It was a valuable workshop
that helped educators discover how children gain skills needed to be successful problem solvers. Hope Petrozzi and Dr. Jennifer Hardison, shared examples of how the outdoor classroom can permit children to practice real problem-solving skills by experiencing opportunities to work with each other while tending to the garden or caring for smaller animals.
Dr. Hardison shared how in the outdoor environment children can practice negotiating skills.
“When children have a disagreement, it provides children with an opportunity to see each
other’s point of view.” The teacher’s role is to provide experiences that help children better
understand diverse perspectives. Children need a lot of practice to construct understanding on how to navigate social interactions. The outdoor environment can provide these opportunities. Educators need to
provide time for children to practice these skills both indoors and outdoors.
To help children understand each other point of view, educators can encourage children to:
- Notice each other facial expression to better understand how a person might be feeling.
- Ask open ended questions: “How do you think they feel?”
- Help children notice each other body language to gain cues on how others feel.
- Help children be present in the situation.
- Tapping into children’s prior knowledge, such as: “Remember when someone took away a toy you were using? How did that make you feel?”
Dr. Hardison mentioned how the visit to the garden permits children to gain a variety of new perspectives, such as noticing how caterpillars are much smaller than their hand. Being able to see different perspectives builds that sense of understanding how others might be feeling.
“We can learn much from a caterpillar by considering how this tiny creature must feel living in the garden.” These wonderings can begin to help children understand that people might also have different perspectives and feelings.
Hope Petrozzi, introduced us to Bubble the hen. Hope shared a story about how the children at her school are slowly introduced to Bubble. “Children are encouraged to think about how to keep Bubble safe and how Bubble might feel if she is chased around the yard.” Using these open-ended questions and guidance from the educators allows children to consider the perspective and feelings of others.
As children play children gain a better understanding of their world.
Hope Petrozzi shared an example of children playing good and bad guys, this brought up a great dialogue of how educators can choose to support this play. This was such a great Saturday full of wonderings and new connections.
Written by Sonia Semana