Adventures in K/1!: Outdoor Exploration

Lately, we have been talking a lot about our favourite places in and around the Kimberley area. I was delighted to discover that many of the students listed "school" and "the stick area" as some of their favourite places to spend their time! Ask your child where their favourite places are (hint: Fort Steele, Spirit Rock Climbing Centre, and Petro Can sure have a group of loyal patrons!). During our time outside this week, I was able to reflect on the ideas in Mind in the Making: The 7 Essential Life Skills Every Child Needs (Galinsky, 2010). Galinsky writes about 7 skills that are key predictors of success in life, skills that I have observed students experimenting with and improving on in their outdoor exploration. When children dig, move logs, climb and balance, they are working on focus and control and taking on challenges. When children work with others in a group, discuss and execute their plans, and are willing to compromise, they are working on perspective taking and communicating. When children create forts and homes for animals that resemble their own homes or homes they have learned about in books; when they take a walk down new streets and notice similarities to other streets; when they watch a building being built and notice similarities to their own homes, children are making connections. There are SO many connections made each and every day! When children roll logs covered in soot and know there was a fire here recently, examine gopher holes and wiggly worms and connect to what they have learned in conversations and books about these creatures, develop their own theories about why the sky looks blue or why the trees look dead in the winter, they are developing critical thinking skills. When children have a say in what and where they learn, and are encouraged to explore their surroundings and to ask questions, they are working on self-directed, engaged learning. I feel compelled to add my own 8th essential life skill to the list, which is creative thinking. When children use natural materials to represent a tool for imaginative play, adapt their game to accommodate the space, create stories about the bugs in the garden, they are working on creative thinking.

Now when I am asked, "but what do you DO when you're outside?", I think "working on the essential life skills every child needs" might be my new response!