Running head: NATURE PLAY

Nature Play in Early Childhood Education Ann Lau Ward West Chester University Issues and Trends in ECE 511

What is the value of preserving and strengthening this sense of awe and wonder, this recognition of something beyond the boundaries of human existence? Is the exploration of the natural world just a pleasant way to pass the golden hours of childhood or is there something deeper? - Rachel Carson, The Sense of Wonder (1956)

Running head: NATURE PLAY Nature Play in Early Childhood Education My insatiable appetite and stirring advocacy for play in early childhood is rooted in the memories I have of being a child in the late sixties and early seventies, the experiences I had raising my own children over two decades in a vastly changing cultural landscape, and my background as an early childhood educator in diverse early childhood education contexts. As a

child in rural Lancaster County, Pennsylvania my childhood memories are of our wooded lot, the seasonal changes, and time I spent playing with my sister, raking smooth trails for our bikes, building brush piles for the rabbits and wild turkeys, collecting and raising caterpillars in hourshaped bug catchers, designing playscapes in the sandbox, and taking glorious risks on the tire swing, jumping from the porch of our tree house and swinging wide and ever so close to A Very Big Tree. In Zambia, Africa, the clumps of banana trees were our tree houses, the ripe bananas pulling the trunks of the trees lower, creating cozy spaces for our pretend play scenarios. My sister and I collected rocks-we searched high and low for pieces of rocks that had a particular reflective quality - and polished them with old toothbrushes to our hearts content while we dreamed of the rock stand we would set up at the end of the driveway when we returned home. Two decades later, entering motherhood for the first time, I struggled with the realities of creating a home in an urban, unfamiliar neighborhood where outdoor play seemed risky. I commuted to other neighborhoods with a stroller in the trunk and a toddler in a car seat for an afternoon swim in my in-laws pool, a romp in the wild at our public zoo, free play on climbing structures at schools and township libraries, and open-ended exploration and discovery in my grandmothers prolific vegetable garden.

Running head: NATURE PLAY In my current practice as kindergarten teacher at a private Quaker school on the Main Line, my home-grown kindergarten curriculum, rich in its connections and design according to developmentally appropriate practice and early learning standards, is enriched with childinitiated projects, open-ended play, and time in the outdoors. On any given day, whatever the weather brings, kindergarten is outdoors, running through the raindrops, splashing in puddles, experimenting with snow, turning over stones in the garden, watching hawks soaring above and birds at the feederand always, always, always, seeking play in The Nature Corner. The Nature Corner today looks very different than it did on the same playground twenty years ago. A mulberry tree, felled at night in a severe thunder and lightening storm, became the

place children ran to at outdoor time, its branches and uprooted trunk created natural hideouts, its knots and hollows in its thicker branches became mixing bowls and the mulberries, easily picked on the fallen tree, the raw materials for magic potions. Today, after several permutations of playground updates due to changing safety codes, drainage issues, administrative decisions, and a playground revitalization project in 2007, the mulberry tree is only a memory and generations of children its keepers. However, nature play, the child-initiated and unstructured play that originates in natural spaces, continues to this day along the perimeter of the landscaped playground, in classroom gardens, and down in the meadow by the beloved, tiny pond we call The Puddle. On the playground, the Nature Corner was never a place created by adults for children; it always has been a place the children initiated play, play characterized by its resourcefulness, invention, imagination, and engaged social collaboration. One year, the Nature Corner was a sheltered space under a draping ornamental tree in the center of a circle of hydrangea plans where children constructed fairy houses and later forts of hydrangea plants. Often, the Nature

