Kindergarden practical observation

Area:

The pretty new kindergarden (opened 2003) was located in an area of new housing close to the University of Agder and the forest Jegersberg, where we went for a 10 min. walk on this morning for our visit. The outdoor playground in the middle of the woods, the children used for playing, is provided with a fireplace, one rope swing, a spider web rope, and two little shelters made from branches and a tarps. The “qualities” of this area are on the one hand, that this outdoor playground is really good visible from the benches next to the fireplace, so that the kindergarden teachers were always able to observe the children, on the other hand, this area provides a lot of natural rooms for the children to stimulate their imagination for free play.

The role of the leaders:

During this morning in the outdoor playground, 3-4 kindergarden teachers had to take care of around 20 excited children. Most of the time, the roles’ of the leaders was to monitor the children during their free play, but also to make sure, that their are in a safe environment without interacting to much with the children. The leaders let the children play on their own. They only intervened, when the children started to make trouble or when they needed supervising e.g. while climbing down from a high tree. All in all, the leaders paid less attention and observed the children, when it was necessary to keep them under control. Nevertheless, the leaders mostly knew, whether the children are in a safety or dangerous situation during their play. The teachers organized this day out in the woods with a break of half a hour in a circle, in which one teacher was singing some Norwegian songs together with the children and storytelling with clapping. As a long lunch break, the other teachers prepared some hot dogs for the kids around the fireplace with several sitting mats for eating together with teachers, children and us students.

The role of the kids:

During the whole morning, the children were playing on their own without any instructions of their kindergarden teachers. They were playing and running around with their friends between the trees, climbing up on trees, playing role games like Cowboy and Indians (also together with us students) by using the two shelters as prisons, fighting with sticks they found in the forest or a few were just sitting around the fireplace and enjoying the fire burning. The childrem had a lot of self-motivation and imagination, so that they never got bored during this day out in Jegersberg. The teachers told us, that their are always doing their own activities and know exactly, how to enjoy the time being on the outdoor playground. It became obvious, that the children already have very high “qualities” of their motor skills, such as really distinctive coordination skills and a good balance while climbing in trees or using the rope swing/web rope swing. In my opinion, the learning outcomes for those childrem are much broader diversified than for those children who are playing only inside or on artificial playgrounds. Moreover, they nearly didn’t fall at all, although thei were climbing in trees up to 3 metres or running on rocks through the woods.

Evaluation:

I was already really impressed, how well the children are educated, while we were walking to the outdoor playground at Jegersberg. In Germany, the kids are only allowed to walk outside the kindergarden in pairs while holding each others hand, but here in Norway, there were running around, playing with their friends on way, although we were close to roads with driving cars. But, the children knew their boundaries, set up by their teachers, and didn’t go further way then allowed.