Area:

The kindergarten was located in the middle of the woods and only had a few resources other than the woods that the children used for playing.  There was one rope swing set up, a spider web rope, and two little huts made from wood and a tarp to provide shelter if needed.

Kids playing with sticks

The role of the leaders:

The roles’ of the leaders during the day was to monitor the children and make sure they are learning and they are safe.  The leaders monitor the children in a passive situation.  For example, one kid was climbing up the tree and got pretty high and the leader just walked past the tree and looked up at him, whereas before she was just talking to one of her colleagues.  Teaching methods are mostly all gained through the children’s trial and error with the activities they do.  The one lesson plan during the day consisted of sitting in a circle and singing about 5 different songs in Norwegian, then going back to playing around.

Singing songs together

There was little material needed by the instructor.  Since we were visiting the kids the day we came, the leaders made hot dogs for the kids but this is only done during special occasions.  Therefore the leaders had to bring a big pot to cook the hot dogs in and lomper bread that the hotdogs went in.  When it was lunch time the leader laid out 5 sleeping mats in different areas for the children to sit on while eating their lunch.

The role of the kids:

                The role of the kids was to simply just play with their friends and to have an imagination.  The only rule that the kids are given is to stay inside the boundaries set out for them at the beginning of the day.  There was a lot of free play going on around, some kids were pretending to be police officers while other kids were in a ninja turtle gang, and some kids just wanted to play with sticks in the dirt while other kids asked if they could be pushed on the swing.

Jannis trying to blend in with the kids

I was very impressed by the children’s motor skills and coordination.  We were observing 4-5 yr. old children and they were climbing trees and running around on uneven surfaces and rocks and the amount that they fell over or were off balance was hardly at all.  Learning outcomes in this environment is going to be based on the individual kids and how much activity they do during the day.  The activities the children do defines the amount they gained during that day.

I enjoyed the day a lot, I thought it was really fun to play and practice Norwegian with the kids.  I loved how there was hardly any rules that the kids had to follow.  And I loved how the teacher interaction with the children was very minimal.  Kindergarten’s back home have the reputation of controlling the children too much and giving them to many rules to follow which I think is just setting up the kids for bad behaviour.  I thought most of the kids in Norway were very obedient and over all learned more than the average child in a Kindergarten in the United States.   The trip to the Kindergarten made me realize how much I appreciate Norwegians outdoor Kindergarten vs. the states indoor Kindergarten.

Little shelter the kids used to play house