Running head: NATURE PLAY Corner was the kindergarten butterfly garden where play was unrestricted, exploration was encouraged, and childs play sowed the seeds of emergent curriculum. To this day, children inventing games with natural materials harvested for play in the far corner of the playground where the mulberry tree used to be, generations ago. As fascinating as nature play has been to observe and how richly it informs the observer about the physical, cognitive, social, emotional,

and spiritual worlds of the young children whose hands, heart, and minds move in natural spaces (Easton, 1997), it is imperative for the future of all young children that nature play is understood and valued as a right of the young child. I believe it naturally calls the question: Why play? Excellence in early childhood education calls for best practice and collaboration of educators and administrators alike. Since 1986 the National Association for Young Children (NAEYC) has led the way with the framework known as developmentally appropriate practice, a document derived from current research on how children grow, learn, and develop as human beings from birth to age eight. Adopted in 2009, the third revision of NAEYCs Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs Serving Children from Birth through Age 8 discusses critical issues in early childhood education and asserts the need for the reduction of learning gaps and the increase in achievement of all children, citing issues impacting our work with young children including home language and culture, second language learning, school culture, children with special needs, children at-risk for disabilities children with challenging behaviors, funding, public policy, and availability and retention of qualified teachers and administrators. At the core of effective educational practices is teacher knowledge and decision-making, asserts NAEYC, and in that there is great variation in how teachers choose, design, plan, execute, and evaluate their work with young children. NAEYCs developmentally appropriate practice

Running head: NATURE PLAY policy statement presents a solid foundation for early childhood educators to act with intention in their roles in childrens lives. When educators are knowledgeable about young children they

are better able to generate learning experiences that promote a childs learning and development. When educators derive meaning from the relationships they have with each child in their care (knowing each child as an individual) they are better able to respond to the individual differences and variations in each child. When educators understand the social and cultural contexts of childrens lives, they are better able to choose learning experiences that are meaningful, relevant, and respectful. (National Association For The Education Of Young Children, 2009). In considering the complexity of how children and learn, NAEYCs DAP policy statement (2009) identifies twelve principles of child development and learning that informs early childhood educators; of the twelve, the tenth is distinct in its call for play. Play is an important vehicle for developing self-regulation as well as for promoting language, cognition, and social competence (National Association For The Education Of Young Children, 2009). Children engage in many types of play (physical play, object play, pretend or dramatic play, constructive play, play with rules), play is correlated with a childs development and growth patterns in childhood, and serves important physical, mental, emotional, and social functions for young children (National Association For The Education Of Young Children, 2009). A teachers active use of scaffolding of imaginative play is necessary to the development of sustained, focused, high-level dramatic play that reflects cognitive, social, and emotional benefits and contributes to a childs ability to self-regulate, (National Association For The Education Of Young Children, 2009) one of the seven essential life skills essential to the health and well-being of every child (Gallinsky, 2010). According to NAEYCs 2009 policy statement on developmentally appropriate practice, rather than detracting from academic learning, play

Running head: NATURE PLAY appears to support the abilities that underlie such learning andto promote school success (p.15). The Pennsylvania Learning Standards for Early Childhood developed by the Office of Child Development and Early Learning forward the cause for standards as a vital aspect of our work with young children. Building on thirty years of research, OCDEL argues that a early

childhood standards will provide the foundation for a childs strong start on a journey that will enable the child to build skills, continue their education through to high school and college graduation, and will enable them to be happy, productive members of a community (Office Of Child Development And Early Learning, 2012). As highlighted in the Kindergarten Pennsylvania Learning Standards for Early Childhood 2009 and the PLSEC Continuum for infants, toddlers, pre-kindergarten and kindergarten, play is the avenue through which children construct knowledge (Standard 15.1), organize and understand knowledge (Standard 15.2), apply knowledge (Standard 15.3), and learn through experience (Standard 15.4) (Office Of Child Development And Early Learning, 2012). Play is an essential element of an early childhood program and guiding principle for warm, responsive, highly qualified early childhood educators who engage in creating programs that maintain high developmentally achievable expectations(and use) clear performance standard with a continuous cycle of assessment understood and used by staff, children and parents (Office Of Child Development And Early Learning, 2012). While a comprehensive review of the research and literature on play and learning exceeds the scope of this paper, it is important to note that play is more prevalent during the periods of most rapid brain development after birth (childhood) and appears to sustain and foster

