East Heights UMC Preschool

Our Nature Explore Outdoor Classroom space is utilized each and every day by our preschool students. Once a week during the fall, spring and summer our Children ‘s Day Out program uses the space.

We host several community events where the outdoor space is open. During VBS we use the space as one of the rotations for the preschool-aged children. During this rotation, the children engage in different activities. The church hosts an annual block party. The outdoor space is open for families to enjoy the outdoors and hang out. Every year we host an Easter egg hunt and the space is a wonderful space to hid eggs and watch the kids try to find them.

The preschool uses the space in many different ways to have outdoor activities that extend on our themed curriculum. Each year during our community helpers theme the Pre-K classes pretend to put out a fire by shooting water at solo cups that have been stacked to represent a fire. The children love this activity. During our Art and Artist theme we have done many different activities outside. This year we let the children use water and paint brushes to paint the church building and the fence. They also used chalk to draw pictures and used the paint brushes and water to make their masterpieces disappear.

The children love to gather and stack the wood pieces. Sometimes its to build a pretend fire. Another time it has been a giant ostrich nest. They pretend to be ostriches and guard their eggs in the nest. The digging area for the diggers, big trucks, and excavators is a popular area. Digging in the rocks, filling the trucks and dumping the rocks into piles keeps the children occupied for hours.

Over the years we have used this space for so many teaching opportunities.