Welcome to the Play Based Learning Podcast. I'm your host, Kristen RB Peterson, and maybe your new teacher, Bestie, that is here to hype you up, maybe give you a motivating kick in the pants, and teach you all I know about play and childhood. I am here to help you challenge old and outdated practices and inspire you to create a truly developmentally appropriate early childhood environment that fosters creativity. Curiosity and joy in the Children that you care for.
Let's set the stage for a lifelong love of learning. Let's get going. Welcome to the Play Based Learning Podcast. I have Lynne Mulligan here today, and we are going to chat about literacy and nature, or literacy in nature, um, all of the above. But before we get started, Lynn, tell us about yourself. Tell us what brings you here. Well, I'm a giant, uh, Kristen Peterson fan, which brings me here. So I love all the play and, um, I love being outside.
So I have tried to organize my life around being outside as much as possible. And so I have, um, at my school with my teaching buddy, uh, we've started a pre K and kindergarten nature based, play based program. And it's just amazing. We get to be outside all the time and still incorporate all of the You know, skills and standards and stuff that's needed for those ages. And we play and get to be in the woods all day. Amazing. Do you have an indoor space too? We do.
It's kind of, we kind of see it as like a hybrid program. So it's not forest school entirely, but we have an indoor classroom where we've brought in a lot of nature. And so we've got, you know, indoor, lots of our materials are made out of wood and things that we have made or found outside. And so we use those kinds of things for our curriculum and our materials. Amazing. Okay, so we're here to jam about nature and literacy.
So, how do you, when you are outside or inside, incorporate nature into literacy? Like, into learning? Like, how do you incorporate all of those things together? Um, for those who maybe have never thought about... Nature and literature as a thing that you can do together. Absolutely. Um, we do a bunch of like alphabet hunts outside. Um, I love nature letters, like going out and finding things that look like, you know, Y and my kids will run up and like, Oh, look, it's a Y tree.
And, you know, they, a lot of the letters you can find, um, you know, little, we love worms. So like, here's a worm that's curled itself into an S and then, Oh, it's a C now. And. Um, so that's kind of stuff is fun. Um, we do, we have like a nature alphabet on the wall where I've done the, the letters and then we found things outside and glued them on.
So instead of having just kind of your standard alphabet, you know, up on the wall, we've got a nature alphabet made out of nuts and pine cones and rocks and things like that. Um, We do a lot with finding things outside that start with the different letters. Okay. So we were, we were outside earlier today and, uh, one of my children was like, look, it's pine cones. Look, there's pine needles and, you know, something was popping, making a popping sound. It's popping.
It's, you know, we've got a little pumpkin patch, so that kind of thing is, is fun. What else do we do? We bring in a lot of nature. So in the middle of my classroom, I have an enormous stump that took about 10 people to get in, but it's in there now. Oh my gosh. It's huge. Um, but it's kind of the focal point for our learning.
So we sit around and I use it often for like a little small world area when we're doing storytelling and I've got some little wooden animals and, you know, that's kind of our, we do kind of rhymes, you know, up and active games going around the stump. So that's fun. Okay. Did you, have you counted how old the stump is? We have not. It doesn't have real noticeable rings on it. I know. It's really cool though.
It's probably... I don't know, four or five children could sit on it at a time, like around the sides of it. It's, it's a good, good sized stump. Oh my gosh. That's so neat. Okay. So you talked about these little, little wooden creatures, like animals that you have and you and I have had a side conversation before and I was kind of fascinated by, um, The little stories that you create around your little wooden animals. Will you tell us about that?
Absolutely. Um, so I really don't like the idea of flashcards and worksheets and all that kind of stuff for pre K and kindergarten kids. Um, but I know that they need to be learning the alphabet and, you know, being able to, to do that in a playful way is really important to me. So I have done a, um, I'm calling it Alphabet Adventures, and it's a story about a bear, a fox, and a rabbit, and they don't want to go to school and learn how to read and write.
And a forest fairy and a nature gnome overhear their conversation and decide to steal all the letters in their tent. So they take all the letters and I've got the little animals and we act all these things out with the gnome and, um, they, then the children have to meet an animal. They get these little clues and we do this once or twice a week. And so I read the story and the story has lots of letters.
