Nature

The Strong, the national museum of play, in 2008 inducted the stick into the National Toy Hall of Fame.

On their website, the Museum lists a number of reasons as to why the common stick was elevated to such stature including that “they are the original building blocks for creative play” and they “promote free play—the freedom to invent and discover.” 

As I read the basis for the induction, I noticed several terms which are part of our Early Childhood vernacular: ‘creative play,’ ‘free play,’ and ‘discover.’  As classroom practitioners, we are always looking for materials that will support and enhance deep engagement.  How inspiring to consider the possibilities which are free and all around us – natural materials.

And we don’t have to be restricted to using these materials only when we are outside with our children.  A stick is portable.  A stick can be brought inside the classroom to support any number of engagements: construction, sorting/seriation, dramatic play, etc.  Other portable natural materials can also be used. We can dissolve the walls of the classroom and bring the outdoors in.

Natural materials for the indoor environment include:

• Twigs, branches, leaves, small logs, tree stumps
• Stones and pebbles
• Animal bones/skulls
• Sand and soil
• Plants, fruits, vegetables
• Dried seed pods

Here are some different activities you can use in your classroom using items found in nature. 

How animals build their homes  
Bring in natural materials accompanied with photos of animal homes as an invitation to build.  For example, Tailorbird’s build their nests by sewing two leaves together. Have the children use wires and large leaves to stitch a nest.  Other habitats include using mud and sticks to build a beaver’ s dam or a Mud Swallows’ nest, and twigs and blue colored loose parts to build a Bowerbirds’ home.

Early Math Development 
Matching and sorting are early math development skills. Inconsistent shape and sizes of natural items including stones, pinecones, and seed pods can be used as a higher challenge when a child has mastered store-bought, uniformly created sorting and counting objects. To help with fine motor skills, have the children use tweezers to sort to items.

 Recreate the harvest experience indoors
You don’t need an outdoor garden.  Give your children a harvest experience with purchased root vegetables and large tubs filled with garden soil.  Watch the surprise on their faces as they harvest.

Inspiring art making with natural materials
One of my favorite experiences is inspiring art making with natural materials.  Plants become crayon tools and pigment paint, tapestries, and mandalas.

Children are naturally drawn to the natural world.  These materials provide rich, heuristic play and can establish awareness and gratitude for the beauty of G-d’s world.  Put down the catalog and go shopping outdoors!

Heidi Kutchin
Atelierista and Pedagogy Specialist
Temple Emanu-El, Dallas, TX

January 2019

Although Ray Kinsella (played by Kevin Costner) in the movie “Field of Dreams” is told that if he builds a baseball field, the players will come, they do not show up right away and he worries that they will never come.

As a director, I was faced with a similar challenge. I wanted our program to be more intentional for connecting our children with the outdoors. With input from the teaching staff, parents, and support from Nature Explore, we reformatted our “playground” to become a certified Nature Outdoor Classroom (proudly the first school in Massachusetts).

I created what I thought would be effective scaffolding for getting the teaching staff to “show up” and expand their use of our outdoor space. I had the teachers visit programs that were nature schools or outdoor learning oriented. I provided onsite professional development on creating outdoor experiences in different seasons and different kinds of weather. I set aside time for us to create bins of materials for each interest area and for yearly refurbishing. Each class team was asked to be responsible for monitoring the upkeep of materials for one or two areas of our outdoor space.

Whether you are well into the process of expanding your children’s time outdoors or just getting started here are a few takeaways from my journey thus far that I hope will be helpful:

• Guide teachers to recapture a childhood memory of having fun being outdoors. It will help them appreciate and understand the needs of the children to have more undirected time outside.
• There is no bad weather just bad clothing. Be prepared for cold and/or hot weather, not just for the children, but the teaches as well.  Make sure you have extra oversized umbrellas, ski pants, boots, hats, and gloves. For the heat you should have extra cool clothes, hats, sunscreen and plenty of water bottles. 
• Provide parents a suggested outdoor clothing guide such as this one from Second Nature  Design.  
• Encourage partnering within teaching teams. Some may prefer warm weather, others may like the snow, and others may not mind wet weather. They can coordinate who will be the point person outside, and who will be doing more of the indoor setup and potty runs.
• When it’s time to hire new staff, I found it helpful to include questions for candidates on their comfort level outdoors. Here are some suggestions from Natural Start Alliance.
• Mantra to use with staff:
  • Whatever is done inside can be done outdoors
  • Not into nature? No problem. Use the lens of the activity/hobby you most enjoy doing as your conduit for connecting children with nature (art, music, science, math, reading books)-just do it outdoors.
  • It’s ok not to like touching worms and bugs. It’s not ok to say “ick” when a child enthusiastically brings one over to show you.
  • Children need to get outside every day. When really cold or really hot, that may mean 15-20 minutes

There are many resources and information available for more tips and ideas. They include:

• Natural Start Alliance’s email newsletter  
• Facebook pages such as Jewish Natural Outdoor Playgrounds, Nature Preschool ideas, and Curriculum, Nature’s Classroom, Explore the Amazing Nature, Exploring Nature with Children, Provocations
• Attend a nature conference

It is very exciting to realize that nature and forest schools are gaining momentum as a movement across the U.S. and the world. It is not just a “fad”

So when I built it, did they come? Yes, after five years of baby step successes, but oh the joy when it happened! And as any good program, we continued to network, learn, refine and reflect.

Johanna Perlin
Judaic Curriculum Specialist Trust Early Education Center
Temple Ohabei Shalom, Sharon, Mass.
Co-partner of Second Nature Design Consulting

 rcketjanet@aol.com  

January 2019