tough for us, I'll do what I can to ensure we get some kind of training on this material - I know it's worth it and the return will be great.
Staff training and personal development is so important to our profession but until we are truly viewed as early childhood educators and not just day care providers it can be a tough sell. We provide infant and toddler care and many of our preschoolers started there. Those parents don't see infant and toddler care as "education" and we are working hard to change that point of view. It's a struggle =)
Anyway, let me get off the soapbox! I'll find a way - and hopefully someday we can manage some built in professional development! Thanks for your thoughts.
Something that just occurred to me that I do not remember anyone speaking to is the cultural aspect of outdoor play. Here on the Cape we have a large Brazilian & Portuguese community & I work with several Providers from these cultures. They do not like to spend much time outdoors. My supervisor has told me that it is more of a cultural difference. They come from climates that are much warmer than ours so what may be a brisk fall or spring day to some of us is downright freezing to them!! We did have a Brazilian parent call us once to complain that her Provider took her son out & it was only 40degrees! So we also need to keep in mind the cultural piece!
What a great discussion! What's kept me in the field for over 36 years is that there's always more to learn about young children and ways to improve my practices. I view my own professional development as a career-long process.
I think developmentally appropriate practices with nature activities are no different than any other area of the curriculum. I beleive that a preschool teacher's role is to set the stage for the children's discovery, act as a resource to the child, and to remind her/himself that the learning process really belongs to the child. We may know the answer to a child's question, but often the best response is to encourage them to experiment and find their own answers. They're more likely to remember something that they discovered on their own, especially if they're allowed to use all of their senses in the process. If we closely observe and really listen to children, I think we can take a cues from them and find the balance Louv promotes between allowing them to have unscripted, loosely supervised time and facilitating their appreciation of nature. It takes a self-confident, experienced teacher to do this; it involves thinking on your feet and allowing the children to see your learning process. I'm comfortable telling a child when I don't know the answer to his question, but that I have a book that has the answer. Many adults (especially doctors I have met) are very uncomfortable admitting when they don't know something.
Thank you all for the resources you have shared. I also recommend Joseph Bharet Cornell's book: Sharing Nature With Children, in which he emphasizes the importance of an underlying attitude of respect for children and reverence for nature. I like his 5 tenets:
1. Teach less, and share more. (not just the bare facts, but our awe and deeper thoughts and feelings about nature.)
2. Be receptive. By listening and tuning into the children's interests he believes we can expand their interest and curiosity about nature.
3. Focus the children's attention without delay. Ask questions and point out interesting sights and sounds.
4. Look and experience first; talk later.
5. A sense of joy should permeate the experience.
FYI....just picked up "I love dirt" from the library , a book I mentioned in one of my posts, I think it would be a great one to add to your library for staff! It is simple & provokes some thinking!
Thanks to all for their ideas and suggestions on resource books and websites. I have made a list of the books and plan to look for them at the Library first before adding them to my resource library.
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