This article is reprinted from Texas Child Care, a quarterly newspaper published by the Texas Workforce Commission. Subscriptions may be placed by calling 512-441-6633, or writing Editor, Texas Child Care, P.O. Box 162881, Austin, Texas 78716-2881.

Why should children have to wait until they go inside to find a book about the ladybug they just discovered, or wait for crayons and paper to draw pictures of the bugs in the garden? Children are eager to examine this new discovery with all their senses. By setting up learning centers outdoors, teachers can provide information for children as they seek to understand the world they live in.

Why blend the classroom curriculum with the outdoor play space? Children learn best by doing. The outdoors, weather permitting, offers children as much opportunity for active learning as they have indoors. The outdoor environment can offer rich learning experiences not found indoors. The play yard is full of wonderful things for children to experiment, discover, and explore. In a well-planned outdoor environment, children do much more than run, climb, and ride bikes. They notice the weather, insects, plants, and everything going on around them. Their curiosity is stimulated as they seek answers to their questions about new discoveries.

An outdoor classroom is ideal for an emergent curriculum, one in which units are planned in response to children’s interests and discoveries. An observant teacher can watch for teachable moments when children make a discovery, ask questions, and are eager to learn. Nature provides a convenient and readily available source of learning materials.

The outdoors is also the ideal place to provide experiences that are sometimes considered too messy to do indoors. Sensory experiences such as measuring flour or mixing sand and water can be more fully explored without the limits of the indoor classroom. For the preschool child, the freedom to use materials, without restriction, always leads to greater levels of creativity and understanding.

Outdoor learning centers offer learning opportunities just as they do in an indoor classroom. Centers focus on writing, art, reading, science, manipulatives, and blocks with the same high quality of content as indoors. They provide opportunities for quiet play as well as active play while children are outside.

Teachers can extend current themes and projects into the play yard by planning for outdoor activities in weekly lesson plans. The most successful programs with outdoor classrooms employ a trained play yard coordinator who works with classroom teachers to bring curriculum themes outdoors. When all staff brainstorm together, amazing things can happen in the play yard. Teachers support the yard program by consistently enforcing rules for use and storage of yard equipment and materials. Cooperation and communication among the staff are the key elements to make this program work. When it works, you will have a rich and exciting play yard.

The teacher understands that children learn about the physical world through natural curiosity and an urge to touch, see, hear, smell, taste, and investigate. By using hands-on material amply provided by nature in a well-established play yard, a teacher can support and encourage children’s interests, and use their questions to guide them in understanding the world in which they live. Children are not passive observers but active investigators. They are perfect examples of the saying: "I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand."

Try to match learning centers to the types of activities children like to do in certain areas. You would not put the quiet reading area in the middle of a natural pathway because it would disturb the children seeking rest and quiet.

Consider the weather at different times of the year. Do you have a covered area to use when it rains? Do you have an area protected from the wind? Do you have a well-shaded area for hot, sunny days? How will the different seasons change the types of activities you can provide?

Consider who will use the yard and when. How many children will be on the play yard at the same time? Will more than one age group be using the yard at the same time, or at different times? The number of children in the yard will influence how many centers you decide to provide. The more children in the yard, the greater choice of activities you will provide.

Plastic milk crates are excellent storage containers. Each crate will contain a different type of equipment. Larger items such as bikes and shopping carts can be stored on the floor under the shelves. Reserve enough shelf space for art materials such as easel paper, paints, and brushes.

Milk crates are not for storage only. We use them in many ways: as chairs at the various tables, building blocks, and cars, for example.

You may reserve some materials for outside use only and borrow other materials like manipulatives, animals, blocks, and puzzles from the classroom. Store those things that are specifically for outside use in the shed. Be sure to return other materials to the classroom.

Care and cleaning of equipment is easier than you might think. Fill a water table, buckets, or dishpans with warm, soapy water, and set the toys that need cleaning next to it. The children will wash them again and again. Children also like to wash things with a cloth and scrub brushes, which are excellent for improving body coordination.

A small-wheeled cart with two or three shelves works well for storage and setup of equipment. We restock the cart from the storage shed when we set up in the morning; and then we simply carry it out and place it next to the writing center table. On the top shelf are markers, crayons, colored pencils, scissors, insect stamps, two small stamp pads, and chalk—each in an appropriately sized open container. The second shelf holds paper, and the third shelf holds a telephone and small, message-sized pieces of paper. For variety, we add a keyboard, different types of paper, or an adding machine.

