Schools out for the summer (I hope you sang that in your head) and the kids are back at the house. Now rather then let them wear out your couch or wear on your nerves, push them out the back door and into the garden. The outdoors are where summers should be spent and if you can't get to the park to
Transform a patch of grass into an oh-so-enchanting play area with instructions from HGTV.com.
Most backyards are terrible for kids. Do better than ugly and uninspiring plastic. Play area ideas from a landscape designer and mom.
It's possible to have a backyard space that's perfect for kids and adults. Two designers created a kid-friendly garden that's stylish.
Modderkeuken; de leukste keukentjes om zelf te maken of kopen
Make a dedicated play garden for kids to grow plants, enjoy sensory play and have a digging patch of their very own! Perfect for toddlers and preschoolers to get stuck into gardening and enjoy outdoor play everyday. With Spring finally here, breathing a wonderfully sunny warmth and life into everything, we have been out in...Read More »
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.
Kids gardening is so rewarding! It can also be challenging if you're gardening with a toddler or baby. Here are lots of kids garden activities for them to do while you garden or fun kids gardening tips.
Modderkeuken; de leukste keukentjes om zelf te maken of kopen
After we finished our patio makeover, we decided to start working on Sophie’s play area. This was how the top of our garden looked in April. A dangerous mess! So we have spent the last few mo…
This isn't just any garden; it's a whimsical garden wonderland designed to spark joy and ignite your imagination.
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Be inspired by these totally amazing ideas for outdoor play spaces, with dens, nooks, climbing structures, mud kitchens and more for the backyard play area!
DeVries announces plans for natural playscape "Not a bounce house, swingset or seesaw in sight"
Be inspired by these totally amazing ideas for outdoor play spaces, with dens, nooks, climbing structures, mud kitchens and more for the backyard play area!
From classic blanket dens and teepees to amazing structures made from just a few cardboard boxes you won’t believe the imagination of these parents and bloggers.
Back in May, one of my co-workers shared a school-wide project idea that went viral on social media from Scarymommy.com. The project was a rock garden inspired by the book "Only One You" by Linda Kranz, and decorated the landscaping of Sharon Elementary School in Newburgh, Indiana. The garden was the idea of Jessica Moyes, who is the art teacher at Sharon Elementary. Jessica, your design has inspired multiple schools to create their own rock gardens within their own schools. Our school's parents were even sending links of this project to the principal requesting the garden! There's few posts from other bloggers and teachers talking about their rock garden installations at their schools. I'd love to share our story, along with the methods used in gathering materials, containing painting with K-6, incorporating all staff, and how to complete the installation. The Materials Thanks to Streamline Landscaping in Willow Springs, IL, we receive a few buckets of smooth rocks to use for our rock garden! The landscapers even came by to see how we were doing with creation, and donated even more larger stones for each class and department in the school. We also received a donation of acrylic paint and markers from Oriental Tradings! The donated materials really helped with supply management! Here's the materials you need to complete this project: 1. Lots and lots of rocks. Consider calling a local landscaping company and ask for a donation. The rock size can be your choice. 2. Table clothes. This was a life saver for all 31 of my classes who painted (700+ students). 3. Paper towels and paper plates. Tear up sections of paper towels for students to keep under their rocks while painting. Paper plates make it 100% easier to manage the paint messes and clean-ups. 4. A copy of "Only One You" by Linda Kranz. Easily found on Amazon, or other book sellers. 5. Acrylic paint. As much as it's scary working with acrylic at K-1 ages, it's the only paint that will stay on the rocks over time. Some acrylics paint on a little transparent, while others will be more opaque. Again, your choice. Here's the link to the acrylic paint used from Oriental Trading. 6. Paint brushes, cups, and water. 7. Permanent markers. If you photograph all artworks for Artsonia, or need to know who made what rock for grading, use permanent markers for students to write their names. Oh...and add room numbers too. It really helps with organizing. If you use markers for details, keep in mind that markers do fade over time. Here's the link to the sharpie marker set from Oriental Trading. 8. Acrylic clear coat. In order for the paint to stay as long as it can on the rocks in outdoor weather, you need to spray all the finished rocks with a clear coat for protection. For a safety note, make sure you spray outdoors and after school hours, because this smell can draft down the hallways. 9. Bins for storage. This is going to be heavy! For transporting from classroom to garden set-up, make sure you have plastic, durable bins to use for organization and transportation. 10. Aprons or old shirts. If you're doing this project with young students, you need clothing protection. The Objective The purpose of creating a community project was to have student leave a "footprint" in the school. The positive message in the final pages of the book is "There is only one you in this great, big world...make it a better place." All the students from grades K-6 were read the book and took in the words of wisdom shared. Each student painted their own "fish" rock with their own colors and patterns. The Project I allotted two full weeks for all classes to complete their rocks. Each of my classes are 40 minutes in length, and visit once a week. Prior to starting the painting, I sent a note home to each student explaining the project and materials being used. Since we had so many younger grade levels, I made a huge recommendation to parents to have their children bring an art shirt to school or an apron to protect their clothing. One parent donated a box of plastic aprons, which really helped with the younger grade levels! The teachers even