Uh, let's say we're doing the letter P, and so it would have lots of P words throughout the story, kind of as clues for them, and then they meet animals, so they might meet for P petunia porcupine, and she tells them that they have to do three tasks, so they have to learn about, um, I think the P one, we had pumpkins, we had to do some activities with pumpkins and pine cones and make popcorn over our fire.
Okay. And so once they do these things, they go back to Patia and she gives them the letter P and Oh my, yeah. And they have a little, little drawstring bag and we collect, I've got the little Scrabble tiles, the little, um, yeah. Wooden Scrabble tiles. And so they each get their own letter to keep in their drawstring bag. And then we use those as we go along for, you know, reviewing letters and putting together word families and spelling words and all that as we go.
Oh my gosh, that's like a really neat creative idea. I love that. It's fun. Okay. So how can, can you give us any advice on how teachers or caregivers can and reading? or literacy to make like an immersive experience for children. And I think that's so important because they, I think that's how kids learn. And I think as teachers, we have more fun teaching that way as opposed to having to sit and do just rote memorization and going over the same stuff every day.
Um, and so I, I really liked kind of the regio idea of Following the children's interest. So I kind of go along with, um, last year we had a huge interest in birds. Okay. And so we did, we set up bird feeders. Um, we got all kinds of little bird identification books, a big bird puzzle with the names of the birds on it. binoculars. Um, we made little wood blocks with a picture of the bird and the bird's name on it.
And have you seen the little Audubon birds that you squeeze them, the birds and they make the sound. I love that. Yeah. Those are amazing. And my dad made me this really cool, um, tree with wood. Like overlapping sticks that the children collected and drilled a hole in it and put a piece of rebar and so all of these sticks are coming off of it. And so those birds live in that tree, which is kind of a cool thing inside. That's neat.
Yes. So then, yeah, just to like, we have a chart to tally what kind of birds we see and we learn bird songs and got all kind of fiction and nonfiction books from the library. And so it's like authentic reasons to read and write. Exactly. And that's kind of what I go with in terms of, um, kind of just following the children's interests and seeing what can I add to that to add in literacy and math and science experiments and those kind of things.
Um, one of my favorite things that I used to do with the children in our program and some years ago. They were super interested and invested in some not. Um, we have an eagle camera in Minnesota that the DNR has on a nest. And so every year I'll turn it on just to see like, Hey, have they laid their eggs yet? How many days until these eggs hatch? And then once they hatch, we watch the babies in the nest and we watched the parents come and feed the babies.
And it's like this amazing thing that really, it's just like, I leave my iPad on and it sits on. A teacher cart and then children can like run up to it and just check on the Eagles all day long. So, um, it's really fun to be able to add those types of experiences in as well, even though it's not, we're not outside enjoying it. It's inside, but it's an outside thing. And it's, it's very, you know, interwoven with actual real nature.
So yeah, I love doing similar to there's one at Berry College, which is near where I live in Tennessee. And same sort of thing, you know, the kids are just fascinated to see the big eggs and a gigantic nest. We actually made a big eagle sized nest one time. Um, so that stuff's so fun and there's so many cams, you know, you can go to like the different zoos and see polar bears or see, you know, water animals, otters and all that stuff. So fun. It is.
Um, there used to be a Minnesota, uh, a camera in a bear den not there anymore, but that was really cool when that was up and running. Yeah, that's cool. The, um, what's the ornithology place? There's one place that has like all kinds of different birds. You can watch falcons and hawks and owls. And in addition to the eagles, I can't remember the name of it, but there's, um, It's just so fun. And that's one way we don't do much with technology, but that is one, one thing that we'd love.
And I have the same sort of setup. I've got my little laptop set up on a table and just kind of have that stuff in the background a lot of times. So fun to do. Okay. So are there any specific books or, I mean, you talked about your little animals and storytelling. Do you have any other, like. Tangible books that are your favorites that you have found that like help kind of nurture that relationship with nature. Mm hmm. Um, three of my favorite ones.
Um, I have one that I discovered, I think our librarian read it to us at some point called life. I sent the Ryland, um, and it's just beautiful. It's about how life starts small and then grows big. And, you know, different sizes of animals and it's just the illustrations are beautiful. It's just a lovely, lovely book to just explore all the little pieces of it, the illustrations and you know, to read out loud, but then have the kids just be able to open up and look. It's beautiful.
