By Adrienne Lomangino, Head Teacher
This year we were more grateful than ever for the expansive outdoor spaces at Bing. Founding director Edith Dowley designed the school to provide plenty of outdoor experiences. She believed that “in California children should be outdoors a great deal and learn from real things rather than artificially engineered kinds of toys and games.” Given this year’s recommendations for ventilation and spending time outside to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission, we embraced the classrooms’ outdoor spaces as environments that promote children’s growth and development in a multitude of ways.
During autumn and winter quarters, the teaching staff met periodically via Zoom to think and talk about children’s play experiences in the outdoors and the possibilities for supporting and extending these opportunities. We read articles and watched videos about the importance of outdoor play for children’s development. These offered plenty of ideas for small-group discussions. Turning to our own classrooms, we shared our observations about how children were engaging in play outdoors.
Having discussed the current outdoor spaces, the staff examined archival photos of Bing yards as a further source for reflection. The black-and-white images of children, which included captured moments of climbing on boards, leaping from tunnels, sawing boards and quietly petting a free-ranging rabbit, spurred conversation about how outdoor settings can fill children’s needs: They provide places to take risks, feel sheltered, interact with animals, feel immersed in the “wild” and use various natural materials.
To extend the exploration of outdoor environments further and probe the boundaries of teachers’ comfort zones, we watched and discussed a webinar on risky play presented by Rusty Keeler, a natural playground designer whose most recent book, Adventures in Risky Play, prompts adults to examine their beliefs about safety and acceptable risk for children. As a culminating conversation, each teacher submitted a photo of play in the outdoor environment at Bing with an accompanying reflection. These served as prompts for gathering teachers’ perspectives on the value of outdoor experiences for children.
The photos touched upon the possibilities found in the outdoors for supporting social, emotional, cognitive and physical growth, as well as aesthetics, well-being and a sense of self. A collective submission from the West AM teachers showed a photo of children on an obstacle course of blocks, accompanied by a description that read, “Repeated experiences with the climbing equipment helped children develop persistence, set goals for themselves and feel proud of their accomplishments. As they were able to do more challenging large-motor activities, it helped them gain confidence and build self-esteem.” In contrast, another photo showed a solitary child looking at a maple tree with foliage in fall colors. It was captioned with a quote from the child, “That tree is really beautiful! It’s a rainbow! Well, it doesn’t have violet, but that’s okay. It’s sooo pretty!”
At Bing, the outdoor spaces are an integral part of the classroom, not simply places where children go to release energy—although they serve that role too. Teachers’ reflections at the end of our exploration of learning outdoors highlighted their appreciation for how much outdoor experiences offer children. Teacher Chuyi Yang noted, “The outdoors really gives children the freedom they crave to explore and play in whatever way they want. The outdoors is an incredibly flexible and abundant space that meets the physical, social, emotional and cognitive needs of young children.”
Teachers reflected not only on what they learned about children in the outdoors, but also what they learned from the children while spending time outdoors with them. Children point out to us, through their actions and responses as much as their words, the varied possibilities, sensory experiences and gloriousness of the natural world.
As teacher Jessica Predom said, “When I am outdoors with children, I learn more about living in the moment, being mindful and remembering that learning is happening during every exploration. Having the ability to touch, smell, feel and simply feel free are so rewarding and necessary for our mental health.” This sense of being present in the moment is also reflected in teacher Lindsay Damiano’s comment: “I learn to see a stick, a rock or a pinecone as brimming with possibility.” Teacher Lara Cardamone’s response also highlighted how children help us to reframe our experiences: “Children teach me every day what a miracle this world is—and if we look through the lens of their experience of nature and the outdoors, we will remember that.” Such reflections reveal how valuable these experiences are for eliciting positive emotions, awe and appreciation of the world around us. Moments such as these make a pandemic seem more manageable.
Even as the world returns toward normalcy, the teachers at Bing will continue to embrace the possibilities that outdoor environments provide. These spaces, which have been here since the school was founded, have helped to carry us through a pandemic and will continue to be a source of joy, exploration, inquiry and play.