helped with mentioning the extra art shirt in their weekend newsletters, which really helped!!! For prepping, I set up a plate of colors for each table. If I made the plates last longer than two classes, I called it a success. Kindergarten classes only received 5 colors (red, blue, yellow, green, white) because no matter what you do, the plates only last about 10 minutes of pure colors. Once the students see that colors mix, the plate very quickly turned to brown. On the first day of class, the book was read and we had a small discussion about the wisdom shared and how they can help in creating a garden for the school. For the rest of the class, the students painted their rocks. I organized drying areas for each class by placing colored paper and a painted large rock with the class name on it. When students finished painting, they placed their rocks on a paper labeled with their class. Students were also asked to sign a class rock that their fish will swim around. Since Kindergarten and 1st grade finished quickly, they were only given one day to work on the rocks. Afterwards, I glued a google eye to the fish. (The google eyes will not stay on for more than a few weeks. It's good for the beginning pictures, but it will not last forever with a glue gun.) On the second day of the project, grades 2-6 used permanent markers to trace out eyes, mouth, patterns, fins, and details in their rocks. Since this step only takes about 5-10 minutes to complete, I found worksheets on Linda Kranz's website that students colored and filled out. The worksheets can be found here. Remember when I said that departments also receive a rock? I painted fish rocks for the front office (administrators, nurses, secretaries), lunchroom, custodians, Title 1, ELL, Special Education, and Specials! They're mixed in with the class rocks below ready for installation! Now the fun part...getting over 7 bins of rocks and large river rock into the courtyard! With lots of helping hands, we transported all the pebbles to the courtyard so I could spray them with the acrylic clear coat. The custodians were also very helping in clearing out an area in our courtyard before installation! And the sign has been made... On the day of installation, students and staff were invited to participate in the installation process. ALMOST DONE!!!! And here's the finished project! Our school has been passing around the golden pineapple award for teachers sharing positive events in our school, and on the day the garden was being installed, a student dropped this award off in my classroom! Totally excited and honored to have this award for this project! It's for the entire school for their participation!!! SaveSave
Slacklining is an excellent and beneficial acitive outdoor acitivity for kids. Here you will find information, benefits, and tips on how to get started.
Fully customise your play area with more than sixty pieces of play equipment and apparatus that can be incorporated into your design.
"Natural playgrounds should be the standard for all our playgrounds. They truly connect children with nature through play and are a sort of classroom for the next generation of environmental stewards." David Suzuki. I have offered to do the garden design for our local Steiner Kinder. It has only been at this site since the start of the year. The garden is new, with some hard landscaping that has been completed recently. Consisting of a sleeper retaining wall, a timber paling fence, a concrete path and a stone walled sandpit. Garden planting consists mainly of a few existing trees, donated shrubs, trees and herbs planted informally by the Kinder community. Brief; to provide a concept plan for the kinder garden. A deep connection with nature is central to a Steiner approach to childhood. In Steiner early childhood education outdoor free-play in a natural environment is an essential component of the curriculum. Steiner playgrounds value natural elements to entice the imagination and create spaces of wonder and awe. Client Interview; These are some ideas from the teacher about her vision for the garden. Use plants with Simple child like flowers, provide screening from the road, feeling of fullness in the garden, use of natural materials, garden rooms where children can play, virginia creeper climbing on verandah, a living tee pee made from sunflowers, early autumn colour, plants that reflect the seasons, a timber climbing structure. Site Inventory and Analysis; There is some existing vegetation; One mature Eucalyptus radiata? One Callistemon, a Banksia marginata and a weeping Cherry. Newer plantings include, a lemon tree, fruit trees, tea tree,Buddleias, daisys, bulbs, herbs, seasonal veggies. North facing, Prevailing North wind Exposed Busy Road on the North boundary Soil type, water availability and site measurements are not known yet. I still determining if there is an existing site plan. My initial ideas The playground should be less open, with places for the children to get away and play in peace without feeling that they are being watched over by adults. To divide the area into a series of curved rooms, with different spaces, where the children can escape to while still allowing enough open space for children to run freely. Screen out all of the boundary fence with plants. Plant screening climbers such as Hardenbergia violacea along the cyclone fence back boundary to provide screening from the road. Incorporate existing vegetation into the design, transplanting where appropriate. A smooth flowing design that is simple and not too busy while incorporating many of the following features; A bamboo forest, B.oldhammi Scarlet runner bean tee pee Atriplex hedging to divide spaces Herb/ kitchen garden Muehlenbeckia complexa tunnel Tea tree cubby or tunnel Climber to grow on the verandah Parthenocissus quinquefolia Tea Tree tunnel at the Ian Potter garden RBGM Natural climbing frame Sunflower house Scarlet runner bean Teepee bamboo forest at Ian Potter garden RBGM Muehlenbeckia tunnel http://earthplay.net/ http://progressiveearlychildhoodeducation.blogspot.com.au/2011/08/inspiring-waldorf-steiner-natural.html http://www.naturalplaygrounds.ca/ http://www.wbir.com/news/article/220797/8/Natural-playground-inspires-kids-to-be-more-active
Kate will formally open the Back To Nature garden at RHS Wisley in Surrey next week, the centrepiece of which is a giant wooden treehouse, made to look like a hedgehog.
