Tree climbing
Key words:
Risky play, place/Country-responsive play, weather, needs of living things, ecosystems, habitat, conservation, pulleys, gravity, forces
Centre:
Nature Explorers Pottsville and Kurilpa CCC
Description:
The Nature Explorers children show consistent interest in climbing trees. When children choose trees to climb with no lower branches, educators leave rope at the base of the tree as a provocation. Children then engage in meaningful and sustained trial and error and problem solving. Rebecca, an educator from Nature Explorers, explains that these opportunities to problem-solve, practice and engage in decision making is a valuable foundation for scientific thinking. Children make predictions and plan actions, and practice their knot-tying skills. Through tree-climbing the children also learn about technology, engineering, pulleys germination, earth’s elements, biodiversity, ecosystems, animals, forces, weight, and gravity. Interestingly, Hannah from Kurilpa Community Childcare explained that she worked hard to change the centre’s policies on tree climbing, completing numerous risk assessments and speaking with the whole team to encourage greater acceptance of risky play. Is this a possibility at your centre?
