Creating an Outdoor Classroom (with linky)

Our Mud Pie Kitchen

Our outdoor play space has been undergoing some major changes in the last year. We have been trying to transition our yard into an outdoor classroom, providing more natural materials and areas to help stimulate various types of play and more child centered learning. I am, by far, not an expert in this field, but I continue to learn and be inspired on a daily basis. In a couple of weeks, I will be sharing my story, my inspiration, and continued plans at an upcoming early childhood conference.

Our outdoor music area

I have found the blogging world to be a HUGE source of inspiration, and I can't thank all of you out there enough! Thank you, thank you, thank you! I want to give a couple of shout outs to Jenny at Let the Children Play, Juliet over at I'm a Teacher Get me OUTSIDE here! , Paige over at Playscapes, and Teacher Tom for not only sharing their own ideas, but also for passing on the ideas of others that have helped us to make some changes in our play environment.

The easel on our fence.

I have been collecting all kinds of ideas on Tumblr, and we have all kinds of plans for additional elements and changes to make to our play space. I would love to gain more inspiration, so.... I am asking you all for help! If you have or know of some great outdoor classroom inspiration (especially in photographs....) please link them up below! I'm going to keep this linky open indefinitely. Feel free to come back and link up often! (I know it will take me a while to link up all of the ideas I have saved, but I think putting together this list will be a great resource for us all!)

Our "stage" curtains.

The guidelines for the linky are: 1) Must be family friendly 2) Must be activities, structures, areas, etc to promote outdoor learning/play Thanks in advance for your help! If you would like, you are more than welcome to add the linky code to your blog as well. The more the merrier!

What Would You Do With It? Wednesday #4, Cardboard Tubes (Toilet Paper, Paper Towel, etc)

Welcome to this week's edition of What Would You Do With It? Wednesday. This week's item(s) are paper tubes. You most often find them at the end of a roll of toilet paper or paper toweling. I'm having trouble hunting up the photos I was going to post for this, so when I find them, I will add them. We have made: rain sticks kaleidoscopes marble runs and we have also cut the tubes and made them into flowers or snowflakes like these. If you would like to visit and link to some of our previous What Would You Do With It Wednesdays, please click here.

Yes, WE CLIMB UP THE SLIDE!

Yes, we do climb up the slide. We climb up the slide here at Child Central Station in the backyard... We climb up the slides when we are at the park..... and here are a few reasons why we think you could reconsider climbing up and allowing the children in your care to climb up the slide too! 1. Climbing up the Slide uses MUSCLE! Young children need to be active and climbing up the slide requires a lot of muscle and coordination. It is not an easy feat- and requires strength, concentration, determination, and will power. 2. Climbing up the Slide is RISKY! Yes- climbing up the slide is potentially risky, but so is sliding down! Your job as a caregiver is to carefully observe and monitor the situation, to be close by- but not to interfere unless necessary. Part of a child's learning process must include managing risks- climbing up the slide is a perfect way to practice this skill. 3. Climbing up the Slide involves potential CONFLICT! It is al

Making Moon Mud!

We usually make our moon sand with cornstarch , sand, and baby oil. However a blog reader commented that when they make their moon sand- they use water instead of oil. So, of course, my first thought was- why make moon sand when you could make MOON MUD? And so you have it- our homemade moon mud! Basically, it ends up being a sandy- runny oobleck! It acts kind of like a solid- and kind of like a liquid..... Now, I'm sure I will get all kinds of questions on the exact recipe and proportions to make this stuff..... The truth is, we rarely measure. We just mix it up until it looks and feels about right! Today, we made ours with too much water. (It was an experiment.) So, we removed some off the top. After we were done playing in the mud- we let it sit. A little bit more of the water evaporated while we napped.... Then, this afternoon- It was perfect! Hard as a rock on the bottom, until you dig into grab it... Then....

Ms. Amy's Blog @Child Central Station

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