{"id":746,"date":"2021-10-18T14:08:05","date_gmt":"2021-10-18T14:08:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/montessorilearning.ca\/?p=746"},"modified":"2023-06-22T11:06:44","modified_gmt":"2023-06-22T11:06:44","slug":"fun-outdoor-activities-for-preschoolers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montessorilearning.ca\/fun-outdoor-activities-for-preschoolers\/","title":{"rendered":"Fun and Physical Outdoor Activities for Preschoolers – Keep your kids busy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whether you are a parent, early childhood educator or caregiver, here are some ideas on how you can help your children engage and learn while enjoying the beauty of the Fall.
\nAt the Montessori Learning Centre in Calgary<\/a>, we promote activities that help children refine their senses and cultivate skills through natural experienced-based learning and hands-on activities. Much of our lesson plans involve nature.
\nBy connecting with nature, preschoolers<\/a> grow through hands-on experience and find a sense of belonging with the world they live in. Being outdoors isn\u2019t just a fun stress reliever. It\u2019s also incredibly important for your child\u2019s development to explore the world around them. The easiest way to do that is by incorporating ideas that help them fortify the gifts they are naturally blessed with\u2014the five senses. At Montessori Learning Centre, we direct our preschool lesson plans<\/a> towards educating all the areas of the child\u2019s development.
\nIn this article, we’ll go over how you can get your preschooler to engage all five senses through nature. Keep reading to learn some of the best ideas from our preschool program<\/a> to get your children outside and exploring their senses and the beauty of Calgary. <\/p>\n

Outdoor Activities From Preschool Programs To Explore The Five Senses With Your Children <\/strong><\/p>\n

Helping your children to explore nature and to engage in all their senses plays a great role in their development, not only for preschool programs but also as they grow into adults. And, if your preschooler is emotionally heightened or has ADD, learning to engage all five senses is a very beneficial healthy mindfulness technique that will help them for their entire lives!
\nCalgary in the fall offers so many opportunities to discover nature in its most beautiful season. In nature, you have everything you need to engage your sight, hearing, sense of smell, touch, and even taste.
\nLet’s talk about some ideas from preschool lesson plans that you can use at home to help your children explore their senses.<\/p>\n

Sight <\/strong><\/p>\n

Cultivating curiosity, the focus to investigate can be difficult at first. But, when you make it fun, your children will want to interact with learning and cultivating their skills.
\nTake your preschooler on nature walks in your local forest. Then when you\u2019re back home, get them to draw or talk about what they experienced outdoors as an introduction. You can use this to help your children fortify their memory too.
\nThe next time you\u2019re outdoors, do a scavenger hunt with your child. Make a list and try to find different elements of nature. This helps your preschooler to study shapes and colors through different leaves and other things on the forest floor. Comparing the shapes and sizes of different leaves is also a great introduction to math as well. <\/p>\n

Smell<\/strong><\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing like the smell of fall! The leaves, the cool air, and all of the aromas that the plants and trees produce before going dormant for the winter.
\nThe late-blooming wildflowers are often the most fragrant, which doesn\u2019t just serve to engage the sense of smell, but also makes a great way to cultivate confidence in your children, if they are developing slower than others.
\nStep out into the backyard or go for a walk in your local forest and get your children to smell the air. Ask them, \u201cWhat does it smell like? What does it remind you of?\u201d Scent also engages the memory, so this could be a great 2 in 1 learning experience.<\/p>\n

Sound<\/strong><\/p>\n

To explore sound with your children, you can create a fun game for the family to listen to the birds and determine who\u2019s making it and imagining what it could mean. You can use a bird book to guide you in determining which birds you\u2019re hearing.
\nListening to distant sounds to be able to recognize them cultivates focus, imagination, and investigation skills. Make an adventure out of this to increase your child\u2019s motivation to investigate and analyze. <\/p>\n

Taste<\/strong><\/p>\n

The taste part of things may be a little harder to accomplish in the outdoors. But there are things you can do to engage this sense. Some sweet and savory tastes of fall can be corn, apples, squash. You can also get them to try things like apple cider or pumpkin pie.
\nYou can also try using spices like pumpkin spice, nutmeg, and cinnamon to link scent and taste. Most of our sense of taste comes from brain waves that stem from the scent, so this is a good way to introduce your kids to that.
\nAgain, try to pair this with the memory, to really help things set in. When you make references to something your preschooler already knows, they catch on very quickly. <\/p>\n

Touch<\/strong><\/p>\n

On a nature walk or during a forest bathing session with your children, you can compare all the textures within the woods. Here are a few examples:<\/p>\n