Forest Adventures: The Power of Outdoor Play and Gross Motor Skills

Nov 9

5 min read

After the excitement of Halloween, we took a more relaxed approach this week, embracing nature and focusing on all things Forest Animals. The highlight was our emphasis on squirrels, perfectly fitting for our Little Squirrels! We spent plenty of time outside, searching for squirrels in the trees, exploring the natural world, and fostering a deeper connection to nature.

The Power of outdoors, and Gross Motor Play

Let’s dive into something I am extremely passionate about here at Little Squirrels: outside play, and gross motor development.

Years ago when I first started working in early childhood I read a book called “Last Child in the Woods” by Richard Louv. It completely changed my outlook on early childhood development. “The book explores the growing disconnect between children and nature, a phenomenon Louv calls “nature-deficit disorder.” He argues that today’s kids spend more time indoors with screens than outside in natural environments, which can negatively impact their physical health, emotional well-being, and cognitive development. Louv highlights the importance of outdoor play and its benefits for creativity, attention, and overall happiness. Through research, anecdotes, and practical advice, he makes a compelling case for reconnecting children with the natural world to foster healthier, more balanced lives.”

Later on I read another great book called “Balanced and Barefoot” by Angela J. Hanscom. Again, this theory of outdoor time was brought up. The book “emphasizes the importance of outdoor play for children’s physical, emotional, and cognitive development. As a pediatric occupational therapist, Hanscom argues that modern children are spending too much time indoors and in structured activities, which can lead to sensory issues, poor balance, and delayed motor skills. The book advocates for unstructured, free play in nature, where kids can run, jump, climb, and explore. Hanscom provides practical tips for parents and educators to help children reconnect with the outdoors, improve their sensory and motor skills, and ultimately thrive in school and life.”

I highly recommend both these books to anyone raising or working with young children!

Last Child In The Woods

https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/last-child-in-the-woods-saving-our-children-from-nature-deficit-disorder_richard-louv/246936/?resultid=9b3f5eef-aeda-4937-a867-671a3725b9a5#edition=4404886&idiq=827

Balanced and Barefoot

https://www.thriftbooks.com/browse/?b.search=Balanced%20and%20Barefoot%3A%20How%20Unrestricted%20Outdoor%20Play%20Makes%20for%20Strong%2C%20Confident%2C%20and%20Capable%20Children#b.s=mostPopular-desc&b.p=1&b.pp=50&b.oos

Spending time in nature has a powerful, calming effect on children’s nervous systems. It can lower levels of cortisol, the stress hormone, and activate the parasympathetic nervous system, which promotes relaxation and recovery. When children are immersed in natural environments, they tend to feel less anxious, experience improved moods, and gain a greater sense of well-being. The soothing sights, sounds, and smells of nature encourage mindfulness, helping children and adults reset their stress response and find a sense of calm and balance.

Nature is the ultimate playground for gross motor, encouraging children to move freely. Whether they’re climbing tree stumps or rocks, balancing on fallen logs, or simply running freely, gross motor and outdoor play is prioritized above everything else here at Little Squirrels.

Gross motor activities play a crucial role in brain development, especially in early childhood. These skills involve the use of large muscle groups to perform activities like running, jumping, climbing, and balancing. When children engage in gross motor play, they stimulate the brain in ways that enhance cognitive growth, build strength, coordination, and balance, which are all foundational for a variety of academic and social skills.

Movement helps create new neural connections, essential for critical thinking, problem-solving, and overall learning, and help develop the brain’s ability to organize information and improve focus.

Additionally, gross motor play often involves crossing the midline of the body (like swinging arms while running), which helps strengthen the connection between the two hemispheres of the brain. This integration is key for skills like reading, writing, and memory. So, when children move their bodies, they’re not just having fun, they’re building a strong foundation for lifelong learning and development.

Movement is also an essential element in their ability to develop fine motor skills, and helps them learn to control their bodies and emotions. Through movement they learn patience, persistence, and how to cope with challenges, all of which contribute to better behavior and emotional regulation.

I think it’s pretty clear that at this age, children should be moving their bodies all day long! That’s why we believe outside play and gross motor activities should be seamlessly integrated into their daily routines, not scheduled as isolated activities.

What better way to learn about forest animals than spending time outside! It was a beautiful week, with beautiful fall weather and the kids and I spent as much time as we could enjoying it before the winter gets here!

Ok ok, enough of all that, let’s get back to our fun week here at daycare!

Circle time fun and Books That Inspired Us

We shared some wonderful stories this week that brought the magic of nature and our forest animals theme to life. Here are the favorites we read together:

• “Squirrel’s Busy Day”: This story captivated the kids as we followed a busy squirrel gathering food and preparing for winter.

• “Adventures With Barefoot Critters”: A playful exploration of the seasons through the eyes of woodland animals, sparking conversations about nature’s changes.

• “Woody, Hazel, and Little Pip”: This classic tale of woodland friends was a magical journey that captured everyone’s imagination.

• “The Belonging Tree”: A heartwarming story emphasizing the importance of community and friendship among forest animals.

• “Big Smelly Bear”: A huge hit with the children (and a personal favorite of mine!), this humorous story of a bear learning the value of friendship and self-care was loved by all.

I introduced a Feed the Squirrel Pom Pom Game where the children practiced color, recognition, counting, numbers, and cardinality, using fingers, tweezers or tongs to feed the squirrel with colorful little pom poms. This simple yet effective game is excellent for building those small hand muscles and improving hand-eye coordination. This was introduced at circle time and then left out for the kids to play with on their own all week long!

Our Haloween and pumpkin songs have been replaced by “Grey Squirrel, Shake Your Bushy Tail,” a playful song that got the kids up and moving. I couldn’t find the perfect song for counting practice, so I created my own version inspired by the classic “Kookaburra” song. Instead of kookaburras and gum trees, our version features 5 squirrels in an oak tree eating acorns, helping the children practice their counting skills in a fun, engaging way. This song included our new counting prop where they take turns removing the squirrels one at a time then help me count to put them back on at the end. The kids sit and wait so eagerly and just can’t wait for their turn to take one off!

Our pumpkin patch is gone, but it’s been replaced with a new Squirrel Alphabet and letter recognition visual. This week we focoussed on just the first letter of each child’s name, to keep things from becoming too overwhelming. Each child took a turn to find their letter on a squirrel and then matched it with their lowercase acorn. They have also begun noticing some of our letters in other areas! 😁

Sensory and Fine Motor Exploration

We updated our sensory bin this week to reflect our new theme. The children were delighted to explore a small world forest filled with various forest animals. This sensory experience encouraged imaginative play and storytelling, enhancing their language skills and creativity.

Arts & Crafts

The kids used forks to paint a squirrel, giving their fur a fun, textured look, then painted leaves and used them as stamps to create a beautiful autumn backdrop for their squirrel.

We continued the forest theme by making hedgehogs and porcupines out of playdough and pasta, which was a great hands-on activity for sensory exploration and fine motor skills.