​In Early Kindergarten we have outdoor recess for 45 minutes every day, except when the temperature is dangerously cold.  For children who participate in the Extended Day Program, there is at least an additional hour of outdoor play following the regular dismissal time.  Most children can’t wait to get outside!  There are many reasons that outdoor play is vital in early childhood programs.

​Outdoor play improves physical development and promotes physical health. 
When children play outdoors, they increase their ability to run, jump, skip, throw, climb, and balance, and they also improve their muscular coordination and cardiovascular endurance.   Outdoor play in early childhood helps children learn to seek out exercise, fresh air, and activity as stress relievers, and it also increases the likelihood that a child remains active as they grow and mature.

It creates opportunities for social interaction.  
Outdoor play provides children with the opportunity to gain many social skills as they interact, negotiate the rules of their games and share the available toys. Playing physical games together, helping one another build things, and engaging in dramatic play (pretending) all help children learn grow in their capacities to negotiate, take another’s perspective and collaborate.

​Outdoor play helps children gain knowledge and appreciation for the natural world. 
To learn about the physical world, children must have opportunities to experiment with the physical world.  Young children learn primarily through their senses, and they must have lots and lots of experiences in the natural world to learn about weather, the seasons, and the animal life in their locale.  Learning about their natural environment helps children understand what nature provides for us, as well as our responsibility to care for nature.It invites children to learn science.
By interacting with the outdoors young children are constantly learning concepts of physical science such as gravity, motion, force, and conservation.  Outdoor play gives children opportunities to explore cause and effect and initiate informal investigations of the natural world.  It allows children to be actively engaged with the physical world. “When it comes to thinking about physical matters — learning about objects, kinetics, spatial relationships, and natural forces — active exploration is especially helpful. It beats merely hearing a message, or observing somebody else act” – (Gwen Dewar, PhD).

​It allows children to be children.
For a variety of obvious reasons, activities such as jumping, running, climbing, swinging, racing, yelling, rolling, hiding, and making a big mess cannot happen in the classroom.  Yet all of these activities are necessary in childhood!  Children need to have time where they feel free from being under adult control.  They need time and space to explore, have adventures, experiment with the natural world, take risks and just be children.  Time spent outside actually increases a child’s ability to learn inside!

For more information on outdoor play, you may be interested in the following articles:
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https://naturalstart.org/feature-stories/learning-doing-how-outdoor-play-prepares-kids-achievement-stem
https://www.ucy.ac.cy/nursery/documents/importance_of_play.pdf
http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?ArticleID=275