Outdoor Play Pedagogy in The Mups (2nd/3rd)
At the beginning of the academic year, the Mups spend the first six weeks focusing on building the foundations of our classroom. One of the biggest ways we do this is through spending lots of time playing outdoors. By prioritizing outdoor play, our goal as teachers is to foster social-emotional growth and build a sense of community among students. Over these crucial beginning weeks, we play collaborative group games (such as Fishy Fishy and the ever-popular Monster) and participate in team-building activities (such as the human ladder and our early fall field trip to Morse Hill Outdoor Educational Center). During this time, students have the opportunity to get to know each other, establish play agreements, and learn problem-solving strategies. These early weeks set the tone for creating an affirming learning environment where every child feels seen, valued, and safe.
Beyond the fall, Mups continue to play organized games during our morning outside times. At this point in the year, there continue to be moments while playing organized group games where students are provided with the opportunity to practice student-led collaboration and communication. A recent example of this is when our class was playing a tag game and several students came to their teachers to express that they felt that some classmates were not practicing gentle tagging. We paused the game and circled up as a class, and teachers then asked students to reflect on what felt successful in the game and what was feeling tricky about the game. Students were able to take turns sharing their thoughts and experiences and work as a group to come up with solutions to make the game feel safe and successful for all Mups. These emergent opportunities for practicing conflict resolution skills during play support Mups in utilizing the same skills in other areas of their lives.
In the Mups, students regularly participate in free play during our afternoon excursions to our woods spot. One of the ways we, as teachers, scaffold the concept of free play is through students engaging in “partner play”. Partner play is when Mups are randomly paired together and then asked to spend time engaged in play with only their partner for the first 10-15 minutes of our afternoon woods time. Partner play provides Mups with a lightly structured space to get to know students they might not typically opt to spend time with during other parts of their day. During this time, Mups build and practice skills including flexibility and how to fairly compromise on how partners would like to spend their time playing together. After partner play has concluded, Mups take part in a less structured free play. When engaging in free play, Mups have the freedom to explore, experiment, and engage in unstructured play activities at their own pace while exploring new connections with their classmates.
Outdoor play in the Mups is vital in supporting social-emotional growth and fostering positive relationships between Mups. By integrating outdoor play into the curriculum as much as possible and providing structured and unstructured play opportunities, we as teachers strive to create a dynamic and engaging learning environment where children see themselves as citizens of the world and feel supported, challenged, and engaged.
