Outdoor Kindergarten Programs Melbourne Australia

Posted on September 26, 2013 by Alec @ Child's Play Music

I’ve never reblogged a post before but this post by Lu-Ann from The Life-long Learner deserves a wider audience. It’s a fantastic in-depth literature review of outdoor kindergartens, focussing on the Melbourne experience and placing them into the context of the history of outdoor education in relation to Kindergarten programs.

Lu-Ann traces outdoor kindergartens back to Froebel, the founder of the Kindergarten movement, notes the historical movement away from Froebel’s original emphasis on outdoor learning into a classroom-based pedagogy, and the recent re-emergence of outdoor kindergartens. She explores the wider context of the re-connection of children to nature, the questions, concerns and controversies raised about outdoor education, and looks at the policy and political context specific to Australian outdoor kindergartens.

It is a wonderful document, full of insight, and it displays a true depth of both practical knowledge and academic expertise. Best of all, it is fully referenced to both the academic and the more general literature relevant to outdoor kindergartens, and to the whole issue of re-connecting children to playing & learning in the natural environment.

It’s not just relevant to Australian educators: this article is exceptionally useful to anyone, in any country, who is interested in outdoor education, and it is especially relevant to people (or any organisation or school) who are considering the idea of introducing outdoor kindergarten/outdoor education in their country.

Enjoy!

The Life-long Learner

“Using the real world is the way learning has happened for 99.9% of human existence. Only in the last hundred years have we put it into a little box called a classroom”. Nixon, 1997:34

Introduction

As Tim Gill explains, initiatives embracing Forest Schools and outdoor kindergartens have increased considerably over the last few years (Gill, 2009).

This enquiry will explore the pedagogical beliefs behind outdoor programs and why they have emerged in Melbourne, Australia, looking at outdoor play and its “importance as a pedagogical space for children’s play, learning and development” (Moser & Martinsen, 2010).

My inquiry will be in the form of a literature review, exploring the history of outdoor education in relation to Kindergarten programs, and the current emergence of specific outdoor programs around Melbourne, Australia.

First I shall look at the connection between Kindergartens and learning outdoors, examining Froebel – the founder of Kindergartens – the subsequent…

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Make a Balloon Bassoon – a simple reed musical instrument

Posted on September 13, 2013 by Alec @ Child's Play Music

Make a balloon bassoon

Finding simple wind instruments suitable to make with very young children is hard, but the balloon bassoon is perfect. Easy to make and satisfying to play, children love this instrument, not least because it’s loud! In my early childhood education music incursion programs this is always one of the most popular instruments.

Balloon bassoons are also inexpensive – about A$4 if you use PVC pressure pipe, much less if you use cardboard tube. It sounds like a very cheap saxophone, and it only plays one note. Technically it’s more like a sax or clarinet than a bassoon, but hey! The name was to good to pass up!

How easy is it to make? I can make one from scratch in less than 3 minutes, including measuring and cutting the pipe. I use this instrument in my program to show children how easy and quick it is to make a musical instrument (I pre-cut the pipe, but that’s all).

Children from about 4 and up can make it themselves with some adult assistance – you will have to cut the hose for them, and they will need assistance and close supervision if they are going to saw the PVC pipe.

Children as young as 3 can play it, although most 3 year olds will need to have the instrument held for them. 4 year olds and up can hold it for themselves, but learning the right way to hold it takes practice.

The full instructions are below, but if you prefer a visual guide watch this video:

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Not A Stick

Posted on September 4, 2013 by Alec @ Child's Play Music

Did you know that the humble stick has been inducted into the Toy Hall of Fame? Few toys have the open-ended possibilities of the stick, and yet in many schools and early childhood settings playing with sticks is forbidden.

I think that is a tragedy. Sticks are childhood, just as much as mud and puddles and cardboard boxes and sofa-cushion forts. To deny children stick-play is to deny them one of the most powerful tools of the imagination. A stick can be anything a child can imagine. Anything.

Recently my friend Karen from Flights of Whimsy challenged some of us ECE bloggers to write poems celebrating the stick as creative toy. Click here to read Karen’s powerful post, her own poem, and a poem by Candy (the talented writer of the Aunt Annie’s Childcare blog).

Here’s my own poem; it’s called:

Not A Stick

Hold this for me, Dad – it’s not a stick.
Really it’s a wizard’s staff,
And we will fight dragons together,
Heroes, side by side.

But wait, Dad – it’s not a wizard’s staff.
Really it’s a fishing rod,
And we will catch fish together,
And dangle our toes in the water.

No, no, you see, Dad – it’s not a fishing rod.
Really it’s a shining horse,
And we will ride races together,
As the earth shakes beneath our hooves.

Oh, I know, Dad – it’s not a shining horse.
Really it’s a hammer,
And we will build a house together
To keep us warm when the cold wind blows.

And the best thing, Dad – do you know the best thing?
Outside there are more sticks,
So many stories waiting to be told:
Let’s find out what they are.

We’ll write them together.

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