The Whole Wide World is Our Playground!

Nature inspires creativity in a child by demanding visualization and the full use of the senses. ... In nature, a child finds freedom, fantasy, and privacy: a place distant from the adult world, a separate peace." — Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder, Algonquin Books, 2008, p. 7

Yesterday the Tel Aviv class spent their entire morning outside, much of it in the woods!  When the class arrived they were excited by the abundance of leaves covering the forest floor, even more than last week! The class immediately started to explore, sticks, rocks, trees, sticks.  The group went to touch, smell and explore all the materials they could find. They went to try balancing on the log and some went to climb the “mountain.” Each time they go into this wooded area they are excited to try these safe risks and improve upon them with every visit. 

After some exploring time we re-grouped to have an outdoor circle time! Together we sang our welcome song, loud enough that even Adam’s house could hear it! We decided that circle was extra fun outside because it meant we could use our outside voices! We then did a class Havdalah that was beautiful and intimate and we each shared something special we did over the weekend. Lastly, we had a lovely group snack of animal crackers and grapes.

As soon as snack was over individuals began to explore play. By now the class had become accustom to their environment and all dove deeper into imaginative play. A group of boys took the bag of grapes “camping” and made a circle and went on a pretend hike. Some girls decided to take a plane (a log!) to Cape Cod where they played house.  Later there was a group of water skiers on a boat! Adam and Joshua were superheroes! Their imaginations were filled with ideas and soon the sticks and leaves became props to further their imaginative play. It was a beautiful sight to see the group deep in rich play while exploring the world around them. The weather was perfect and all of us enjoyed our time outside together. Toward the end we created a big class leaf pile and soon enough even I was covered in leaves. We all had a blast and we hope that you will enjoy the fun video of our trip!