I am a city guy, but do love the
outdoors. We are lucky enough to be located to next to one of the biggest parks
in downtown Tokyo, which is just about a 15/20 minute walk with the kids.
I enjoyed working in Germany, as we
would have 1-2 hours of hours outside time daily, rain/snow or shine! I had
been doing a lot of reading about the benefits of outside play, especially
those activities that involved exploring natural elements.
After discussing with my
administration we decided to go to the park weekly or at least biweekly
depending on holidays and school events. We did not want to treat these park
visits as just something extra, but something as important as the other areas
of learning that happen within school.
Throughout these visits were able
to…
- Have a student lead day dedicated to cleaning up the park
- Find and plant a variety of seeds
- Take pictures documenting plants growing and trees changing
- Observe animals in their natural habitat
- Create our own games
- Used our imaginations to travel to places beyond the universe
- Make friends with other students from other schools
- Relax and draw/create origami on our picnic blanket
- Take notes/draw in our inquiry journals
- Have fun and be a kid!
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