Dramatic play outdoors !
Children love imaginary play, they love dressing up and imitating real experiences they see in their everyday lives, so why not bring that to the outdoors and incorporate an area for dramatic play in your forest classrooms ! The photo below is just an example of how we can implement drama into our outdoor place spaces. There are many other different ways of doing this, depending on cost, space and materials available.
Theme based dramatic play spaces
Through my research on outdoor /forest classrooms I came across this specific blog written by a director and former outdoor curriculum coordinator. The one part of her blog focuses on learning outdoors, she created an outdoor dramatic learning environment and changes the themes weekly based on the children's interests. Adding different materials each week will help keep the children interested and allows them to create their own scenarios in which they may have previously seen in their everyday lives. Please visit this blog for more wonderful ideas on outdoor dramatic play spaces.
Farmers Market Theme
Another example of a theme in which was incorporated into the outdoor learning environment on the blog above was a farmers market theme. They added in shopping carts as well as cash registers, shopping bags and life like foods for the children to explore. This is a great opportunity as some children love visiting the grocery store. In this area children have the opportunity to use their imaginations while playing with their peers.
Its tea time !
Get your mud pies !
Please check out my pinterest board for more ideas on incorporating dramatic play into outdoor classrooms.
http://www.pinterest.com/kanekatie/dramatic-play-in-outdoor-classrooms/
http://www.pinterest.com/kanekatie/dramatic-play-in-outdoor-classrooms/