EarlyON Nature Play Days
Nature Play Day offers a professional development package on-site that adds children and families into the mix. During EarlyON’s regular program, we set up the centre’s playground to support outdoor unstructured free play with loose parts and tools. Children find their place of mastery while educators and families observe the benefits of child-led play. This unique opportunity naturally provides coaching in context for both educators and families. It’s our hope that educators will consistently continue to use the outdoors as another learning environment and that families will recreate these outdoor experiences in their backyards or local parks.
Takeaways:
- To observe the benefits of outdoor unstructured free play.
- How to streamline your loose parts and tools to support child-led play.
- How to find ways to overcome roadblocks to support outdoor play for educators and families.
- Taking advantage of all types of weather and nature’s free loose parts.
Nature Play Day Schedule
Schedule:
8 am – 9 am Set up
9 am –11:45 pm – Outside time with parents, caregivers, children, and educators
11:45 am – 12 pm Clean up
12:00 – 12:30 pm – Debriefing with educators
Highlights of the morning:
- Arrival at the site 1 hour prior to the program start.
- Setting up the playground or available outdoor space with loose parts, and tools, to provide a variety of child-led opportunities.
- Bienenstock will provide Tuffo Muddy Buddies (one-piece rain suits) for the children to use during the visit if needed. These rain suits will be cleaned after each visit.
- Working outside for 3 hours with educators, families, and children. Times will be coordinated in advance with contacts at each Early ON location.
- Both parents and educators will observe the benefits of outdoor unstructured free play. We will discuss how outdoor child-led play supports motor skills, social collaboration, language development, and problem-solving while promoting self-regulation, attention, and perseverance.
- We will also focus on outdoor risky play opportunities where children become risk assessors.
- Debriefing with staff for 30 minutes after the program
- A follow-up email with resources for the individual location for educators and families.
- Staff surveys are provided to all locations prior to the visit.
- A flyer for families prior to the visit.
Outdoor Workshops with Educators & Children
Please fill out the form below to request more information.
