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Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Outside Prepared Enviroment!!!!

Well as promised here is the pictures of my new project!!!! I (and my hubbie) made a work station for the girls to use while they are outside. The idea started when I read Sam's Blog over at the Secret Garden. She is making an outside garden for the kids in her school to work out in when they want to, and she is doing some beautiful things! I love that she was also making some language areas and science areas for the kids to continue their classroom work outside! I fell in LOVE! I was thinking "gosh how cool would it be to let the girls go to a school where they had the freedom to go in and out when they want and keeping learning in both places". Then it hit me, I have a backyard that is all open for me to do whatever I want!!!!!! Duh! So I started dreaming! When I mentioned my idea to my neighbor, she told me that she had an old garden table that I could have!!!! I was so excited! It also had two stools!!!! She is an amazing neighbor and it was so kind! So I took it and and my hubbie slaved away on it on Sunday!!! He cut the legs down, power washed the dirt and old finish off it, and stained it a really nice red. It turned out really nice! Then I finished it up this morning for the girls to work at! So far it has been a great hit! I LOVE it! It is just a really sweet place for the girls to keep their stuff and work on projects outside! A lot of the work that I made for our work station were ideas that came from the book Playful Learning. This book is full of great ideas and I love her learning ideas! If you have a chance to check it out I really recommend it! She also has a blog that had a ton of giveaways going right now and you can check that out here! So anyway, enough chit chat! ;) Here are the pictures of our work station! Let me know what you think!

Here is our Work Station! Cute right?

I have rock for building and side walk chalk!

Scrub brushes! I found them at the Dollar Tree for a $1!!!

Here are some wire sculptures that Bunny made while I was setting it up!

Here is the bunting I made! I love bunting! It just really made it so cute!

There is a little drawer that has a box with colored pencils and regular pencils!

Here are the tubs that the work boxes are in. I wanted to make sure that they were all in several layers of protection so the weather doesn't hurt it! Inside these tubs are some typical school boxes that have the work in!

I even have a place now for their watering cans!

Here is a leaf project where you observe a leaf and then make it with wire. Bunny saw this is Playful Learning and wanted to do it! It is tricky, but she had enjoyed making other things out of the wire too!

Here is a box for doing rubbings!

These are story rocks! They have been a huge hit with Bunny and they were super easy to make! Just a little paint and some clear coat! What you do is tell a story using the rocks to help illustrate it!

Here are some blank books for Bunny to write in.

I also put the odds and ends that Bunny used for her fairy garden out here for her to use.

Finally I have some show strings, clothes pins, and fabric pieces to let the girls make forts or what ever else they come up with! They love free play!

Here is Bunny showing me her wire work! :)

Here is Pup trying to rub a leaf! We have to practice that! :)

All in all it is a really cool area that will allow me to give then work time outside! I think I will be able to rotate the boxes and have some seasonal fun here!


17 comments:

  1. Well Done!! Love all the activities! You go girl!! Thank you for sharing
    Discovering Montessori

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  2. Love this! Can I come to your house?!! Lucky girls!

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  3. Wow! This is such an amazing environment for your girls! I love this idea!

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  4. I LOVE IT!!! I am adding this to my Pinterest. I totally want to copy you:) Thank you for posting your wonderful area.

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  5. wonderful, wonderful, wonderful! I am at school all day tomorrow.. so hopefully will have some photos to post at the end of the day!
    I cannot post as me.. do not know why? Sam (Secret Garden)

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  6. Omigosh! Can we come over to play!?!? It looks like so much fun. I might just have to copy you and make one of my own. I love it.

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  7. Thanks everyone! I love how it turned out! Let me know if anyone makes an outside work area! :) Thanks Sam for your great inspiration and for stopping by! :)

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  8. It looks so fun! Great job to your hubby on the carpentry and great job to you on the planning and setting everything up! Everything about it is awesome :)

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  9. This is absolutely awesome! I love prepared outside environments - and you did an amazing job! I featured your post at the Living Montessori Now Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/LivingMontessoriNow

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  10. This is wonderful! What a great idea! And what good luck that your neighbor had such great garden center and that they gave it to you!!!

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  11. IT'S SOOOO BEAUTIFUL!!! GREAT IDEA!!! I LOVE IT!!... Thanks for posting it!!!!

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  12. Thank you all! We love it!
    Deb~ Thanks for sharing it on FB!

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  13. Thank you for this! I love it so much that I posted it in my blog :)

    http://365daysofmotherhood.blogspot.com/2011/11/loving-it.html

    I'm looking forward to doing a similar project for our balcony! Thanks again.

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  14. Gosh, this is such a great idea. I'm already trying to think how I can make something similar for my girls. Thanks for posting this and all the lovely photos of your activity boxes.

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  15. I love your outdoor activity posts, Stephanie! I featured your outdoor posts and a photo from this post in my Montessori-Inspired Outdoor Environment at http://livingmontessorinow.com/2012/04/02/montessori-monday-montessori-inspired-outdoor-environment/

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