Oh, that's wonderful. Love that one. Love one called the blue hour. Okay. Isabelle similar. Um, and it's all these blue, everything in it is like a blue shade. And it's kind of going from, um, I love the term in the gloaming, the twilight time of day. And it's like, you know, the nighttime coming on and it goes through kind of all these animals that are blue tinted birds and other animals that have blue. Some of them I had never heard of.
So it's fun to kind of learn about new animals, but also that special quiet time of day is the world's kind of going to sleep. And that's a fun one. Definitely. And then we made the tallest tree house. It's one of our favorites. I've never read that. It's a really cute one.
Um, cause we love building tall things and yeah, it's about little, little impish creatures that you know, are trying to build this tall tree house and one of them is trying to build one over on this side and one over here and they end up. Combining them after a storm comes and it's really cool and it's a neat, you know, one to read and then you go out and build something tall. Oh my gosh, that's so cute. Okay, can I tell you some of my favorites?
Please. And I don't know the authors, so, because I didn't come prepared to tell you my favorites. Um, okay, so, I don't know if it's... Uh, nature related at all, but it's one of my favorite books to read is Sam and Dave dig a hole. Have you ever read that one? I haven't read that one. So they're like trying to dig a hole to find some gems and, um, that are like under the earth and they like keep, they keep digging and then they keep missing it. The whole entire book. Um, so that's a fun one.
Sam and Dave dig a hole. I love the book Bog Baby. Um, it's really all about kind of trying to get children to understand why we don't want to like take the things that little animals and creatures and bugs and turtles and frogs and things that we find outside and take them home with us because that's like we can't feed them the right things. Um, so it's about. These little girls who find a bog baby, it's like a mythical creature.
And then try to feed a cake crumbs in their, they keep it hidden in their shed so their mom doesn't know that they have it. And then it gets sick. And then they have to have their mom help them figure out what to do with the bog baby after it's sick. Oh, I know. Don't all kids wanna take all the animals home? Yes. I mean, I wanna take the animals home . Oh my gosh. So I love the bog baby. Um. And then everybody needs a stick.
I think that's a great one because it encourages stick play and that is something that we embraced in the program that I founded. So, yeah, okay. So a lot of people who listen sometimes struggle with, um, trying to meet like expectations or standards or curriculum, um, restraints around, um, Any of their time spent with young children, do you have any insight on how nature based literacy can still kind of meld into those educational requirements that some people are required to meet?
And I try to always go backwards from all of that. Okay. I try to plan. The activities that I think the children will love and that I will love doing with the children. And then I go back and fill in the standards that match. Okay. So that's kind of the route I go. Backwards planning. Yeah. And if I'm, if I'm missing some big chunks, then I'll try to see, you know, okay, I need to fill this in here and this in here.
Um. But trying to figure like, you know, my children recently have been doing a lot of play in our mud kitchen. And so to get some literacy involved in that or to get some math involved in that, you know, to bring out, I've got little chalkboards and chalk. And so they are doing, um, menus for the restaurant and taking, you know, they'll come over and, and write down the order of what they, what the kids want. Um, and then, you know, put out little scales for them to weigh things and the.
Measuring cups and spoons for them to mix and, um, you know, add in and then you can just like pop all of those that like you can just attach. I mean, um, I did a podcast with a Hoffman and she was talking about how learning is living and living is learning and like you can really during any experience, you can pull out the learning that is happening.
So a lot of times I think it's also important to, you can also like link those standards After the play has happened, like with the things that you witnessed and like saw the children doing in their play, you can, you can link all of the things that they actually did learn during that time. And I think that's almost a better way to do it because, you know, You know, like, what they learned, then, instead of what you're hoping that they learn through it.
Because, many times, children take things in a whole different direction than our adult brains think they're gonna take it. So, like, yes, we can have this plan for, like, this is what I'm hopeful that they'll learn, but also leave space for writing in things that they did experience that maybe you weren't expecting. So, it's kind of like a backwards... After the after it's like backwards planning but then also like adding in things after it's already been done.
So, making sure that you leave space and room for that, because everything can meet an educational or curriculum standard in through play and nature exploration. So, yeah, it absolutely can. Yeah, and I think that backwards way is just the way to go and then just following up on what you're saying about the, you know, the kids coming up with their own. thoughts that are so much better than ones you had a lot of times.
You know, I feel like one thing I've been working on this year is kind of just stepping back and letting the kids, let's see where they go, you know, and to not. intersperse my own stuff as much. Um, and it's fascinating to watch them. We have a big, um, wooden spool on our playground right now. And they're doing, you know, it's been sitting, I'd never thought of doing much of anything with it other than have it sit and then have stuff on top of it.
