At RisingOaks Early Learning | St. Nicholas, the children in the toddler room have observed a large amount of snow; on this day a small group of 5 got the chance to explore their natural playground, and as they were walking into their playground Abigail shared, “Wow a lot of snow.” Brooke and Hendrix right away tried running but immediately fell on their bottoms and laughed, as they were laughing they noticed they needed support to stand up, since then the toddler educators decided a change of scenery and finding different types of activities would be nice to challenge them; this also gave the toddlers an opportunity to explore their outdoor environment by engaging in risky play.
On one occasion, we made our way towards the back of the school. The children would discuss with their educators on how big the snow banks were, Brooke shared to Ruth, “Oh my goodness, it is so big,” Ruth replied back, “You’re right! It’s even taller than me! Should we try to climb the snow bank?” Educator Ruth tried to climb all the way up, shortly after 5 children started to climb up. They would use their core muscle and their legs to climb up, and they discovered some parts were very slippery and they would have to crawl. Abigail and Roman appeared to be having a tricky time climbing up the snow bank, they would frown and ask out loud for, “Help.” Leanna and Brooke came over to observe what was going on. Brooke offered some tips to Abigail and demonstrated how to climb up. Roman then extended this hand out to Brooke wanting help from his peer. Brooke then went on her stomach and extended her hand to help. With team work, Brooke was able to help a friend out during a time in need.
As another week went by, the toddler educators noticed the snow banks were now very icy to walk on. We decided to ask the children if we should go on a walk or engage in the field, and the children shouted, “Walk!” As the children were given the choice, the toddler educators continued with the idea to leave the school property and go on a walk. As the children got dressed, Leanna asked an educator, “Are we going to the apple tree?” An educator replied back, “Not today, we are actually going on a very big walk.” The children appeared to be very happy during our walk, noticing many school buses, city buses and lots of dogs. Nolan and Vivaan would shout, “Hi puppy!” Noemie and Abigail noticed birds on a tree with a nest, they shouted out loud for peers to look up and watch their movements. Hendrix looked up and saw the birds and asked, “What the bird doing”, Brooke jumped in, “Hendrix, the birds are flying and they’re singing too.” As we proceeded on our walk, the children had an opportunity to wave hello to the bus drivers and to the people riding the bus.
Looking at developmental domains, the toddlers were able to develop social, communication, emotional and physical domains. With social, they are taking social interest by engaging in group activities such as risky play and observing what their limit is, as well as perspective taking, sharing how they view things on their outdoor environment. With emotional, children were able to demonstrate empathy by wanting to help others when they need support and asking, “Are you okay?” when they observed a friend fall. Lastly, with physical, children were able to demonstrate climbing, crawling, balancing and jumping which allowed them to observe their movements and explore which one was okay to be used during that kind of play.
We will continue to support the children by implementing more challenging activities during different seasons to continue fostering these skills.