Running head: NATURE PLAY continued neural development in the brain, creating new connections that didnt exist before,

new circuits in the brain that are tested during a childs play episodes (Brown & Vaughan, 2009). Leading theorists on the development of young children represent the core of what many early childhood educators embrace as developmentally appropriate practice. The work of Jean Piaget 1896-1980 (knowledge is constructed by children thinking about experiences in the physical world and interactions with peers and adults) and the work of Lev Semenovich Vygotsky 1896-1934 (that children actively create knowledge as they interact with other people and that the relationship of the child and the adult is critical to this development) is central to our understanding of constructivist theory (Moravcik & Feeney, 2009). Teaching the whole child, addressing all aspects of a childs development including physical, social, emotional, and cognitive drives early childhood education and curriculum and in doing so, validates play as a means of learning. In the words of Friedrich Froebel in The Education of Man, Play is the highest expression of human development in childhood for it alone is the free expression of what is in a childs soul. (Moravcik & Feeney, 2009). According to Piaget, play is how children assimilate experiences as they construct knowledge. It is through pretend play that children learn to create symbols and represent meanings, a critical stage of a childs development (of the four stages sensorimotor, preoperations, concrete operations, and formal operations, pretense is critical to the preoperational period) (Reifel & Sutterby, 2009). On the other hand, Vygotsky asserts that play is the way children learn in that they represent or make visible their thoughts through play. Vygotskys view on play is that play is not a stage but an opening to higher-level thinking, an essential quality of early childhood learning in which relationships and meanings are created,

Running head: NATURE PLAY understood, and acted upon in ways that move children toward higher levels of intellectual functioning (Reifel & Sutterby, 2009).

If play is understood as essential to our early childhood practices, how may we choose to understand the value of nature play in the lives of children? In Beyond Ecophobia David Sobel shares his concern that children are carrying the burden of environmental problems long before children have had an opportunity to fall in love with the natural world. Whats important, he writes, is that children have an opportunity to bond with the natural world, to learn to love it, before being asked to heal its wounds (Sobel, 1996). David Sobel proposes an approach to being in nature with children that seeks to know the development of the individual child and nurture the relationship the child has to the natural world, focusing on empathy (ages 3-7), exploration (teaching the landscape) (ages 8-11), and social action (saving the neighborhood) (age 12 and older.) Childrens relationship to the natural world is significant and related to childrens identities, feelings of security, and sense of belonging according to the theory of place attachment. There are implications for the healthy development of a childs place attachment for what many consider to be a shrinking world of childhood steeped in parental fears and declining access of children to green space. (Gordon, 2010). Place attachments, what comes when people give meaning to a particular place in the experience of their lives, includes the memories, feelings, beliefs, and meanings associated with a physical space. Positive place attachments form with clusters of positive cognitions linked to the meaning of specific places and arise in young children, out of person to environment interactions. During childhood connections to place shifts from the home and the relationship with parents, to the neighborhood and explorations with adults and peers, and finally in the teen years, takes root in self-

