By Teacher Sophie
OISCA is an ecosystem with a diverse environment. Our garden is the place where kids spend a lot of time throughout the week and naturally navigate the terrain, while playing.
There are many facilities, such as the river, climbing stations, football field, sandbox, grass hill, rice field, turtle house and a bike path.
Shuttling between all those, kids create an imaginary map in head, and this is why it’s very important:
Spatial thinking allows them to understand the location and dimension of objects, and how different objects are related. This skill to visualize and manipulate objects and shapes in head allows them to build their own basic architecture projects and read map, when they grow up.
On a deeper level, spatial reasoning relates to how well someone is able to take in new and potentially abstract information and then apply that information appropriately. In this way, it's directly related to problem solving ability and critical thinking.
Each year we have some "hunts" where the kids go outside to search for patterns, colors, shapes, then they can draw a map of the garden and build their own model of the garden, using clay, grass paper, collected flowers and grass, wood, paint. They have a lot of fun and enjoy exploring, while their cognitive aptitude develops.
