Welcome to this fortnights “Outdoor Play Link-up”!

It is reaching the end of the school year at a lightening (and frightening pace) for preschools down here in Australia.  Many of our children are beginning to make connections with the school for which they are enrolled to commence at in 2013.  We find through November and December that our group size can drop off considerably some days as the children take time out from preschool to attend a variety of transition activities at their future schools.  It is always an exciting time for the children as they come back to preschool and share their experiences.  We encourage the children to wear their school uniform to preschool and bring along anything they have received from their school to show us.  Transition to school is such an enormous step for our little ones and it is our responsibility to support them in making the transition as smooth and stress free as possible.

Our Buddy Bears are just one of the initiatives we have established to assist the children in making the transition to school.

M and C where heading off to visit their new school one Thursday afternoon and were buzzing with excitement.  The next morning, they couldn’t wait to tell me all about their time at school.  M was particularly pleased to have met her sports teacher and loved the parachute games that she had learnt.  Ah-ha, a golden opportunity, after consulting with M, we got out our parachute so that M could teach the other preschool children the games that she had learnt.  Such a great way to support a child’s development of ‘identity’ and feelings of ‘self-worth’.

We played a game where we had to keep two balls on the parachute as we shock it up and down.

We held the parachute down low, counted 1, 2, 3 and raised it above our heads to make it ‘float’ as it filled with air.  We let go of the chute with one hand and waved to our friends over the other side.

We went around in a circle clockwise as we held the parachute tort (well, mostly!) We then switched and circled anti-clockwise.  As we got better at it, the switches became faster, and hence, more challenging!

M then taught us how to sing ‘Row, row, row your boat’ using the parachute.

 When we got to the part where we said, ‘Don’t forget to scream…’, we had to raise the parachute up and tuck it behind our heads as we screamed.  The children loved it!

Believe me, there was a whole lot of noise going on under there!

Parachute play is such a wonderful avenue for building a sense of ‘belonging‘ as each child is seen as a valuable and equal contributor to the play. It also encourages the development of ‘collaborative’ and’ cooperative’ play skills. Without a commitment by the children to teamwork, nothing can be achieved!

When we were all finally exhausted, we popped the parachute over our climbing dome to encourage some additional fun play.

 Oh, to be in your own parachute world! 🙂

My favorite post from last fortnights link-up was:

A BIKE WHEEL, SOME BAMBOO AND BARK PIECES, A TOY SHARK, AND IMAGINATION

From Lesley Romanoff at Takoma Park Cooperative Nursery School (Click on image to view the post and learn all about ‘shark cakes’!)

How did your kids play outdoors this week?

Any kind of children’s outdoor play-related posts are welcome!

We’d appreciate it if you included a link back to this post (either in your post or sidebar) to help us spread the word about the importance (and fun!) of outdoor play! In return, we’ll gladly further share your post on Facebook/ Twitter/ Pinterest. Please feel free to grab the Outdoor Play Party button from the sidebar and/or include a text link back.

Please note that by contributing you are giving permission for an image and link to your post to be republished if featured. (If you have been featured, please feel free to grab the ‘featured’ button from the sidebar.) Share your ideas for outdoor play activities with us every other week!