Why Bad Weather's Best for Learning
In bad weather, learning doesn’t stop.
Pouring outside? Mud everywhere? Sounds like the perfect opportunity to extend your children’s science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) learning through outdoor play!
Many years ago, I worked in a city-based Early Learning Centre. I would often have parents come in with impeccably dressed young children asking me not to let their child play outside or with messy things, because they didn’t want their clothes to get dirty. What these parents didn’t know, was that those kinds of rules actually stifle their child’s ability to learn. When a young child jumps up and down in muddy puddles, they are not thinking about how hard it is going to be for you to wash all that mud out of their clothes, and they are certainly not thinking that they are going to get cold later on because they have wet clothes.
They are actually-
- Learning about things like gravity and water displacement
- Having a sensory experience
- And having a blooming marvellous time!
And when we are talking about children- that last one is really the most important thing, isn’t it?
In this post, we will discuss how you can use wet weather, water and mud for STEM investigation with young children.
'Bad Weather' Doesn't Exist! Learning Happens in All Weather
The chances are that if you are looking at this post right now, it’s highly likely that the weather, wherever you are in the world, is pretty terrible. And if it’s not terrible, well save this post for another day, or just get some water, get dirty and have fun anyway!
It’s really tempting to not allow children outside when the weather is too hot or too cold. But outside is where the REAL learning is. Young children learn so much from the natural world around them that they really don’t need us setting up elaborate learning invitations all day every day. Often it’s better for us to take them outside and see what catches their fancy. The learning opportunities are, literally, endless.
I’m a big fan of the Scandinavian country’s models of early childhood education, where there are no goals that children have to tick off by certain ages, where they are allowed ample access to the outside, natural world, and where risk is integral part of the curriculum.
Wet weather provides young children with a wealth of STEM investigation opportunities. So, let’s talk about….
Learning Through Water Play
Water is one of the key necessities for living things and it’s something that children encounter all the time in their day-to-day life. They drink it, bathe in it, water their plants, cook food in it, swim in it.
Playing with water is of natural interest to young children and there is practically no end to activities that can use water. It’s colourless, odourless & tasteless and is one of the only materials that children will commonly come across that exists in all the states of matter as a solid, liquid & a gas.
It can be quite mysterious in the way that it works in the world around them. For example, the dog’s water bowl was water yesterday, now it’s ice, or, there was a small puddle there this morning, but now the ground is dry.
Water is a really valuable resource which needs to be preserved, and we are aware of that in Australia, in particular, but children need access to play with it to develop an appreciation and respect for its’ importance. That’s why wet weather is such a great opportunity for us as educators and parents. Water play is a sensory experience, and it helps connect children with nature. Children can play with water without the help of adults and are not constrained about using it the ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way as it is an open ended, raw material.
Mud is Not Mess
When I was five, my family moved to the country and built our own house. The site was excavated, and we mixed water with the excavated clay in huge drums, put the mud into brick moulds, let them dry in the sun and then used the mud bricks to build our house. I don’t think my parents would have ever finished the house without my mud making skills- just ask them. But what an amazing STEM experience for a young child to have!
Humans have built with mud since around 9000 BC. Human history is entwined with mud, and it estimated that at least 30% of people live in mud dwellings world-wide. When other materials might be scarce, dirt is always plentiful.
Mud play is inclusive for all children of all ages, as they can play with it at their own developmental level. Of course, when you are engaging in these types of activities, it’s important to dress for the occasion. Being worried about getting wet and muddy is not going to be conducive to valuable investigations and getting dirty is half the fun.
Bad Weather & Learning with Senses
Mud is so much fun to build with and this is certainly something that can be done on a small scale. Building seems to be a basic part of our humanity, and you will see that children do it with anything they can find, block, sticks, the kitchen table, sand, snow, the possibilities are endless. So how can this natural inclination be extended?
Perhaps you can mix other materials in with the mud and make your own mud bricks with an ice or muffin tray. See the change in states of matter from the squishy liquid to a solid through the heat energy of the sun. If you have the space, allow this area to remain and see the changes that take place as the seasons change.
One of the most important skills that a scientist has is their observational skills. Mud is a natural vehicle to practice these observational skills by engaging the senses. Listen to the mud squelch under your feet, feel its slipperiness as it squeezes between your fingers, watch as the water mixes to make the mud thinner, smell that unique aroma of dirt mixed with water. You may even see your little one give it a sneaky lick.
The next important skill that scientists have is communicating those observations to other people. So, take the time to talk about the mud as you are exploring it. Later children can make art about their experience or, with the help of an adult, write about it. Even more fun than this would be making art WITH the mud.
Mud Play Ideas
- Use sticks, rocks, leaves and even footprints to create patterns in the mud
- Compare and classify mud made with different materials
- Create your own paintings with mud and use it as a stepping off point to explore ochre and our First Nations artworks. Indigenous Australians were our first scientists.
- Explore what kind of living things may call mud their home
- Create mud pie “recipes”- cooking, even pretend cooking, has so much maths and science involved
- Mud can be used much like play dough, so children can use it to practice learning the alphabet, and shapes, make their own
critters and just generally exercise their hands. Just like playdough, mud helps children develop their fine motor skills through rolling, poking and squishing. This will help our very smallest scientist later when they start to use scissors and pencils.
Advocate for Bad Weather Learning
So, what we need to do, is advocate for these children to have nature experiences, messy experiences.
If you are an educator, you need to be the one to communicate these benefits to parents, because they don’t know what they don’t know. You could keep a bag full of messy play and outdoor clothes in your room or you could ask parents to always send and extra set of clothing every day.
In conclusion, bad weather provides children with a unique opportunity to engage in outdoor play and learning. Despite concerns about getting dirty, allowing children to play in the rain and mud can offer them valuable STEM experiences that cannot be replicated indoors. Water play can teach children about the states of matter and the importance of water preservation, while mud play can encourage creativity and allow children to experiment with building and mixing materials. By embracing outdoor play in all weather conditions, parents and educators can provide children with endless opportunities for exploration and discovery.
