At the beginning of the school year when we are busy organizing our planning books, our classrooms, our bulletin boards and our closets, many of us forget about one of our largest learning areas -- the outdoors.

      Just like indoors, the outdoors can provide opportunities for exploring and interacting with materials, and just like indoors, we can design and manipulate the outdoor environment to enhance learning.

      We know that natural materials are perfect for learning, and the outdoors abounds with these.

      Use bricks or railroad ties to mark off a corner of the yard where children can dig in the dirt for bugs, worms, and other critters. Let children explore the differences in digging during warm seasons when the ground is soft and colder ones when the ground is frozen. Have a magnifying glass handy for examining children's finds, but keep this out of direct sunlight. Heat from the focused sun rays can start a fire!

      Set up stations for exploring wet or messy play. A dishpan makes a fine container for bubble solution and various blowers in warm weather or cold. Children can observe how bubbles behave differently in freezing weather and warm weather.

      Add funnels, clear plastic tubing, and pouring containers to the wet area. On other days provide watering cans, sieves, and colanders. Bring the baby dolls and their clothes outside so children can wash both. They can hang the wet clothing in bushes and learn about evaporation when the clothes in the sunshine dry more quickly than the clothes in shaded areas.

      A discarded wading pool is excellent for water and mud play. Designate special mud days when children bring bathing suits and change into these during outside play time. Add hoses and sprinklers and cherish the feeling of squishy mud between your toes. Use the hoses for washing up before going inside and changing into school clothes again.

      In winter months, use the wading pool as an area for snow digging and snow sculpture. Provide spray bottles of colored water for "painting" the snow.

      Plan an outdoor garden. Children observe the passage of time and learn about cause and effect when they plant bulbs in the fall and see their growth in the spring. Add seeds in the spring, and observe and measure plant growth. Plant quick-growing vegetables like leaf lettuces, radishes and beans so children can taste the fruits of their work.

      Children automatically engage in dramatic play outdoors. Playgrounds abound with sounds like these: "Come on, Dalmatians, run this way. We can hide here from the bad guys." "Here's a tower we can climb. We can save the people inside."

      Support children's dramatic play by providing materials they can move around the yard and build with. Tire stores will donate discarded tires, and appliance stores provide huge cartons that can be carried, stacked, crawled over and through, and duct-taped end to end to make long tunnels. In addition to having lots of fun in dramatic play, develop motor skills while playing with these items.

      Include the outdoor area in every day's lesson plans. Set up an area for making kites or airplanes and fly them when they are completed. Add theme-related props to the sandbox. Bring out sidewalk chalk so children can draw pictures, write "notes", and experience colors.

      Provide pencils, markers and paper so children can draw their outdoor observations. What does the world look like from the top of the climbing bars? How does the sliding board look when you are lying under it on your back?

      Bring music outside where children have lots of room to explore movement. Provide streamers to enhance movements. Watch children experience opposites when they (or their streamers) move fast and slow, high and low, up and down, under and over.

      Observe children's play carefully, then add elements to support their changing interests. If they become interested in space and rockets, add office supply store boxes and tape for building rocket ships. If the circus comes to town, add hula hoops for circus rings and watch the children create circus acts.

      Plan an area to store outdoor equipment. Store balls, shovels, water table implements and other small items in plastic laundry baskets that have holes in the sides and bottom for draining. Have a different-colored basket for each type of equipment, and use a permanent marker and craft foam to label each basket. Use twist-ties to attach labels to the baskets.

      Remember to do a safety check every day before the children go outside. If you make it a routine to do this as you arrive at the building each day, you won't forget this important job. Look for broken glass, and check to see that cushioning materials under climbing bars and swings and at the end of the sliding board are loose enough to cushion falls. Remove sticks and branches that might have fallen from trees overnight. Check riding equipment to be certain all joints are secure.

      Your planning will pay off. Just like indoors, when children have a variety of interesting and complex materials to interact with and explore, discipline problems diminish and learning abounds.

      Planning for outdoor activities shows our belief that all environments can be learning environments. Watching the results of that planning proves this belief.

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