The writing center area is in the same place every day. This helps the children to use it properly. A small trash can in the area helps children clean up after they finish projects. Once the children learn proper use and cleanup rules, they can incorporate them into almost any play activity. With proper supervision, children learn that writing tools, puzzles, and books are each kept in a special place. All day, they will go back and forth from writing to running and climbing. At the same time, they understand that they may write a note and carry it to the dramatic play or climbing area or make signs for the yard. We have rolls of tape readily available for their signs.

Dramatic Play
We have a small open-sided playhouse for this center. With different props, this structure serves as a grocery store, fire station, hospital, or flower shop. Place rugs on the ground to create a soft and quiet area. Provide dress-up clothes, or add blocks to encourage building activities.

Art and Manipulatives
A large table works well for this center because you may need room for large groups of children. When you are not using this area for art projects, you can use it for manipulatives, puzzles, and games or for parent lunches and dinners. For manipulative materials, consider Waffle blocks, wild animal figures, Legos, puzzles, games, wooden blocks, small cars and trucks, dinosaurs, and plastic plants and flowers. Ideally, all are durable, reasonably weatherproof, easy to sort and fun.

For arts projects, consider sponge painting on individual sheets or on a large piece of paper taped to cover the table. You can also plan watercolor painting, finger painting, painting rocks, collages made from natural items such as shells and moss, and wood sculptures with glue.

Sensory Table
This wonderfully versatile area is used for sensory experiences such as sand, water, mud, and goop (cornstarch and water). Add some play dishes, measuring cups and spoons, sieves, funnels, and similar items. Include brooms and dustpans for cleanup

Children love to pretend they are baking and cooking. Move a table near the sandbox and provide water. Children can mix sand and water in large bowls with spoons, place their creations in baking pans, and slide them into an oven made by stacking a couple of empty milk crates. When they are finished, hose down the area and fill the sensory table with warm, soapy water and provide a few wash cloths so they can wash the dishes. Set out dishwashing as a cool afternoon activity.

The sensory table is also used for manipulatives with small or round parts. Lincoln Logs with people or farm animal figures are a favorite. Use Legos, miniature wild animals, Bristle Blocks, or any combination of materials you have on hand.

Science Center
Science is not limited to planned activities but rather allows children to further explore their discoveries and interests. Here children can take the time they need to fully explore a new concept. Science and discovery activities offer children many benefits: pre-reading skills, the ability to distinguish different sounds and visual patterns, hand-eye coordination, motor skills, understanding of cause and effect, and positive self-concept. Children develop these skills as they work directly with materials. They fit parts together, compare objects, and observe changes. They develop concepts and learn words they can use as they begin to read.

Standard items for the science area include handheld magnifying glasses, prisms, bug jars, plastic insects, binoculars, kaleidoscopes, telescope, scales, rulers, magnets, flashlight and bubble solution and wands. From time to time, add natural materials such as rocks, plants, dried flowers, birds’ nests, feathers, gourds, seashells, fossils, pine cones, nuts, and seeds. Set up an ant farm, a root view farm, and similar farms.

Designate a table for the science center and stock it with materials and activities each day. Or create a portable center by using a low cart (no more than 24 inches high) that has an ample work surface as well as storage shelves with doors. The cart provides easy access to equipment and allows you to set up materials on a moment’s notice as the children make discoveries.

Reading Area
Provide a soft, quiet are for reading. Choose books that support curriculum themes, children’s interests, and topics about nature (weather, insects, animals, and plants). On our play yard, the book children read most is the photo album. We frequently take pictures of interesting projects, popular activities, and special events to keep the album current. When having film developed, we order double prints so we will have a copy for the activity file. The children never seem to tire of looking at pictures of the fun they had on the play yard. They also enjoy using story tapes with the books to follow along.

Sand Box
Add plastic flowers, and watch the children create a garden. Add dinosaurs and watch them create a prehistoric landscape. Be prepared to help them make a volcano for the dinosaurs! Add old boards to use as a ramp for rolling wheels (spools) and cars. Dig a 1-foot-deep trench in the sand and lay the board across it as a bridge. Add a few plastic alligators to make an alligator pit that is sure to create lots of excitement.

An activity file provides a record of the many exciting activities you have created for the play yard. The record is not only satisfying but also serves as a resource file of ideas. A file is especially helpful if you must be absent for a day, or if you take another job. Your substitute will have some ideas of the children’s favorite activities.

Grow some fruits and vegetables. Choose a fruit tree well-suited to your region and plant it. Children will enjoy smelling the blooms and watching the flowers turn into plums or peaches. For vegetables, consider fast-growing plants such as onions and radishes. Later, children can compare the tastes and smells of their homegrown vegetables.

