Environmental Education: Let Nature Be Your Teacher (original) (raw)
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Outdoor Play Environment in Early Childhood for Children
European Journal of Social Sciences Education and Research
Every adult is aware that children enjoy playing. Even before a child is able to grasp an object, bright coloured toys are suspended in a crib or held for him to enjoy. Once the child is able to crawl, stand and walk, the opportunity to explore the environment and play are expanded. Through rich educational programmes young children can demonstrate effective learning and significant development. This even has been developed to explore ways to create an outstanding environment for children under three years. It will examine ways to achieve consistent high standards across education programmes through creating rich, varied and imaginative experiences for children. Outdoor play environment offers the children much needed exercise, sunshine and the opportunity to practice motor skills in a different setting. Through a supportive outdoor play environment, the children are exposed to best support for children's emotional, social, physical development and ways of acquiring communicativ...
The natural environment as a playground for children
Landscape and Urban Planning, 2000
Previous studies have explained children's experience of place and their special preferences for the unbuilt and unstructured environment. However, the impact of a natural environment on children's learning and development has been a topic of low priority within child research and the importance of natural playscapes for children has also been neglected in physical planning. The present study focuses on a natural environment, a small forest, as a playscape for children. The forest was used by a kindergarten as a supplement to their traditional outdoor playground and the impact such a landscape might have on children's motor development was investigated through an experimental study on kindergarten children aged 5, 6 and 7 years of age. The landscape was described and analyzed by methods of landscape ecology and geomorphology implemented in a geographical information system (GIS). We found that the natural landscape had qualities to meet the children's needs for a stimulating and varied play environment. Landscape ecology metrics showed high values for diversity, evenness and heterogeneity for the study area. The diversity of vegetation and topography corresponded to function-related structures that afforded versatile play. The study indicated a strong relation between landscape structure and play functions. The diversity of the vegetation was related to phytosociology and physiognomy, while the diversity of topography was related to slope and roughness. Diversity in landscape elements such as vegetation and topography might be considered a dimension of quality for a natural playscape. This playscape comprised the ground for training of motor ®tness in children. Through all-round playing and exploring the natural playscape, the children's motor ®tness was improved. This proved the learning effects from a natural playscape on children's motor abilities. This paper will focus mainly on the landscape descriptions and the affordance of versatile play.
Play is a pivotal part of a child's life. Outdoor play fosters opportunities for creativity, imagination, social connections, and learned behaviors. There are two types of outdoor playscapes: natural and constructed. Natural playscapes offer sensory stimulation and physical diversity which is critical for childhood experiences outdoors. Through careful design, constructed playscapes can be greened to simulate natural playscapes. Greening is the integration of natural elements and processes in a playscape. Children's direct social and individual experiences in nature in early to middle childhood during the "developmental window of opportunity" between the ages of three and twelve years help shape their environmental identity and guide their environmental actions. Outdoor play in greened playscapes has a positive effect on children's social development, motor skill development, attention, and activity level. It also can provide children with experiences in naturalistic landscapes which could impact their morals, values and actions. School yards have the ability to assist in teaching children and act as a safe-haven where parental concerns for safety and risk do not inhibit play. Understanding the relationships between play, experiences in nature, environmental identity, the health, learning, attention, and development benefits of outdoor play, and the evolution of playscape design, a series of guidelines can be created to provide better childhood playscapes. I would like to take this opportunity to thank my family for their continued support and dedication to my success. I do not know how I could have gotten through the late nights and long weekends without you. Kyra, my angel, you make my life worth living. Chris, you have provided me with more happiness than you can imagine. Mom and Clif, without you it would have been impossible. Dad, thanks for pushing me. My sisters, your always there when I need you. Thank you all so much! I would also like to thank my professors. You all have encouraged me to achieve more than I thought possible. I am a better person, designer, researcher, and writer because of all of you. You have greatly helped to shape the professional I will become. Ashley Parsons Acknowledgements iii Chapter 1-What is play and how does it relate to outdoor play, nature and wilderness experiences? Chapter 2-What is the importance of childhood experiences outdoors in the creation of an environmental identity? Chapter 3-What are the effects of outdoor play on health, learning, and development? Chapter 4-What are the past and current trends for the design of children's playscapes? Decreased interaction and decreased quality of interaction between children and outdoor environments has a negative impact on children's health, learning, and development. Play is important in childhood. The environment used for play is also important because different
Environmental education in natural play spaces
Science in Early Childhood
Child: I saw a snake in my backyard yesterday. Educator: Did your parents kill it? Child: No, we took a photo of it. Educator: Did you tell your neighbours? You know, snakes are very dangerous. They're poisonous and they bite. It cou ld kill you.
2019
This project becomes a reality with the kind support and help of many individuals. I would like to express my gratitude towards my family for their encouragement which helped me complete my capstone project and fulfilling my dream of international travel and teaching. To my wonderful husband, Mark, who was always by my side when I needed him the most and my son, Alec, who helped with editing and clarification from outside the field of nature education. Thank you to my content reviewer, Carmen Cook, for sharing her knowledge about environmental education and approaches to research, along with the professors at Hamline University, Patty Selly and Brian Wood, who have inspired me with their passion for nature. Lastly, to my study partners and coworkers, Sue Schiffman and Emily Peka who gave me inspiration, countless hours of support, collaboration and humorous experiences through this process of writing and research. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE: Introduction My personal journey My professional journey Teaching Internationally CHAPTER TWO: Literature Review Nature play Defining nature play Benefits of nature play Urban nature play Preschool programs in elementary schools Benefits of preschool programs in elementary school Barriers for preschool programs in elementary schools Developmentally appropriate practice and assessment Teacher implementation CHAPTER THREE: Methods CHAPTER FOUR: Conclusion REFERENCES "Time in nature is not leisure time; it's an essential investment in our children's health"
2014
Almost 150 years ago, nineteenth century psychologist Herbert Spencer published his book, Principals of Psychology, in which he espoused the "surplus energy theory," explaining that the main reason for children's play is to get rid of surplus energy. Although researchers and developmental theorists have rejected his theory, it has had an unfortunate and lasting influence on the design of children's outdoor play environments (Malone 2003). As a result of Spencer's theory, playgrounds are seen as areas for physical play during recess, where children 'burn off steam, ' and not for the other domains of development or for learning. In child care settings, playgrounds typically have manufactured climbing equipment, and other than sometimes-manicured grass, are void of nature and vegetation. The playgrounds for multitudes of children are not green, but gray (Moore & Wong 1997), many analogous to a parking lot (Worth 2003). Early childhood learning facilit...
Implications of Outdoor Environment on Children Learning
Global Journal of Transformative Education, 2020
This paper presents results from a study conducted in Borabu Sub-county in Kenya to determine the implications of outdoor environment on children’s learning experiences in public preschools. The major findings suggest that the general state of outdoor environment component was unsatisfactory. It found a positive relationship between the outdoor environment and pre-schoolers learning experiences and ability to perform loco-motor activities and rhythmic movement activities and general academic achievement. The results further indicated that all the four states of outdoor environments (the site, availability, adequacy and effectiveness) combined to explain 35.2% of the variance in the preschool overall learning experiences. The results indicated that a rich outdoor environment has a positive influence on preschool children‘s development of various social, emotional and cognitive skills. The study recommends that teachers and pupils should participate in outdoor play, and governments should enact policy guidelines to increase the availability, adequacy and effectiveness of outdoor activities. Keywords: Competency-Based Curriculum; Outdoor environment; Learning experiences