"I can climb the tree!" Exploring Young Children's Play and Physical Activity in a Forest School Program

Authors

  • Debra Harwood Brock University
  • Susan Reichheld
  • Sinead McElhone
  • Brandon McKinlay

Keywords:

physical activity, affordances, loose parts, forest (natural) school, child care, accelerometry measures, naturalistic observations

Abstract

Qualitative and quantitative measures of 3- and 4-year-old children's play and physical activities in a forest program in Ontario, Canada were conducted over a school year. Theoretically, Gibson's (1979) concept of affordances and Nicholson's (1971) concept of loose parts were utilized to explore the role of the forest (natural) environment as a catalyst for physically active play. The study demonstrated that levels of physically active play in the forest were twice that of a ‘typical' day in a childcare center and specific characteristics of the forest play area did afford unique opportunities for more vigorous types of play. Implications for promoting physical activity among young children within childcare programs are discussed.

Author Biography

Debra Harwood, Brock University

Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, Bachelor of Early Childhood Education program

Downloads

Published

2017-11-01

Issue

Vol. 4 (2017)

Section

Articles

License

IJHELD will not request copyright to published works. While authors will retain copyright, we do request first publication rights and will require that authors sign a release form granting IJHELD the right to publish the submission on our site. Works published in this open access journal are free to use, with proper attribution, for educational and non-commercial purposes.