On Thursday, September 23, during outdoor play a child found a snail in the garden. The child picked up the snail and showed it to an educator and asked “what’s that?” The educator replied “it’s a snail.” The child placed the snail on a frying pan, then the educator asked, “should we find the snail some food?” The child said “yea!” The child and an educator both walked around the playground gathering up different natural items such as seeds, leaves, rocks for the snail. One child sat and waited for the snail to emerge from its shell. When the snail did not come out, the educator asked the children who had gathered around the snail “why do you think he’s not coming out?” A child responded “scared.” The children stayed quiet, hoping that the snail would be comfortable enough to come out and eat the food. Once they were finished exploring with the snail, one child brought it over and released it into the garden.
Another child was able to go down onto the ground to roll under the high log. Another child grew increasingly frustrated as they tried multiple ways to go over and under the log. The challenge they faced was that they weren’t crouching low enough to the ground and kept getting their forehead stuck on the log.
When children have the opportunity to engage with and make contributions to the world around them, children are able to develop a sense of belonging and connection to their natural environment (HDLH 2014, pg. 25).
What's Next?
To build off this interest, the staff will provide magnifying glasses during outdoor play to see if they can find more snails and other insects and bugs in the playground. Through providing the magnifying glasses it allows the children to get observe up close with the bugs and insects that live in the playground. By being aware of what lives in the ground, can hep encourage the children to take care of the environment so it’s a place of habitat for all the insects and bugs.
