Date: Wednesday, February 15

Time: 6:30pm - 8:30pm MST

Location: On-line

Cost: $39.00 *pending PD funding approval in Alberta

REGISTRATION CLOSED

When exploring outdoor play it’s very tempting to provide an inventory of activities that have a clear start, middle, and end, that can be easily scratched off our long laundry list of things to do in our days while working with children. But what if play can be more than this? What would play look like if it were both a mindset and a practice that we embedded into our personal and professional lives?

In this workshop, we’ll explore 6 (dynamic) core principles of outdoor play and a playful mindset including:

  • Expressing and mobilizing the imagination
  • Exploring self-agency & freedom
  • Building trust and interconnectedness with others
  • Seeking out a sense of wonder & awe on a regular basis
  • Experimenting with elements of physical and emotional risk
  • Pushing boundaries of "what's possible"

We’ll then look at what this means in our day to day practice and how to bring these principles to life:

  • The daily habits of a playful mindset
  • Setting the “container” and “conditions” for play
  • Walking along the play continuum (ranging from free, unstructured play to playful experiences)
  • Designing rich play environments
  • Creating safe spaces and trusting relationships
  • Scaffolding and stretching play
  • Other hands-on approaches to incorporate play into our daily lives

 

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Marnie Power

She/Her

M.Ed [in completion], B.S.W.

 

Marnie Power is an experienced leader and speaker in outdoor and play-based learning. After establishing the first Forest School in Canada in 2008, she went on to develop a professional learning initiative to support educators and early childhood educators (Forest School Canada), while leading the Child and Nature Alliance of Canada [CNAC] as their Executive Director. She was also a former steering committee member of Outdoor Play Canada, as well as founder of the Ottawa Forest and Nature School, a program now run by Andrew Fleck Children’s Service in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

 

Since leaving her role with CNAC she participated in a two-year Child and Nature Fellowship hosted by Community Knowledge Exchange, where she has pursued creative and academic pursuits. In the fellowship, Marnie wrote and self-published a children’s book called “A TOWNIE NOW” based on her own life as a young child who loses her connection to place and the land. After moving into social housing in ‘town’, she has to rediscover her sense of home, and who she is now without the comforts of the ‘bay’.

 

Marnie is completing a Master’s degree in Education at Trent University where she’s been exploring the intersections between play-based learning, the outdoors, self-agency, and how pedagogy translates into practice for educators. Marnie is a proud mom of Hazel (16), and Emry (13), as well as a Newfoundlander living in Chelsea, Quebec, Canada. She’s a twin, and queer woman who likes to wander aimlessly in the woods or near water, whenever she can.

Posted in 2023webinar