When I was doing the research for my book, Outside Our Window, I interviewed many parents about their own childhood play experiences. I asked how has play changed for their children and wasn't surprised at their answers. Their responses aligned with what the research confirms.  I wish so much that I had filmed their interviews and believe it is one of the primary reasons parents value my nature kindergarten program and why I am so passionately committed to supporting teachers who are transitioning to an outdoor program.  This excellent video from the Opal School on the importance of play shares their story as a school and helps us to understand what children want and need. The link is below. ...

These art activities complement mixed age groups and are pretty simple to set up. Most will not need tools. However, including an outdoor art tool kit in your pack back or car broadens the playful art opportunities for your children. These mini kits can include some of your child's favourite pieces like shells, stones but string but scissors and side walk chalk should be there a well.  Theses are all nature art activities that I have done with my nature kindergarten class and were easy, fun and done over an over again!!! Clay Fairy Homes Bring enough balls of clay for each child. Pat into flat pieces to attach, add nature's loose parts for decoration and find a quiet space in the forest to leave the fairy home. Include a special gift for the fairy like a beautiful acorn or smooth stone. Nature Faces This is a really fun seashore or forest activity and can be expanded to animal, monster, silly or alien faces. We prepared for this art activity by ...

These games are easy to teach, active and collaborative. Just mix outdoor with play and a dash of nature’s loose parts and you have a recipe for fun!!! Balancing Rocks Estimate the number of stones you need to build the stone cairn. Collect stones and then stack. We watched a You tube video to help with prior knowledge before building and then began practicing with small stones at the seashore moving up to small boulders in the forest. The children were  making  what I thought were wild guesses but they were actually very close!! Then I set up a math  provocation  in the classroom to extend their interest with rocks of different sizes. MOVE AND COUNT This active partitioning games does not require any materials but does require space. For our purposes we usually play this math game in the meadow adjacent to our forest. The "caller" calls out a number and the children move into groups. If they need more group members then they hold out a hand s...

Math Fluency In An Outdoor Program This past year I focused on the core concepts in Kindergarten math using three primary access points; counting jar routine, daily math partner play and story problems. Our circle times were also infused with opportunities for the children to build numeracy through games, songs, read aloud, small group work and math talk. Although I do reference many math and literacy activities in my book  Outside Our Window: developing a primary nature program  I wanted to share some new activities that we do outdoors and a few of our indoor math activities. Counting Jar Framework  provided the children with regular opportunities to count objects, develop counting strategies like organizing, skip counting, touch and count, conservation and adding on. The children had access to counting mats to help with organization, subitizing and skip counting. Some examples were five and ten frames, repurposed milk cups, egg cartons, dot cards a...

Nature Books to Inspire :  Summer Reading Suggestions for the Nature Teacher  Summer arrived a couple of weeks ago and by now you are probably rested up from the busyness of the year end school fun and ready for summer play. My home is tidy, the fridge is full and my beach basket is beside the door ready for summer play. Because I love books, I have already visited the library and have a short stack of favourite re-reads, a cookbook to experiment with and a couple of new authors ready for my summer reading pleasure. I also like to include a few professional books related to teaching and nature education. I find it inspiring and breathes new life into my energy for nature teaching and with a little luck a few of my nature teacher friends will be reading some of the same books. Whether you read some of these books on your own or with a friend you’ll find them an easy and informative read. I chose a few books which were inspiring, easy reads and packed ful...

Conferencng 1:1Writing Samples Scaffolding students requires you to have a solid understanding of the writing continuum, on-going assessment as well as establishing writing routines which include time for conferencing with students in small groups for guided writing as well as 1:1 conferences.  My writing program is inspired by the work of Lucy Calkins and her amazing team of researchers which I have integrated into my Reggio Inspired Kindergarten Program. It includes writing around the room, mini-lessons, interactive writing and daily independent writing. During writing the children always choose their own topic and use kid writing to write their story sentence. Juxtaposed with the writing program we do a systematic phonics program, read about five books each day and play literacy games including lots of rhyme as well as create a word wall for circle games (mid year). The children have opportunities to talk throughout the day which includes play such as exploratio...