I am trying to find ways to enrich our EL activities in the backyard. I am planning to add a playground set with monkey bars, making an outdoor kitchen, a bike trail, a garden for science lessons and a mini-soccer field.
Can anyone suggest some more/ better activities? Thanks!
A sandbox. 
My first thought was something that would allow your child to pretend to be an archeologist and unearth items you hide there, but then I figured a sandbox would be much simpler. 
In the sandbox you can add all the Montessori fine motor skills equipment. Cups to practice pouring, spoons for scooping, tongs, chopsticks etc to pick up small objects.
You could add a sensory tub and change it out seasonally. Some suggestions are, rice, bird seed, leaves, grass clippings, coffee beans. Leaves, water, mud, sand, corn, pinecones.
Thank you ladies! My son does enjoy dinosaurs, transferring activities, and everything sensorial! All your suggestions fit the sensitive periods he’s going through perfectly! Thanks!
I can suggest a few of the things we have done in our yard to encourage Montessori activities, stewardship, reposnsibility, and (most importantly! For learning purposes regarding all :biggrin: )
So, many of the things already mentioned are prominent in our garden…a few other suggestions we have done:
Installing a simple thermometer and barometer at her level, as well as taught cloud and weather information…we now mention these hings every time we go outside (courtesy of IPhone! And she immediately checks ( and can read from instruments…it doesn’t take much, just a relative scale of things like freezing, need a jacket, wear shorts, too hot to go outside, a microwave, oven, temp of sun, etc…
A very simple compost pile…our original was in a very large, transparent box…Red Wigglers are superb for this, and all cycles are clearly visible…we ordered ours (and researched ALL information through this site:
http://unclejimswormfarm.com/
Now we have the larger box, but Alex also had her own box from Educational Insights. I LOVE this as it has three seperate, transparent boxes, one of which we use as a control! Awesome use of scientific method: a variable and a contol are side-by-side!
http://www.educationalinsights.com/product/now+you+see+it%2C+now+you+don--39-t+see-through+compost+container.do?sortby=ourPicks&sortby=&&from=Search
We also have set up a bird feeder and bird bath, directly visible through breakfast-nook window…after a detailed lesson, Alex is in charge of cleaning and refilling both the birdbath and the feeder…she knows it is irresponsible and dangerous to provide feed and then forget…birds get used to it and depend ‘on her’…
We don’t have true pets, per say, but she does have responsibilities…
Also, inside the breakfast nook, directly overlooking the bird bath and feeder, we keep a laminated, fold-out bird identification guide for the area, plus a simple set of binoculars! Also, a ‘journal’ for her records!
We have also planted butterfly bushes and local hummingbird attractants…with an identification chart readily available…
On the back patio, Dad painted a semi-permanent number-line and hopscotch setup on the concrete…
Our ‘stepping stone’ path is a number line from negative numbers in the front yard, zero at the fence, and positive numbers in her area…
Hanging from a tree she has a knotted climbing rope for physical activity.
On one large section of fence we have installed the biggest draw-erase board you can imagine, to encourage art and writing.
She has a lage bucket of sidewalk chalk to draw with on the patio…
Daddy drew Her a VERY simple map outline of seven continents on the sidewalk…
We recently visited a private, in-home, Montessori school…her whole area and garden were so superbly set up that we have decided to ’ borrow’ ideas! They had a huge, metal feeding trough for horses set out along side the house…they had filled it full of Koi, water plants, etc…I think Alex may well be getting a similar setup for Christmas!
And, of course, we have our climbing wall, playground setup in the garage area! If you haven’t seen pictures, it continues to grow daily! This weekend daddy is adding a ‘chicken coop’ style ball pit for her…climb the ladder, play in the balls, climb through the tunnel, slide down the pole!
We also have added a slack line, a zip line, a swinging hammock, and a tree- bench swing!
Ooohhh!
And HIGHLY suggest a set a various scraps of PVC pipe, joints, caps, etc! Use brightly colored ping pong balls or even water to let them problem solve!
BTW- the compost pile has taught her to question not only what materials are recylcable, degradable, etc, but what TYPE of material it is…and where it comes from!!! She now wants to know HOW everything is made, and the origin of materials…
Anyway, a few thoughts…sure we have a lt more I haven’t touched upon as our Montessori Garden grows daily by Alex’ s curiosity and Moms thought processes!
Thank you so much Keri for your inspiring ideas. An outdoor science lab will be great! Also, I’ve been thinking about the koi pond for some time now and the reason I am hesitating is that I wanted the backyard to be toddler-proofed, now the idea of the metal feeding through is a nice variation, but hmm, I need to think about it. Oh, BTW, did you take a picture of it? That would be awesome if you did AND the owner agrees it can be published here
A_BC-
I wish I had taken a photograph, and I just had a look at her website to see if she had any pictures of it up, to no avail:(
However, I sent her a quick email to request one!
You can see some other great pictures of her setup on her website here: http://woodedacresmontessori.com/picturepage.html
Fora home setup, it is AWESOME! She only takes 8 students, and if I had decided to send Alex to school, this would have been a favored option.
Another idea we ‘borrowed’ from her setup, was a huge dry-erase board attached to the fence, with a big bucket of dry-erase crayons…
BTW, I forgot to mention one of Alexs favorites in our yard. When I started teaching her time, she kept saying, “the time is just numbers”… I don’t quite know what she meant by that, but it inspired me to purchase one of those quicky stepping-stone kits…you know the type, design your own? But we made ours into a sun dial, and put up an analogue clock next to her thermometer/barometer setup (which includes a digital clock!) this was SO much fun for her, she even helped with the concrete, and it gave her a ‘concrete’ lol idea for time!!!
Thanks Keri for the link and for the other ideas. About the “huge dry erase board”, he has one in his room and he enjoys scribbling mathematical symbols and tallying on it :yes: as well as drawing spirals and circles (that look more like ovals, eggs or beans 
) We’ll keep the messier art activities outside. I am thinking of arranging a messy corner for finger paintings and other squishy squashy sensory tubs (right next to the hose, as he gets so wild sometimes :blink: )
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