Urban Nature Families Play Together

 

Today was a gorgeous sunny day for our first Urban Nature Families Play and Learn.  We had a total of five children attend, three parents, and two grandparents.  The kids had a great time – expressed by the way kids and adults were engaged and how they attended for almost two hours, as well as several positive comments.  Today’s activities were:

A watering station, where kids took small containers of water and scooped water from a larger container and then delivered to the very thirsty plants.  ( This activity reminds us that there is much we could do at the center in terms of the small garden beds) Future activities could include- making garden flags, adding to beds, making signs to identify plants, or even just welcoming signs.

An art table that included both natural items as well as feathers, and the beloved googely eyes!  At this station the kis used a glue water mixture and stuck items/ objects on “matte” board – which was just cardboard

Story time:   The story was Subway Sparrow one of my favorite preschool stories since it has trains and diverse people (young to old, English to Polish to Spanish Speaking)  working together to solve the problem of getting a sparrow off of the train. Then during snack we also read another story: The Tree in the Ancient Forest.

We had a couple of other activities set out including balls and rings, but these were explored by kids only briefly.

The parachute: We started this activity with Ring a Round a Rosie and then play some “wave” games, ball toss games and general kid mayhem.  With so many adults and so few kids the games all felt safe. 

Finally we went on our walk to the Cheasty Greenspace.  It was a hot day and the walk is all uphill, but there were no complaints, just pleasant sighs of joy and amazement when we got to the woods.   In the woods kids mostly played in one relatively open area.  They touched moss, made tree rubbings, and had a generally nice time.  One boy and his dad ran the hiking loop!  My boys slowly walked the loop and found BIG sticks.

Future activities may include: more crayon  rubbings, but using leaves, and cardboard to make a firm backing.  We also could give more time to explore & build forts or make homes for imaginary friends.  S worked quite hard on making a moss covered bed for his elephant.

Future questions to consider are:  Do we just start play group in the woods?   Do we use a form of transportation?   We just want to be as family friendly as we can be- while encouraging outdoor play.  Maybe I will even make a flyer to share with parents about how to add outdoor play to their lives/ the benefits of it.