The Benefits Of Gardening In Kindergarten's Outdoor Environment For Children

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The name of my project is gardening which is planting sunflower. I chose this project because my kindergarten’s outdoor environment space is limited. This project involved 5 years old children. The process of growing this sunflower took about two months. The project has met the objective well. The main objective of this project was experiencing the outdoor environment by the children.

Children gain vast benefits from learning outdoors. Being outdoors allows them to move around without many of the restrictions of being inside (Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), 2014). Gardening is an appropriate project to be carried out as an outdoor play. Children experienced the outdoor environment freely. Outside is a natural place for children to be and play and there is a freedom related with it. Bilton (2010: 4) states that outside is a natural environment for children and there is a freedom associated with the space that cannot be replicated inside. As in this project, I observed that children engage freely and experience the outside environment rather than inside the classroom. The outdoors boosts and excites children of all ages enabling them to explore and discover fascinating worlds and experiences offerings richly provided in the natural worlds.

The sustainability of the project is based on the material’s durability. The materials that I used for my project was flower pots, potting compost, sunflower seeds, trowel, wheel-barrow, watering buckets and gloves. All the materials were in child-sized. The materials are made up of plastic which is safe for the children to be used. The materials are also high quality products. I explained my project to the parents of the children and they supported me by donating the materials su...

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...r the parents. The parents were able to see and observe their child’s development clearly. This will make them feel more responsible towards the child’s progress and felt happy with the development. Parents also have a chance to work together with their child and make a garden at house.

In brief, play provides the base for learning in a child’s world and opens the door to a world of learning opportunities. Gardening with children is a wonderful way to engage children with nature. Through this opportunity for joyful outdoor play, the garden encourages the rights of childhood. As stewards of the earth, working beside their peers and adults, the children in the garden construct a sustainable future for themselves and their communities. This world of play offers children broad opportunities to learn about themselves, others, and the environment in which they live.

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