Natural Play Stories

Milwaukee, Wisconsin
written by :: Pattie Bailie, Director

Why should young children spend time in natural areas?

The benefits may seem obvious, such as preventing obesity and improving physical development. However, spending time in the natural world also improves a young child’s visual-spatial learning and observation skills, increases confidence, builds a foundation that improves reading, math and science skills, and encourages the child to care for the environment. ‘Indoor’ children who begin to spend time outdoors in all seasons lose their fear of native animals and change their attitudes toward science. They learn to think scientifically, interact safely (with appropriate risktaking), and acquire attitudes of caring and respect for the natural environment.

The Schlitz Audubon Nature Preschool is one of a growing number of preschools at nature centers around the country. Housed at the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center just north of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the preschool has use of the Center’s 185 acres of forest, prairie, wetland, and Lake Michigan habitats. The preschool’s philosophy is based on the premise that young children need opportunities to positively connect to the natural world. Nature provides the core curriculum, with the dual purpose of ‘growing’ environmentalists and using nature as a vehicle for the children’s development.

What do children do at your nature preschool?

The children spend at least half their class time outside, in all kinds of weather. In Wisconsin, the winter is cold and spring can be rainy. The children learn how to dress for the weather so they are comfortable outdoors and begin to get in touch with their surroundings. They start their class in one of two natural, but fenced in, play areas where they can choose their activities. On days when the weather is nice they use this area for water play, painting, art activities, climbing trees and balancing on logs, exploring trails, climbing on rocks, and digging in sand and soil. In winter, they use snow shovels to clear the paths and help build homes for animals out of sticks and leaves.

After spending time in a play area, the children hike to one of several habitats at the nature center (forest, pond, wetland, prairie, and lake). These mini-adventures allow the children to use their senses while exploring the natural world. They catch insects in the prairie and frogs in the pond. They observe birds in the forest and collect shells at the beach. These hands-on explorations provide a solid foundation for the development of science skills such as observation and inquiry. When children begin to ask questions, their young minds create theories of the world and then they are able to test them out in a real setting.

The preschool curriculum is based on seasonal change. As the school year begins in the early fall, children catch insects, then observe leaves changing color and dropping off the trees as the weather gets colder, and discover what animals do to prepare for winter. As winter arrives the children identify animal tracks, catch snowflakes on their tongues, and feed the winter birds. Just before spring, the children tap maple trees and boil sap to make maple syrup. (This lasts for nearly the whole month of March and is a highlight of the program.) The children also begin sowing seeds in early spring in grow boxes in each classroom and plant the seedlings in preschool garden plots in one of the play areas as the weather warms up. As spring arrives the children hike to the ponds to find the animals that are waking up from hibernation and observe birds migrating back to Wisconsin. In all seasons, they spend time on the beach at Lake Michigan and see the cycles of nature in progress.

Nature permeates all aspects of the classroom as well. The children care for the animals and plants housed in the classroom. At a sensory table, they manipulate
natural materials including soil, leaves, sand, water, bird seeds, snow; and they shell corn and pull seeds out of sunflower heads. They have access to nature books and field guides. They use natural materials such as pinecones and feathers in their artwork. Tree blocks and animal toys are included in the block area. Binoculars
line the many windows that look out to the forest.

Because the preschool is a part of the nature center we have access to the naturalist staff. The children write letters to the naturalists to ask questions and read the answers that they receive. The naturalists provide extra programs for the children on various topics from turkeys and squirrels to owls and animal tracks. They bring live animals into the classroom and lead the children on special hikes.

What do your children learn through nature?

All aspects of the program give children opportunities to understand their world through their senses. Because children get to spend two, three, or even four days a week — nine months a year — outside in natural surroundings, children learn to positively connect to the natural world. They develop observation skills and a sense of visual-spatial relationships, while exploration encourages their confidence and appropriate risk-taking. By taking care of animals, they develop empathy and thus become better friends to their classmates. They learn to care for their environment by understanding the life cycles and interdependencies of the plants and animals they find in the various habitats they encounter. The solid foundation that children in a nature-based preschool program receive prepares them, not only for school, but also for life.

West St. Paul, Minnesota
written by :: Staff of the Dodge Nature Preschool

How did the Dodge Nature Preschool start?

It was founded in 2000 on the grounds of Dodge Nature Center, a nature preserve and environmental learning center serving school children and the community since 1967. The Center’s mission is to be a place where people can experience, study, and enjoy the natural environment and in so doing, become inspired stewards of the natural world. The Center’s Board of Directors envisioned the creation of the preschool as one way to bring in new members and expand the community that the Center serves.
The Preschool’s mission is to meet children’s developmental needs while initiating them into a lifelong, meaningful relationship with the natural world. We believe that the appeal of the natural world is universal and powerful, and that there is no better environment or curricular foundation for early childhood education.

