On Monday 5th of March I went to Presteheia kindergarten together with Lilla, Zsofi and Sarah to observe their outdoor group “moonshine”. In Norway there are a lot of outdoor kindergarden or kindergarden that have a Friluftsliv-group. The moonshine group we visited is outside four days a week in almost every kind of weather. They only stay inside if it’s either really cold or if there are strong icy winds. We were quite lucky, because the week before we came to visit them was one of those where they couldn’t go outside due to the really cold weather conditions. Presteheia kindergarden was opened in 2003 and is located in a housing area, which is very close to Uni and the Jegersberg area. The kindergarden is open every weekday from 7 am till 5pm. But the teachers told us that some of the kids come later or leave earlier. Therefore the beginning and the end of the day is free play inside the building. Outside time is between two and four hours a day depending on the weather and the mood of the kids. The other groups of Presteheia kindergarden usually go outside twice a week as well.

We arrived at nine at the kindergarden together with some other kids. Some others have already been there and a few came within the next half an hour. So in the beginning it was free play time inside: some kids were drawing Easter pictures, others played with dinosaurs and some built a domino track. There were four girls in the group, the rest was boys. Especially some of the boys were really interested and asked us who we are and what we do and invited us to play with them. I would have loved to talk more with them, but unfortunately my Norwegian isn’t really good. Once all the kids have arrived we gathered in a circle as it was one of the girls birthday. But therefore the kids had to put away their toys first. I was really impressed how quick this happened. Birthe said just one word and suddenly all the kids started to put the pens in one box, building blocks in another and the

litlle boy with his skies walking to Jegersberg

dinosaurs in a third one. While sitting in the circle we sang a few birthday songs and Birthe told the kids a story. Then we got ready to leave. Therefore the teachers split the group into three, so each group was with one of the three teachers. The kids were told to get their clothes and come back to their group. They all dressed themselves, while the teachers observed them doing so and only helped if necessary. The younger ones needed a little help while most of the older kids could already dress alone completely. Once everyone was ready we started to walk into the Jegersberg area. Some kids brought their skies and some others a sledge.

children building snow figures and playing around

One boy even brought a little snowboard. We also took three sliding mats and a few bump-boards from the kindergarden. The area we went to was the same as the one we used for our overnight camp. The kids dropped their bags next to the bench and then started playing. We had a lot of snow that day, so the open field and the few smaller hills were perfect for the kids to play around. The teachers didn’t give any instructions so it was free play for the kids.The ones with skies and sledges started to walk up the hills and skied or slid down. A few other kids were building different things out of snow and were throwing snow balls. It was fascinating how some of the kids seemed to live in their own world while playing. Fasting (2017) made similar observations, when she studied primary school kids playing. One of the boys brought

Sarah and Lilla sledging with one of the boys

skies for the first time. He was one of the youngest and gave me his skies, so I helped him to put them on. It was really cute watching him to slowly walk on his skies and get used to them. The teachers were just standing around and observing the kids or helped them if they needed anything. First we observed the kids as well but then we also started to play with them when they asked us. Especially one boy always wanted us to sledge with him. Sometimes we were up to three persons on a sledge, so not just the kids but also we had a lot of fun. After about one hour we had a lunch break. The teachers called the kids together, which worked really good.

lunch break

As it was windy and quite cold that day, the teachers chose an area behind a hill, that was covered by some trees. The kids were sitting on the mats or sledges, so they didn’t get too cold while eating. After the break we only stayed for another half an hour as there were two classes from primary school coming and the teachers were afraid that the older kids might not be careful enough with the young ones.

I haven’t been in a kindergarden since I was a little kid myself, so I really enjoyed the visit and to watch the kids play. It’s impressive how they seem to live in there own world when playing, how may ideas they have and how they always find something to do. They don’t really need any instructions for playing. I think the outdoor kindergardarden are a really good thing, because the children move a lot and are on the fresh air, which is really healthy and good for the development of their motor skills. At home in Germany the kindergarden typically have a playground-area outside which belongs to the kindergarden. But to the forest we unfortunately only go maybe three or four times a year. There are only a few real outdoor kindergarden.

References:

Fasting, Merete Lund (2017). The Magic of Outdoor Play: A Phenomenological Hermeneutic Approach. In T. Waller, E. Ärlemalm-Hagsèr, E. B. Hansen Sandseter, L. Lee-Hannond, K. Lekies, & S. Wyver (Eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Outdoor Play and Learning (p. 630-645). London: SAGE.