Our school has an Outdoor Learning Committee that I am a part of. We all feel very strongly that the environment where the children play outside is just as important as the environment inside our school. We have worked hard to make our playground an area where the kids can run, exercise explore and yes...learn! Outside play plays an important role in children's development! They are working gross motor muscles and getting must needed exercise. They learn how to solve problems such as when social disagreements arise. They learn empathy as they help friends who get hurt. They learn to take risks and see where their limits are and feel empowered as they take those risks and succeed. They create games and role play. They learn science concepts as they discover things in nature and learn to look closer and ask questions about what they see as they discover new things. They learn kindness as they try to save an insect in danger or nurture a plant. They are literally learning about life and life skills as they play outside, so we knew the environment needed to support that. We had an area that we were having some problems with in the middle of our asphalt area. We wanted to turn it into something all of the kids could explore and benefit from and decided to create a Barefoot Sensory Path. We came up with a design and my husband figured out how to make it so that it would be sturdy and last. Our amazing PTO gave us funds to purchase the materials and we had fun shopping at Lowes for items that would provide the sensory experiences we were hoping for. Our team came in on a Saturday and went to work. Our maintenance team had dug the area down four inches so that it would be even with the asphalt. We put down a layer of paver sand, and then the 4x4's. We glued some materials to 2x2 pieces of plywood. The sections were all 2x2. We filled the sections with paver base and tamped it solid. My son even came and helped! Here is the finished frame. Of course, we had to test it out! Here is the finished path!! We were so excited for the kids to try it! It was a huge success!! The kids absolutely loved walking on it with bare feet, crawling on it and feeling with their hands and even laying in it enjoying the warmth radiating from it from being in the sun. Another new area we created was an area to create roads, ramps, etc. using scrap wood, cars, signs and other loose parts. This lovely lady below had the vision for this area! We also added an area to really work those gross motor muscles. Mr. Doyle created a boundary to keep it all contained to one area. We filled it with stumps, logs, and large branches. The kids have created obstacle courses and love lifting these up to show how strong they are! They jump, balance and create here. They collaborate and problem solve. They use both critical and creative thinking skills. This is a great area to develop 21st Century Learning Skills as they play! For our nature lovers, we have an area with plants for them to explore and observe. Some are edible such as peppermint and fennel. We have cone flowers, milkweed, irises, sunflowers and more. This area is a great place to explore and observe insects also! Here are some other things on our playground where they can let lose and have fun! Our playground is still a work in progress! We have many more ideas that we want to implement some day! One step at a time!

Create a Play Garden! Children love gardens just as much as adults do and a long-lasting appreciation for flora and fauna comes from sharing the garden.

An archway for a sensory garden, with a variety of colours and sounds to add a little spice to the garden.

After a long winter, as soon as my kids finally hear that it is "SPRING!", they have visions of flowers and gardening and sunny bike rides. Welp, not quite yet, guys. If your weather is anything like…

I don’t know if you’ve noticed this as a parent, but kiddos have questions. One of LG’s questions recently made me realize it was time to take Bible study more seriously. “Momma, what is ‘my victory’?” (She asked this while listening to the song “My Victory” by Crowder.) There it was. The perfect opportunity to explicitly …

The best spring sensory bins for toddlers and preschoolers! These easy spring sensory bins provide educational sensory play that your toddler will love.

12 CREATIVE SENSORY WALK ACTIVITIES FOR KIDS

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Now that summer has said farewell, we were anxious to try out this fun, sensory craft project that we can actually use to decorate the garden as it slips into autumn mode. For this project we used …

Kids need sensory stimulation for development. Planting a sensory garden for kids is a great way to meet that need! And they can help!

Sensory play is such a wonderful way to engage in hands-on, experiential learning with kids. By using all of the senses, as they will do in this bugs in muck activity, children are better able to remember and process information. This muck has a really fun texture. It looks super goopy and messy but comes […]

Practice counting, comparing, and addition with this ladybug math game for toddlers and preschoolers.

Let's have our little ones learn through playful farm literacy activities for preschoolers! Learn letters, rhymes, syllables, & more!

This week was all about monkeys, birds, and butterflies with our Preschool Rainforest theme. This was a new theme that we didn’t try out in tot school, which made it extra fun to learn and explore! Here were our plans for our rainforest theme: And here are the details for each activity: Rainforest Vocabulary: […]

Spider activities for your preschool classroom! Your students will love all of these spider projects, great for fine motor activities too!

Educators and parents will be inspired by these 20 ways to create outdoor sensory paths for children in your own outdoor yard or play area.

Add this beautiful, moving flower garden yoga activity to your Spring lesson plans and add some peace and calm to your busy preschool day.

Spring themed gardening sensory activity for preschoolers with a focus on alphabet learning!

Do you know what is perfect for a rainy day? A playdate? Any sick day? Or a just-about-an-anything day? Homemade musical instruments! If you're not sure what to do with the kiddos, making a homemade musical instrument band is the answer! There is so much fun to be had and amazing memories to be made

Turn every recess into an adventure!

Are you doing a tot school transportation theme? We finally finished up our transportation themed activities this week and had a lot of fun with all the different modes of transportation we explored. Here were our plans for Transportation Week: And here are the details of each activity: Our favorite transportation books for the week […]