Learn how to design a garden space that suits the whole family with this guide from HGTV.
Shown here: Maypole Swing
It is my privilege and honour to be asked to write a guest post for Kierna on her wonderful blog. For those of you who don’t know me I am Greg Harvey, an early childhood teacher from Australia and author of the blog Males in Early Childhood. I am taking full advantage of the summer break to take a rest from the outdoor play link up & am so delighted to have so many great guest bloggers that I could call upon to help me out. Once again, I have to say that the honour is all mine, to have Greg, a great cyber friend & colleague contribute to the blog this week. It’s not very often you have the opportunity to revitalise an entire outdoor environment, yet recently that’s exactly what occurred at my centre. What was once very sterile and artificial surroundings have been transformed into a place full of natural materials presenting challenging and interesting locales amidst a serene and welcoming atmosphere. As the work progresses you can see how the bland, flat and unfeatured playground begins to take shape as logs, stumps, rocks, balance beams, a creek bed, bridges and a stage all slowly form in front of your eyes. You may also notice that here are convex mirrors, a reading circle containing sandstone seats, timber benches, a digging patch and a huge, kidney-shaped sandpit 3 times as deep as our previous one and more than twice the size all being added to this environment. And if that wasn’t enough, there are some hidden treasures such as a fairy statue and a frog statue lurking in the gardens, a lizard lounging somewhere watching the children play, and a dragonfly keeping an eye on everything from its vantage point. You probably won’t see some of these unless you visit in person, but to know that they are there paints a picture of a place full of imagination, wonder and adventure. You also cannot see the herb and vegie gardens that have been added to the once lone garden that existed before. Now I can’t speak on behalf of the children, although if I was to make an educated guess I would say that they love their new outdoor environment. However, for me I have to say it’s at least as good as anything I’ve encountered during my relatively brief early childhood career. Now I realise it’s difficult to make judgements about something you haven’t seen for yourself, but I think you would agree that the new look playground beats the old one hands down in every aspect of what an outdoor environment should offer. A huge transformation like this is beyond most services, but there are some wonderful ideas that could be introduced to any play area with a little creativity and not too much of a shock to the budget. Some mirrors strategically placed, or a few creature statues located in out-of-the-way places, or the placement of logs, cut tree trunks and large rocks, or some timber balance beams and benches, or even the creek bed. Some of these items would undoubtedly cost more than others, but much of it could be acquired reasonably cheaply through targeted campaigning for donations, discounts and volunteers to save labour costs. Actually, the possibilities are only limited by your imagination and determination. So let’s get to it and provide all children with the outdoor environments they, their families and you deserve. There were many brilliant outdoor fun ideas linked up again but the one that appealed to me the most was from Making Boys Men . I've pounded pumpkins with golf tees but hadn't thought of doing it with melons! And to then use the melon shell as a container for the vinegar & baking soda fun - genius! There were plenty of ideas of what to do in types of weather in this post. How did your kids play outdoors this week? Any kind of children's outdoor play-related posts are welcome! We'd appreciate it if you included a link back to this post (either in your post or sidebar) to help us spread the word about the importance (and fun!) of outdoor play! In return, we'll gladly further share your post on Facebook/ Twitter/ Pinterest. Please feel free to grab the Outdoor Play Party button from the sidebar and/or include a text link back. Please note that by contributing you are giving permission for an image and link to your post to be republished if featured. (If you have been featured, please feel free to grab the 'featured' button from the sidebar.) Share your ideas for outdoor play activities with us every other week! The linky goes live every second Friday at 12:01 GMT+1.
My family holds many annual passes. The zoo and Children's Museum, of course, but our favorite one, and the one we go to with the most excitement, is called Tree Adventure. It is a child's nature sensory overload adjoined to...
I double dog dare you to read this post on creating a Sunflower House and not add it to YOUR family's summer to-do list.
Prescott Farm Environmental Education Center is building an outdoor playscape.
Learn how to make one of a kind fairy furniture and garden accessories from HGTV.com.
This simple bucket and rope contraption provides toddlers and preschoolers with hours of open-ended fun and learning in the backyard.
Make a dedicated play garden for kids to grow plants, enjoy sensory play and have a digging patch of their very own! Perfect for toddlers and preschoolers to get stuck into gardening and enjoy outdoor play everyday. With Spring finally here, breathing a wonderfully sunny warmth and life into everything, we have been out in...Read More »
