Introduction Playing outdoors and the experiences children encounter are often remembered for a lifetime and through incorporating an outdoor environment with learning goals provides depth in a curriculum which could be difficult to implement with an indoor environment (The Scottish Government, 2010). The Little Hobbits curriculum is as an outdoor curriculum catering for Kindergarten age group of 4-5. Rationale The Little Hobbits Curriculum is an outdoor curriculum that allows children the opportunity to experience the outdoors first hand, allowing the children to be lifelong learners and to become healthy and confident individuals (The Scottish Government, 2010). Outdoor play has always been an important function of any curriculum mainly regarding physical play and the development of gross motor skills. The Little Hobbits Curriculum however, views the outdoor environment as the best environment for a child to develop their learning and development. The outdoor environment is not just about physical education or children just letting off steam, it is an environment that allows the children to learn from all aspects of development (Leicestershire County Council, 2011). The outdoor environment promotes a dynamic, rich and natural space for children to play and learn (Ambrose & Armstrong, 2009). Outdoor play allows the children to use active play, which uses real life and imaginary situations and can be used through spontaneous play, teacher initiated play,
Finally, I work hard to create an indoor and outdoor environment that enriches, challenges, and encourages children to develop interests, connect with each other, have alone time, and learn through play. I accomplish this goal by continually assessing my play materials, adding new things, gauging my children’s interests and needs, and adjusting my environment accordingly.
There are many advantages to child-initiated play. Children’s emotional development is particularly supported because children are able to make their own choices. They also gain independence skills as they can help themselves to resources. This type of play helps children to be creative as they have to develop their own ideas of how to play indoors and outdoors.
Play is essential to every part of children’s lives and is important to their development. It provides the children with different ways of doing things children will want to explore and learn new things.
children’s engagement and level of positive experience and inclusive relationships Educators need to carefully consider physical layout and resources in the environment.
The McMillan Sisters had a inimitable way of teaching their students and their methods have been carried out for many generations and are still practiced today. In Who Am I in the Lives of Children, table 3.2 describes the sister’s goals and influential practices. The ambitions for their program were simple; they wished to provide nurture to children, support health, nourishment and physical welfare, assist parents in improving their work with their children, and provide a model for teacher on how to work with young children. Through the Open- Air Nursery School they unquestionably accomplished their goals for they impacted Early Childhood Education with their sense training, outdoor activities (including the sandbox and gardening), focus on children’s health and activities with creative expression. A modern nursery school instructor, Hilary Cooper, connects one of the McMillan’s sisters teaching methods to a today’s teaching practices:
When exploring water and gardens, it is important to apply the EYLF to children’s learning and development. Outcome two, children are connected with and contribute to their world allows children to develop a sense of belonging to groups and communities, respond to diversity with respect, be aware of fairness, and show respect for the environment (DEEWR, 2009). By developing these outcomes children begin to broaden their understanding of the world they live in. This can be explored by providing children with opportunities to explore the environment through gardening or water play and promote positive responses
As a practitioner, we need to acknowledge how important play and leisure activities can be one of the cruel factor of a child’s development; Throughout my experience I have witnessed play to be extremely important to children’s and young people’s wellbeing and development.
We know that a rich and varied environment supports children’s learning and development. It gives them the confidence to explore and learn in secure and safe, yet challenging, indoor and outdoor spaces.
The nature of play is to do with the indoor and outdoor environment, this includes all activities such as, swimming, forest school, running and climbing trees, playing with dolls, building activities. There are many more activities that are indoor and outdoor play. Children
The use of outdoor settings for learning, enables children to achieve further progression in their ‘mastery’ of Mathematics skills.
The Non fictitious World of J.R.R Tolkien When it comes to nonfiction, facts and tell-tale events take hold of the book, leaving nothing but cold hard realities. Whether it is because of the gritty truths that many face or repetitive information presented on a page by page basis, what steers most people away is the lack of imagination. That is exactly why I chose to read Master of Middle-Earth, the fiction of the ever-creative master of nonfiction himself, J.R.R. Tolkien. This book gave me the grand idea of how to get around the dreadful terrors of fiction by finding one about the written fantasies of The Lord of the Rings and to a lesser, but still marvelous extent, The Hobbit.
Play represents very important part of childhood that offers children developmental benefits because it contributes to the cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being of children and youth. It also offers an ideal opportunity for parents to engage fully with their children that increase the strength of the relationship between the child and his parents. Experiential learning is learning through exploring, experiencing, creating, and discovering what 's around us. The science playground was full with games and activities, such as, there was a wooden box having holes from one side and glass from the other side, one person should put his hand in one of the holes and try to guess what is inside the hole and the other person can give hints to him. Also, there was another thing called “A Motion in a Dish”,
Finding ways to keep students interested in schoolwork and increasing their cognitive abilities has been a constant struggle for teachers. It is common knowledge that when a child’s interest wanes, it becomes harder for them to learn and retain knowledge on the subject. One tool that can be used to combat this issue would be the use of an outdoor classroom or learning outdoors. During the late 60’s and 70’s outdoor education was highly recommended in curriculum guidelines to enrich educational experiences, but later declined in the 80’s (Eaton, 1998). Today, outdoor education only plays a small role in children’s education experiences, despite the benefits it could provide. Teachers should take advantage of outdoor education to increase children’s cognitive skills, provide physical and emotional benefits, and decrease the bio phobia many children seemed to have developed.
My favorite author is J.R.R. Tolkien and my favorite Tolkien book is The Hobbit because of its subtle humor and character development. I have a strong interest in history, especially the Late Modern period. My interest in history was one of the driving factors in my pursuit of a minor in Anthropology. I enjoy perusing museums, especially ones that have an emphasis on social history and culture. Since my first visit to a local planetarium, I became captivated by astronomy and the incomprehensibility of outer space. Two years ago, I saw my favorite astrophysicist, Neil deGrasse Tyson, at a speaking event at the University of Florida. I am planning on reading his book, Origins, in the coming week.
The Council for Learning Outside the Classroom (2017) believes that outdoor learning is a powerful tool that is proven to raise achievement, improve social, emotional and personal development and contributes to the health and well-being of children and young people. There is no doubt that children will learn better if they are given space to discover and explore for themselves. The Northern Ireland Curriculum: Primary (2007, p.44) states that outdoor learning has an important role in the emotional development of children where they are “free to run, shout and play exuberantly.” Children can learn about important