Main Navigation - Mobile

Richfield Public Schools

Early Learning Blog

Two students playing in the Outdoor Learning Center
Outdoor Learning & Play for our Youngest Learners

This year, staff at the Central Education Center collaborated with our community partners at Best Buy to build the new Central Outdoor Classroom. This is a safe, fun space for children and families to enjoy nature. You will see teachers reading to children under the tree, children balancing on logs and using magnifying glasses to observe nature. 

Richfield preschoolers at the Central Education Center spend a great deal of time outdoors during our school year, going outside every day if the weather is not dangerous. Some of their outdoor time is spent engaged in planned learning experiences, but children also have plenty of unstructured time to run, jump, crawl, climb and use all of their large muscles - as well as their imaginations!

Playing outdoors is a powerful way to support a child’s physical and intellectual development. The benefits of being outdoors are well-documented by professional researchers in medicine, education and psychology, but all you really need to do is ask children, “Do you want to go outside?”

Being outdoors offers children opportunities they cannot have the same way indoors. Outdoors, children use scientific inquiry to learn how seeds grow, the life cycle of animals they see, about changes in the seasons they experience and so much more. When children can see, touch, and experience firsthand the things they are learning about in pictures indoors, it deepens their learning.

Children also learn mathematics, more complex language, more complex social and emotional skills, increased cognitive flexibility and problem-solving, as well as a lifelong appreciation and care for nature and all living things. The skills children are building outdoors go beyond large motor development.

Did you know?

Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE) has a class that is fully taught outside. ECO (Every Child Outdoors) is a class offered in our outdoor classroom for families with children ages 1-3 years. Learn more and register online.

Read related stories from our Early Learning blog:

Read More

Student Participating in Early Childhood Screening
About Early Childhood Screening

The early childhood years from birth to age 5 are a time of rapid growth and learning. Early Childhood Screening is a quick and simple check of your child's development and school readiness skills.

female child reading picture book while pointing with fingers
Mobile Reading

While many children love to curl up on the laps of their favorite reader, some don’t like to slow down long enough to enjoy a nice story. Reading gives children a chance to expand their vocabulary and hear about concepts that they may not normally encounter—and they don’t have to sit still to hear it!

female child reading picture book while pointing with fingers
Making Goop

Sensory play can be a fun and educational way to engage your child in learning. This simple goop recipe can be easily made at home and used to foster learning in a number of ways. Here are some fun ways to engage your child with your homemade goop!

female child reading picture book while pointing with fingers
Take Time to Learn

Taking the time to notice and join in with your children's interests is also a great way to support their learning as the school year begins again. Since there is no one way to learn, ask your child’s teacher for ways that you can support what goes on in the classroom at home using the activities that your child is naturally drawn to.

Supporting Independent Skills in Preschoolers
Supporting Independent Skills in Preschoolers

Independence is a skill we learn and practice in preschool and at home. It's a skill where your child is being active in their learning rather than passive. They get to learn how to work out the answers for themselves, rather than being told.