Loving Hands Daycare & Preschool
We believe that, in our current culture, there has been a devaluing of independent outdoor play. Playing outside has merely been seen as a means to blow off steam or a break from learning.
Our outdoor classroom has been just that: our classroom. We spend many hours exploring in our outdoor classroom and engaging in independent play, and we have started to document those hours with a goal of 1,000 hours outside for the year. We believe strongly that our Nature Explore classroom contributes to healthier children, improved mood and happiness, and joy in all types of weather.
This year, we have been busy working and planning a family garden. We constructed new raised planters and had a family cooking class lead by our local dietitian Ms. Jenny, where we created yummy healthy meals made from items from the garden.
A few improvements and projects we have completed: We enlarged our sand area, adding tons more sand. We literally added 3 tons! Our desire to encourage reading led to us creating a portable reading platform that could be moved around our outdoor classroom. Teachers have continued with professional development to help grow our classroom and our bodies!