Blog
Pedagogy of Outdoor Play in Adult Education
One of the gifts of COVID-19 has been the freedom to explore higher education in outdoor play. COVID-19 has offered educators the opportunity to rethink where and how learning occurs. One such strategy that is gaining attention, in an array of higher educational...
Let’s Go Outside!
Winter often gets a bad rap where I live! Because of the cooler temperatures and icy winds and frozen precipitation, most days children are restricted to indoor play. During the spring and summer, children have many opportunities to become familiar with their...
Are they Learning Centres or Discovery Spaces?
It has long been recognized that children who are curious experiment with ideas and materials in their environment, resulting in innovation and learning in various ways. A child’s brain development is influenced by the types of play and experiences that they are...
Mirror, Mirror, Beyond the Wall
Loris Malaguzzi has challenged educators to provide children with environments that offer them opportunities to exercise their curiosity in a variety of places and with an array of materials. Malaguzzi identified that “Our task, regarding creativity, is to help...
Why Rocks Matter in Play Spaces
How children see their space and place is always intriguing to me. Recently, as I was walking in my neighbourhood, I stopped to observe two children who were about four years of age, exploring a pile of rocks that were adjacent to a path just outside of the family...
Finding Our Roots and Connections
Examining our Outdoor Pedagogy and Philosophy Values and Beliefs There are many perspectives in the literature and in practice on the meaning of the term play-based programming and learning. How early learning professionals define play-based influences what they...
Why Beyond the Fence Matters
How many times have you walked by early learning and child care programs and kindergarten programs with chain link fences, where children come running to see you? Or have you ever observed children putting their tiny hands under the fence to just get that one...
The Magic of Puddles: Why They Matter
Adults may view puddles as a place for children stomp their feet, splash, giggle, and of course get wet and dirty. But, for children, a puddle is more than a puddle – it is a learning lab for exploration and discovery. Why? Because puddles ignite children’s natural...
Why Children Need Access to Blue Space: The Relationship to Health
The importance of water play for and with children has long been established. Theorists, including Frobel, Dewey and others identified that water play contributes to laying the foundation for logical mathematical thinking, science reasoning, and cognitive problem...
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