Author: Mary Robertson

by Mary Robertson / November 27, 2012

Jump, hop, and rock on the preschool playground with natural playscape products like Tree Cookies, Stepping Stumps, and Stepping Boulders.  Children develop balance, agility, body awareness, and gross motor skills as they travel from cookie to cookie, stump to stump, or boulder to boulder.  Children can also move and rearrange the stumps and cookies, trying […]

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by Mary Robertson / November 20, 2012

Looking for a fun activity to do in the children’s outdoor play area to celebrate Thanksgiving?  Try making a Thanksgiving table centerpiece with objects found outdoors in a natural playscape.  Fill a basket with the natural items or purchase a Styrofoam wreath from your local craft store and glue the items to the wreath. Here […]

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by Mary Robertson / November 13, 2012

Studies have been popping up all over about the benefits of interacting with nature.  In 2008, research at the University of Michigan showed that after an hour spent in nature, people’s memory abilities and attention spans improved by 20%.  At the University of Kansas, researchers completed studies showing that people were more creative after spending […]

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by Mary Robertson / November 6, 2012

We would like to introduce our new outdoor learning equipment – the Magnetic Board is a fun way to include some science exploration on the preschool playground.   We include magnetic gears which the children can place together and by turning one gear, discover how the other gears will also turn.   There are also many […]

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by Mary Robertson / October 30, 2012

Tomorrow is Halloween.  What a great time for outdoor play! Try these outdoor Halloween activities with your family. 1.  Draw faces on pumpkins with paints or markers (use dry erase markers and draw faces over and over again). 2.  Practice woodworking by hammering nails or golf tees into a pumpkin. 3.  Deck out the children’s […]

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by Mary Robertson / October 23, 2012

Would you like to introduce woodworking into your preschool’s curriculum?  Woodworking is a great way for children to learn about math, construction, fine motor skills, and hand-eye coordination.  The perfect time to introduce woodworking outdoors on the natural preschool playground is now, the month of October.  In October, lots of beautiful pumpkins are readily available […]

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by Mary Robertson / October 16, 2012

One of our newest products, the Build-A-Creek is a kit that comes with all the materials you need to make your own creek for your natural playscape.   In addition to all materials, we supply directions describing how the children can be the ones who actually build the creek.   Having a creek on the preschool […]

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by Mary Robertson / October 9, 2012

Making a Nature Viewing Window is a simple way for your children to take a closer look at nature.  Fold a piece of paper in half and cut out a shape (in the pictures below everyone chose a rectangle, but you can cut out any shape), leaving a border to create a frame. Place the […]

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by Mary Robertson / October 2, 2012

Math – Children practice math skills when counting rocks, making patterns with leaves, weighing how heavy a stone is, and sorting other natural materials into groups. Science – Children explore with science when growing plants, observing insects, dropping a ball down a tube, and going down a slide. Literacy – Children learn new words when […]

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by Mary Robertson / September 25, 2012

The leaves here haven’t started changing colors yet, but the first day of Fall was this past Saturday, September 22nd, so I thought why not start thinking about some fun Fall leaves activities? Leaf Collecting – Collect beautiful Fall leaves all season long and paste them into a scrapbook. Leaf Rubbings – Place a leaf […]

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by Mary Robertson / September 18, 2012

In case you missed our series about how Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences relates to outdoor learning on the preschool playground, below are links to each of our posts about the different intelligences. 1.  Introduction 2.  Naturalistic Intelligence 3.  Spatial Intelligence 4.  Musical Intelligence 5.  Body-Kinesthetic Intelligence 6.  Logical-Mathematical Intelligence 7.  Linguistic Intelligence 8.  […]

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by Mary Robertson / September 11, 2012

Grandparent’s Day was this past Sunday, did you do anything special to celebrate your students’ grandparents?   The other day as I was reflecting on outdoor play and Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods I found myself thinking about how Grandparent’s Day is another great opportunity to go outside and experience nature.  Young children […]

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