At Dodge Nature Preschool we are guided first and foremost by best practices and guidelines developed by the National Association for the Education of Young Children.

How do you plan activities?

Our first consideration in any endeavor, whether it is setting up a classroom or planning a hike or outdoor experience, is the developmental level of the children in our classroom. Because we have mixed-age classes, some children will not be ready for lengthy discussions or explanations from adults, and others will be fascinated by group interactions and discussions. We attempt to balance the needs of the children in our classes, and by placing three teachers in each class we can better meet those individual needs.

At an early age children perform experiments to discover how things work. Jean Piaget, a Swiss developmental psychologist, described twelve- to eighteen-month-old children as ‘little scientists.’ Babies learn about the world by placing objects in their mouths. Toddlers experiment with cause and effect, such as throwing a spoon from a high chair and watching it fall. Most toddler experiments are based on trial and error. Preschoolers can be more purposeful in their experimentation. Teaching young children to be purposeful experimenters helps them to make sense of the world and organize their thinking about the natural world. As research supports, learning the scientific method helps children develop confidence in their ability to predict and control their experiences and, in the long run, encourages them to become more deliberate people with a greater sense of responsibility.

Children’s observations outdoors contribute to their growing base of knowledge about how the world works: the smell of the air after a rainstorm, the texture of a tree trunk, the way that rabbits move, the taste of raspberries, and the sounds of squirrels chattering from the trees. Indoors they can act on their new ideas with activities such as pouring water, drilling a hole in a log, using a bear puppet, cooking with apples from the orchard, and listening to birdcalls on a recording. Discussion of the scientific process helps children reflect on the things they’ve learned, develop vocabulary for their experiences, and come up with new ideas.

What are your goals for the classroom?

They include the development of the following skills, abilities, and dispositions: curiosity about the natural world, observation skills, appreciation of nature’s beauty, a willingness to use all of the senses to make discoveries, an understanding of the self and one’s relationship to the natural world, an understanding of natural phenomena, a drive to experiment, and an ability to communicate about nature.

We pay close attention to individual children and catch ‘teachable moments’ — when an opportunity arises to turn a comment or action into a learning experience — for developing their understanding of the natural and physical world. We emphasize natural events. One classroom kept track of birds they saw at the bird feeder with a poster that had pictures of various birds and stickers to mark each time a child spotted a bird. During group time one day, a child interrupted the story to say that a goldfinch was on the feeder. The teacher stopped the story, gave the child a sticker to mark a goldfinch, and the class watched the bird feed. Then the teacher resumed the story. This approach stresses the importance of the natural world and helps children understand that sometimes one activity can stop for another important event. We create a constructivist environment by allowing ‘wrong answers’ rather than correcting children’s mistakes. As children are inventing rules to explain the world, some of their generalizations will be inaccurate. Challenging their thinking is more useful than correcting them. “Do you think a snake made that hole?” “Maybe it did.” “How did the snake dig the hole?” “What do you think?” When a child mislabels something, we may have to let it slide:

Child:“Look at those pussy willows!”
Teacher:“Aren’t those wonderful? Some people call those cattails.”
Child:“No, they’re really big pussy willows!”

We have to be willing to accept that this child is not going to change her mind, so it’s not worth arguing. We also do not answer all questions. When asked a question about natural history, it is acceptable for teachers to answer, “I don’t know. What do you think?” We can either let the issue drop or model researching the question later, back in the classroom. Most of our teachers are not naturalists and they come to their deep knowledge through experiences with children, time spent with naturalists, and research on their own.

Complex issues such as life and death will arise in the classroom and on hikes. The same questioning techniques can be used with these issues. “Do you think it’s dead? How could we find out?” Empathy for living creatures (and plants) and respect for dead creatures and plants are important emotional skills for preschoolers. Respect for living plants may involve discussing why breaking branches and tearing leaves off of trees are not acceptable, without anthropomorphizing plants. We try to listen to what a child is really asking and compose answers to complex questions simply and accurately. For example, when children ask, “How big were dinosaurs?” they may really be asking, “Were they bigger than a horse (or another animal I know of)?”

We are trying to develop in young children a love of the outdoors, however that path may look. Some children may be uninterested in trees as homes for animals, but use them as pirate ships, climbing apparatus, or walls of an imaginary building. Others may be unfazed by deer tracks in the snow and more interested in the sensory experience of lying down on the tracks and making snow angels, or gathering snow in their hands to throw or to eat.

Your journey in the outdoors will also take a circuitous route, whether you spent your childhood outdoors and then put those joys aside in adulthood, or you’re coming to enjoy the outdoors for the first time through the eyes of your students or your own children. We encourage adults working with children in nature to do what they can, see what’s comfortable, and see where their own curiosity takes them. Your enthusiasm and surprise at discovery will speak volumes to the children in your classroom — even more than you could say in a year of planned nature lessons.