Running head: NATURE PLAY identification and conscious attachment to the places of their childhood (Gordon, 2010). Research that suggests that place, identity, and well-being are closely connected and that place attachment is significant for young children aligns beautifully with David Sobels thoughts on nurturing children to know and love the natural world before they are called on to be advocates. In Resurrecting Free Play in Young Children, the authors note that the type and amount of play during childhood has declined significantly and that children no longer play the way they did only a few generations ago. Children are more often involved in activities structured by adults and are spending more indoors than outdoors with activities that are sedentary and passive rather than active and vibrant (Burdette and Whitaker, 2005). Renewing our attitudes toward play necessitates a broader understanding of the benefits of play for young children (attention, affiliation, affect), promoting play in early childhood programs, and garnering resources to make safe place spaces available in all neighborhoods (Burdette and Whitaker, 2005). In the same vein but in much more depth, Richard Louv, author of Last Child In the Woods discusses this decline of time spent in nature and resulting implications for young children as nature deficit disorder, the end result of a decline of unstructured time in nature, decline of available wild spaces, increase in the use of electronic games videos and other technologies marketed to young children, and parental fears of strangers and unsafe public spaces (Louv, 2008). While Richard Louv passionately advocates for connecting children and nature, a growing number of early childhood educators are embracing nature play as core curriculum: Natural play strengthens childrens self-confidence and arouses their senses-their awareness of the world and all that moves in it, seen and unseen writes Louv in Last Child in the Woods. In Our Inquiry, Our Practice (2012) Anna Golden reflects on the perspective as a teacher,

Running head: NATURE PLAY researcher, artist, and daughter in her powerful narrative essay on connecting children with the

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natural world through play. As children engage in playful acts in natural settings (building forts, hideouts), they are developing a sense of place, creating connections and memories which resonate within the core of their experiences as children and become a source of inspiration into their adult lives. Like the piazza of the Reggio Emilia preschools, a forest became the place for a community to come together, explore, investigate, and learn, a place within which children took ownership of their learning (Golden, 2012). In New York, the Waldorf School of Saratoga Springs welcomes children ages three to six years of age to outdoor classroom spaces every day, year round with no formal curriculum aside from what the children create with their own hands. Teachers from the forest school report that the children are at their best in the outdoor classroom, developing large motor skills, working out social issues, and engaging in more imaginative play (Leyden, 2009). A report from the Place-based Education Evaluation Collaborative sheds light on the benefits of place-based curriculum, a curricular endeavor that encourages teachers to use the schoolyard, community, public lands, and other special places as resources, turning communities into classrooms (Place-Based Education Evaluation Collaboration, 2010). In place-based education, students engage as stewards of the earth, learning how to take care of the world by stepping out into the spaces they inhabit-their own backyards and communities. Students with a place-based educational model demonstrate gains in academic achievement, teachers who use place-based educational models report higher levels of personal inspiration, energy, and collaboration with their colleagues, and through hands-on projects and sustained time in natural settings, children and teachers are transforming their communities and schoolyards (Place-Based Education Evaluation Collaboration, 2010). The important work of connecting children with

Running head: NATURE PLAY nature allows for the organic revelation of nature play in outdoor spaces and teachers are taking it to heart. The play yard is the place where children go to make sense of their world,

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most often with playmates and by engaging in pretend play and early childhood educators can be intentional about creating natural play spaces for children to scaffold childrens engagement and progress in pretend play through initiation, negotiation, and enactment (Perry, 2003). Teachers can be advocates for nature play by documenting childrens play with photos, art work, and drawings and engaging the children in small group reflections on their shared experiences (Galizio, Stoll, and Hutchins, 2009) and serve as role models in their school communities. As curious and compelling as nature is, children are naturally tuned to the wonder in the world as expressed in the iridescent metallic wings of a butterfly, the serene camouflage of an insect in prayer, the wild wind that shifts perspectives skyward, and the ice gems that frost autumn leaves and chill bare hands. Perhaps the earth waits for children in its expression of wiggling worms, starry night skies, and the feel of sand between the toes. Perhaps the earth waits for children in puddles too, I wrote in 2008 in a reflection on the The Puddle in the Playground project that emerged from an unplanned discovery of a large mud puddle in our schools newly-landscaped playground. Today The Puddle serves as a treasured wild space in our schoolyard that whispers to children who are seeking a connection to the earth and a place of curiosity for those simply wondering, wandering, and looking for a place to play. It is a protected space for wildlife and for children who follow their hearts and seek to know the world through their hands. In light of current research it can be argued that nature play is a childs right; the research calls us powerfully as early childhood educators to ensure that every child has access to natural spaces and time to be a child and engage with nature through play.

