Newsletter

Our last month before camp and the kids are growing tadpoles, learning about death as our favorite bunny passed away and asking a lot of questions about pregnancy as one of our staff are pregnant. The life cycle, including making life and death are huge topics that take up a lot of their playing these days. They play out everyday situations that help them understand concepts and emotions related to topics they observe here.  We answer what they ask without offering more or less information. Today we also found a birds nest. Mammals, Amphibians and Aviators all in the same day. Learning by the experiences you see and observe and then getting a chance to play through these observations is considered the best way to be engaged in learning. 

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We have been waiting and waiting for the strawberries we planted to turn red, and let me tell you, the waiting was worth it. They were so sweet. Now we have some sort of squash taking over the strawberries and since the kids planted the seeds, we are still not sure what it is. I'm guessing zucchini. Remember, before Amazon or online anything, we would have to wait to get a delivery or worse, go to the store to buy things.  How do you think receiving items within a day  changes our perception, the kids perception?  Understanding, you cant have a clementine now because 'we don't have one' is just not an acceptable answer to kids anymore. Most buying or waiting is impulsive without thought. Just like a kid who is crying over it not raining when they want it to rain. How do we teach children patience when everything is so accessible. You plant with them!

Many kids in the month of March had birthday's so we had quite a few celebrations. The weather continued to confuse us, cold, hot cold, hot. We were never sure how to dress. Luckily we have extras of everything! "Learn with the land instead of about the land. It is the teacher. " Megan Zeni . At Play Adventures this is what we do, build forts to block the wind, water the plants based on their signs of distress, like wilting, get wet when it's too hot to play dry and of course borrow a coat when we are cold. 

This month the children were extremely interested in tape and its material properties. Afterschool would wrap it around vast areas of the Play Adventures Clubhouse while the Forest program would cut the tape. Then the tasks changed and the Forest school taped sometimes continuously around the same chair leg and other times around large areas as well. It was a symbiotic play with the two groups that occupy the space, occurring at separate times in the day.