Welcome to our…
Outdoor Play link-up!
Just recently, here in Melbourne (Australia), we have experienced some beautifully calm Spring days with clear blue skies mixed in with some wild ‘n’ woolly windy days. A fairly typical spring really!
The wild ‘n’ woolly days have been just what we needed to help bring down an abundance of sticks from our playground trees. And hey, show me a child who can walk past a stick lying on the ground without picking it up! Yep, we all know that is NOT going to happen!
A stick holds so much magic for a child. Their imagination can turn it into a million-trillion useful, and perhaps not so useful, different things. It can be a poker, a prodder, a walking stick, a wand, a gun, a laser, a sword, a snake, a stirring stick, a writing stick, a fishing rod… you name it, these examples are just the ones that immediately come to mind! However it is used, there is no doubt, there is much potential for learning in the humble stick!
As a means of encouraging the children to widen their ‘stick-use’ ideas and perhaps see the potential for using sticks within their artwork, I settled down outside with a few interested children to introduce a stick-weaving exercise.
The children were quickly able to understand the technique involved and were excited to participate. Each child chose their own colour to add and wove their magic.
As the weaving grew, the children decided that it was beginning to look like a web. This in turn promoted a lot of discussion about spiders and ‘orb webs’ and how cleaver spiders were to know how to make such a wonder design for their webs.
When it was finished, the children decided that we should hang our ‘web’ up in the outdoor art centre for a spider to find and perhaps use for his web. ‘L’s’ imagination lead her to perceiving the potential for using the same technique for making her own spider for the web.
And here it is! A redback spider!
‘L’s’ spider impressed many of her friends and prompted a flurry of spider making activity. ‘L’ became the ‘expert’ on spider making and confidently instructed her friends in the process.
When we get back from term break, I wonder what other adventures we will be having with the humble stick! 🙂
My favorite outdoor play post from last link up: It’s a Dino Dig! (Ms Barbara)
Click on the image above to read more!
- 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!
What a fabulous idea! i think we are going to have to give this a try! Thanks for sharing!
Love this Karen, and the end result is so effective. Kierna
Excellent links. I am going to add a badge now and then visit them all. ( Have you seen the Garden Jounal link up at Sqiggly Rainbow? http://squigglyrainbow.blogspot.com.au/2012/09/garden-journal.html)