Running head: NATURE PLAY References

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Berger, R., & Lahad, M. (2010). A safe place: Ways in which nature, play and creativity can help children cope with stress and crisis-establishing the kindergarten as a safe haven where children can develop resiliency. Early Child Development and Care, 180(7), 889-900. Brown, S., & Vaughan, C. (2009). Play. How it shapes the brain, opens the imagination, invigorates the soul. New York, New York: Penguin Group. Burdette, H. L., & Whitaker, R. C. (2005). Resurrecting free play in young children. Looking beyond fitness and fatness to attention, affiliation, and affect. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, 159, 46-50. Carson, R. (1998). The sense of wonder (2nd ed., Rev.). New York, New York: HarperCollins, Publishers, Inc. Galizio, C., Stoll, J., & Hutchins, P. (2009). Exploring the possibilities for learning in natural spaces. Young Children, 64(4), 42-48. Gallinsky, E. (2010). Mind in the making. The seven essential life skills every child needs (1st ed.). New York, New York: HarperCollins Publishers. Golden, A. (2012). Exploring the forest: Wild Places in Childhood. In G. Perry, B. Henderson, and D.R. Meier (Ed.), Our Inquiry, Our Practice. Undertaking, supporting, and learning from early childhood teacher research(ers) (pp. 65-76). Washington, D.C.: National Association for the Education of Young Children. Gordon, J. (2010). Place matters: The significance of place attachments for children's well-being. British Journal of Social Work, 40, 755-771. Leyden, L. (2009). For forest kindergartners, class is back to nature, rain or shine. New York Times. p. A24.

Running head: NATURE PLAY Louv, R. (2008). Last child in the woods. (2nd ed., Rev.). Chapel Hill, North Carolina: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. Miller, E., & Almon, J. (2009, March). Crisis in the kindergarten. Why children need play in school. Retrieved from Alliance for Childhood website: www.allianceforchildhood.org/publications Moravcik, E., & Feeney, S. (2009). Curriculum in early childhood education: Teaching the whole child. In S. Feeny, A. Galper & C. Seefeldt (Eds.), Continuing issues in early childhood education (3rd ed., pp. 218-237). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.. National Association For The Education Of Young Children (2009). Developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood porgrams serving children from birth through age 8. Retrieved from www.naeyc.org/positionstatements/dap

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Office Of Child Development And Early Learning (2009). Pennsylvania learning standards for early childhood. Retrieved from Pennsylvania Department of Education And Department of Public Welfare website: www.portal.state.pa.us/o]portal/server.pt/community/standards/8709 Oliver, S., & Klugman, E. (2005). Play and the outdoors: What's new under the sun? Exchange: The Early Childhood Leader's Magazine Since 1978, , 6-10. Oliver, S., & Klugman, E. (2005). Play and the outdoors: What's new under the sun? Exchange: The Early Childhood Leader's Magazine, July/August, 6-10. Perry, J. (2003). Making sense of outdoor pretend play. Young Children, 58(3), 26-30. Place-Based Education Evaluation Collaboration. (2010). The benefits of place-based education: A report from the place-based education evaluation collaborative (2nd ed.) [Brochure].

Running head: NATURE PLAY Retrieved from http://tinyurl.com/PEECBrochure Reifel, S., & Sutterby, J. (2009). Play theory and practice in contemporary classrooms. In S.

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Feeney, A. Galper & C. Seefeldt (Eds.), Continuing issues in early childhood education (3rd ed., pp. 238-257). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.. Sobel, D. (1996). Beyond Ecophobia (2nd ed.). Great Barrington, Massachusetts: The Orion Society and The Myrin Institute. Taylor, A. F., Kuo, F., & Sullivan, W. (2001). Coping with ADD. The surprising connection to green play settings. Environment and Behavior, 33(1), 54-77.

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