While winter brings colder temperatures it doesn’t mean we have to stay indoors.
The winter is a great opportunity to teach your preschoolers how to bundle up and enjoy the wintery season with hands-on and fun activities that can only be done in the winter. In this blog we share some outdoor activities for preschoolers that our home-based educators often do.
Go on a winter scavenger hunt. Create a list with outdoor materials – pine cones, acorns, rocks, sticks… and send the kids outside to complete an easy scavenger hunt.
Have a nature clean-up session. Cleaning up the local environment and while enjoying the fresh winter air. This winter activity is rewarding, straightforward and helps children learn to care for the world around them. Include a tasty treat as a reward at the end, and you’ll have no problem bringing children out for more.
Tree bark rubbings. Nature is full of sights, sounds, smells and even textures. Explore the many different textures of tree bark by making rubbings on different trees. Bring a crayon and paper with you on a walk, and when you find an interesting tree, place the paper over the bark and rub the crayon over it. Now you have a cool print of the bark that you can compare to different types of trees.
Jump in puddles. Little ones are always excited to jump into puddles. This is good as it also keeps them active and engaged when out on a walk.
Build a stick maze. Gather sticks of various sizes and make a maze with them the ground before asking your toddlers to navigate through it.
Obstacle course. An oldie, but a goldie when it comes to keeping children occupied. Our educators often build these courses in their backyard or if you are heading to the park or bush, collect simple materials from nature itself to build out this course.
Feed the birds. Pack a bird-friendly picnic and head out to feed your local birdlife. Avoid bread. According to experts, it isn’t a good food source for birds. Rather pack foods like sweetcorn, peas, oats and seeds in your wildlife picnic.
Winter art gallery. Set up an outdoor easel and provide water colour paints that won’t freeze. Let children create winter masterpieces inspired by the outdoor scenery. Encourage your wards to discuss their artwork and encourage express their feelings about winter through art.
Blow bubbles. Never too old or never a good season to blow bubbles. Perfect reason to be outdoors!
To conclude
Daily outdoor play, no matter what the weather is like, benefits children’s physical, cognitive and emotional development. It helps them to burn energy and adds a change to their routine. At Home2Grow, outdoor activities forms a key part of the curriculum with educators given many ideas on how to keep kids engaged outdoors in winter. For those worried about the weather, remember, there is no such thing as bad weather – only bad clothes. So, let kids have fun outdoors year-round. In fact, join them, it is good for you too!