Flowers are a wonderful experience for children. They run up to us in the play yard and say, "Close your eyes, I have a surprise for you!" They take our hands and lead us around making sure we don’t bump into anything. When we reach the destination, they say, "Open your eyes now. Surprise!" The excitement and delight shines in them. It is a rewarding moment and fills us with joy.

Where plants grow, insects usually take up residence. We have a lot of garden snails that eat everything we plant. We couldn’t seem to get rid of them and became discouraged until we noticed how they fascinated the children. So we began to use them in various activities. Here are two:

Snail Trails
Dip snails in food coloring and let them crawl on paper so they leave a colored trail behind.

Snail Circus
Tie a piece of yarn between two blocks to form a tight rope. Wet the yarn with water, and let a snail walk the tight rope.

Making a snail habitat is also fun for the children, but be sure to release the snails at the end of the day or keep them in a cool place. Even garden pests can entertain children, teachers, and parents.

Regularly check materials and equipment for broken parts or pieces that may injure a child. Also remember to check large equipment—climbing structure, swings, tables, and benches. Promptly repair or remove broken toys and equipment.

Keep a first-aid kit on the play yard for easy access. Being able to treat minor scrapes and injuries on the play yard means optimum yard supervision at all times. Otherwise, a staff member must go indoors to treat a scraped knee. We keep a small box stocked with small bandages, small bottles of disinfectant soap and water, gauze pads, and rubber gloves. Place the first-aid kit in a teachers’ station. This is a small cabinet or shelf where staff keep their water cups, sunglasses, accident/injury reports, materials and other odds and ends needed for the day’s activities.

To prevent the spread of germs, disinfect equipment on a regular basis. Use a chlorine bleach solution on the water fountain, play telephone, and table surfaces. Keep pathways free of dropped toys and other obstructions that may cause a child to slip and fall. Sweep cement and pavement areas daily to prevent them from accumulating sand and becoming slippery.

Rule 1
Materials stay in the center area they are put in by the adult. This sounds like a difficult rule to enforce but it is necessary if you want to keep materials from being scattered all over the play yard. It makes cleanup much easier and less time-consuming.

Rule 2
Children are responsible for their own creations. They are supported and helped if needed, but they stay with the task until completion. By expecting children to clean up after themselves, you are teaching them cause and effect as well as how to value and care for the toys they enjoy. It will help them feel good about themselves and their capabilities.

Rule 3
Have lots of fun! (Need I say more about this rule?)

By using these rules, everyone will have a happy and busy day.

Children are more likely to have difficulties sharing and cooperating when they are tired. Having a quiet reading area gives them the opportunity to rest without feeling like they are missing out on the fun. When a teacher sits down in the reading area and begins to read a book, children instantly cluster around to listen to the story and then beg for more.

When necessary, we redirect a child to new activity. We offer many play choices. We sometimes deny a child the privilege of playing in a certain area. We combine this lost privilege with an opportunity for the child to watch appropriate behavior in that area. Our goal is to teach proper use of materials and to discourage destructive or inappropriate behaviors.

Setting up learning centers outdoors helps connect children to the influences of nature. Only by experiencing nature can they begin to truly understand the world in which they live.

These are short excursions on or near the school grounds. Some ideas:

Berk, Laura E. and Adam Winsler. Scaffolding Children’s Learning. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children, 1995.

Dunn, Susan and Rob Larson. Design Technology Children’s Engineering. Bristol, Pa.: Falmer Press, Taylor & Francis, Inc., n.d.

Ellison, Gail. Play Structures. Pasadena, Calif.: Pacific Oaks College and Children’s School, 1974.

Green, Moira D. 474 Science Activities for Young Children. Albany, N.Y.: Delmar Publishers, 1996.

Hill, D.M. Mud, Sand, and Water. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children, 1977.

Holt, Bess-Gene. Science with Young Children (rev.). Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children, 1989.

Koster, Joan Bouza. Growing Artists: Teaching Art to Young Children. Albany, NY: Delmar Publishers, 1997.

Kritchevsky, S., E. Prescott, and L. Walling. Planning Environments for Young Children: Physical Space (2^nd ed.). Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children, 1977.

Neuman, Donald B. Experiences in Science for Young Children. Albany, NY: Delmar Publishers, 1978.

Rivkin, Mary S. The Great Outdoors: Restoring Children’s Right to Play Outside. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children, 1995

Trawick-Smith, Jeffery. Interactions in the Classrooms: Facilitating Play in the Early Years. New York: Macmillan College Publishing Co., 1994.

Winslow, Marjorie. Mud Pies and Other Recipes. New York: Walker Publishing Co., 1996.