As time goes by, more and more children are spending time indoors on their electronic devices. The idea of outdoor day is to break children free from the control of their electronic overlords and experience the beauty of nature. This day will allow the children to play, learn, eat, and sleep outside, letting them experience the wonders of nature and freedom of the outdoors.

To give the children a more immersive experience in a fenceless “classroom”, teachers helped to create some unique areas, with more natural and open-ended materials.

The construction area offered sticks, rocks, pinecones, acorns and logs of different sizes, instead of plastic or store bought toys. Playing in the science area allowed children to spend more time with dirty and messy playing, while also being able to observe insects.

Kids love the sand area most! We created a river with a running waterfall. Kids were allowed to use any kind of “tool” to dig a ditch, carry water and begin their games with sand and water. The children had a great time exploring and getting wet. For younger kids, the sand area meant lots of treasure and fun!

In the art area, there were activities such as flower pressing, paper making, and nature tracing and painting with telling a story. This helped children focus more on creativity and experiencing using different materials. The movement area invited kids to have fun with music, free dancing with ribbons, playing with special instruments and trying yoga as well.

On top of all this fun, the children got to nap outside in tents and even had a picnic for snack time. These unusual experiences maked children excited and they wanted to savor every minute of being in a tent with their friends outside. Though few of them fell in sleep, all the kids had a good time with friends and teachers.

We are very happy that OUTDOOR DAY brought joy to the children. More importantly, we seem to see a possibility to better connect the curriculum with nature, which brings deep inspiration to us!