Nature Play On Vancouver Island

A benefit of working two mornings a week is that I have the joy of visiting JK and K rooms, working with educators to create calm and creative classroom environments. As you may know this is something I love to do - work with educators to create spaces that they love to work in and that works for children.

These spaces are created for children with intention and knowledge for the age and developmental levels. 

I have made a small list of the elements that I have been using in classrooms:

1.    Reduce visual clutter and create space in the room for the eyes to rest. We know from research that the child's brain is calmed by restful and warm environments (as is mine).

2.    Think of the classroom as flexible play zones. If a zone is popular create duplicates of a zone like construction, sensory and art to encourage smaller play groups. Make sure that you have all of the needs: writing, math, story, games, construction, creativity, social....

3.    Replace single use toys with unique, open ended and interesting materials like loose parts and repurposed items. These materials fosters creativity, problem solving and critical thinking by allowing them to experiment, invent and problem solve. 

4.    Add play materials like fabric, animals, babies to support play language.

5.    Include natural materials like pinecones, shells, sticks, leaves, and plants in the environment.

6.    Use warm colours (I stick to 3 colours in a room), working with what you cannot change. For example, one room I have been visiting has orange laminate counters (everywhere!!!) so the educator chose warm brown (think natural cardboard) and cream as her other two colours. Fortunately she has  warm coloured tables which have helped a lot.

7.    Use natural and warm lighting. For example, one room had bright ceiling lighting and only one switch. After waiting four months for the lights to have some bulbs removed, she thrifted for lamps and light strings to provide warm lighting and added a light tree she found on marketplace.

8.    Use the walls to display unique samples of student work like a gallery wall, collaborative art display, family photos and photos of students themselves. Avoid teacher posters and organizers. For example, you can put up a co-created anchor chart for reference if you need it for writing workshop or counting collections and then take it down after writing or counting. I always find a space for my photo daily flow for children who are anxious and need to know  but having said that my days are all the same except for specials like music and library.

8.    Replace a busy decorative rug with small warm coloured area rugs which compliment your 3 colour scheme. These can be used to designate learning spaces. For example, we used a small rug and doll house for family play, a larger rug for block play and a medium size rug for quiet play or reading with a few pillows and blankets.

9.    Add reflection to the spaces with mirrored trays, small mirror on the wall, light box, translucent play materials.

9.    Include art as part of your open ended play using quality materials like watercolour, coloured tape, tempera paints, paint sticks, wool, pencil crayons and lots of different surfaces to offer different textures and sizes.

10    Use predictable routines and reduce transitions. Here are a couple of examples to get your started:

        Self check in - children can do self check in for attendance and then you can quietly go through a checklist after the first 15 minutes of the day.

        Open Snack- children eat in the morning when they are   hungry instead of everyone sitting down at the same time

        Seating - include more chairs/benches for seating then the number of children. This allows them more choice of where to sit, spreads them out around the room and reduced noise.

        Long play periods - We know from research the importance of play for the emotions, regulation, creativity, problem solving and socializing. Plan to eliminate multiple transitions and instead adopt a daily flow with minimal interruptions as their play stamina grows. For example,  children play for long periods of time while you gather small groups to work with and then return them to play. 

        Movement within school: children can walk themselves to library. washroom and then return to play. 

        Learning Frameworks - children can flow to learning frameworks and then return to play. You can structure them as "must do 3 each day" or back onto a natural break like recess or use a  soft start. Presently my students come inside from forest play, complete a framework, tidy up and transition themselves to  a play zone. I can sit with a group, connect with a child, complete an observation or model a strategy.

11.    Be intentional in your language, observe and connect with children consistently. Plan time to reflect upon your day and your observations then use your data for planning.