And they turned it on its side and have spent this week rolling it around, climbing over it. Okay. They want it to roll down this small incline. So then they want it to stop and climb on it. So they figured out to put wood under the, you know, the round part to keep it from rolling. Um, you know, stuff like that where you're okay. You can look at that and there's simple machines and there's problem solving and working together on things and the communication skills and the language and.
Yeah. That stuff to me is so, just, so cool to watch. Yeah. It is so cool to watch. Like, I call myself a play detective because, like, I just love to sit back and watch children, like the wheels turning in their brains is so, like, it's just so curious to me and just so, like, one of my favorite things to do when I'm in a space with child, with children. Yeah. Okay. So, uh. Tell me about any projects you have going on and where people can find more Linn at.
Absolutely, um, Another thing that I am working on besides my alphabet adventure book is a book called Woodland Letters. Okay. I, um, I started a collection of nature alphabet letters. Several years ago, and, um, I made myself not make any of them. So they're all like, you know, you have to wait till you come upon a G. This, yeah, definitely formed in nature.
Um, so it took a little while, but I've had a great time taking pictures of the letters and then things found in nature that I found, you know, that started with those letters, so it's kind of a combination of an alphabet book and a scrapbook. And then it's an activity book because there's ideas of things for people to do for each letter. So, um, it's a, you know, has A is for, and then all these things with A, pictures of some things.
And then a little bit at the bottom of suggested, you know, go and do this with your kid outside. So cool. Can people, where can people find that resource? They can find that on my website, um, which is called the spiral bear. So T T H E S P I R A L B E A R. And there's a little shop area on it. Um, my woodland, woodland letters, um, is kind of my My business name for my, um, all my educational stuff. So it's under that section and I've got books and nature letters and things like that on there.
Oh my gosh, amazing. Do you have, are you on social media at all? I am on social media. I have an Instagram account, um, that's under Woodland Learning. Okay. And I've got, I do a thing each week of a book suggestion on there, um, and sometimes some activities to go along with a book. And I love part of the thing that I love about nature is kind of the calming effect it has on kids and importance of being outside.
And, you know, for adults and kids to have some time to just kind of be and breathe. And, um, I try to have a picture of something beautiful or a little video of sitting beside a stream or being out on a walk in the woods, um, to share on there. And then do a lot with, with activities that we're doing, um, at my school and things like that, that others might, you know, might find fun. Right. It's an idea to check that out. Okay. One last question.
What is something that in your work with young children over the last 30 years, um, what is something that has really surprised you in your career? Um, I think something that surprised me about kids is the lack of time children spend outside these days. Um, when we started this program, my program is in its fifth year and we took children out and we have a little nature trail outside our school.
Took kids out and a lot of them kind of just stood there and it's like, well, here's a little stream and here's some trees and leaves and, you know, all kinds of things they could do and they didn't know what to do with them. And it's interesting to me.
After, you know, six weeks with us watching the play that happens now, you know, and kind of taking kids in at the beginning and we have children this year that we spend time every morning just kind of in this open field and children go out and make up games to play together and collect sticks and use them for all kinds of things and build and I've got the little seek app on my phone where they always want to, you know, what's this flower and what's this tree called and.
So we go along and look up different things and we're just so into nature and it's, it's cool to me to see, to be able to be a little part of, I hope, um, you know, bringing up children that appreciate and love nature that'll hopefully last their lives, you know, because I don't think that's, I think that's a surprising, sad thing about children. Now that a lot of them just don't get that outside time. They don't.
Um, one of my favorite little tools that I used to keep with me when I was out in the, out in nature with children is a little clip on microscope that, um, on your phone camera, just like a tiny little lens. And you can see things so up close and it is so cool. That was very cool. Yeah. A little tip for people. Okay. Connect with Lynn on Instagram, find her on our website. What was the website again? The spiral bear. Yes. Check out her resources.
And thank you so much for being here and being an advocate for children. Lynn, I appreciate that you're doing for young children everywhere. I appreciate you so much. Thank you so much for having me. I've enjoyed being with you. You're welcome. All right, everybody. Have a great day. If you liked what you heard today, share this podcast with your coworkers, admin, or maybe even your partner. And I love getting five star reviews so more people can embrace play.
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