March 16: Writing Prompt #75-Show and Tell

You’ve been asked to do a five-minute presentation to a group of young schoolchildren on the topic of your choice. Describe your presentation.

So, this topic of my choice for schoolchildren is one that depends on the time frame in which it is given.  In the past, I could envision having given a presentation on reading and why it is so important or a presentation on how writing can be fun. I could also envision giving a presentation on nutrition and/or exercise or tips for studying and getting homework done.  But, today, at this very moment, if I had to give a presentation, it would be on the importance of spending time outside.

I am in the middle of taking a professional development course in Early Childhood Education titled, “Issues and Trends: Green.” The book that accompanies this class is “The Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder” by Richard Louv, and it is excellent.  I am only a little over halfway through and completely overwhelmed already with the amount of research and personal experience evidence of how essential it is for children and adults to spend more time outside in nature.  The premise is that children today are experiencing “nature-deficit disorder” due to their lack of exposure to trees, streams, flora, fauna, wildlife, etc…the true outdoors.  Children are rarely allowed to just explore the woods these days due to our fears and rules surrounding anything outside our safe, suburban homes.  But, spending time outdoors with our children and letting them simply explore on their own provides them with a calming influence, creativity, space, and just general well-being.  The author reveals nature as being essential to healthy physical and emotional health and proves through stories of real-life experiences  and formal research how nature can in itself be therapy for Attention Deficit and other learning disorders as well as just plain good for all of us!

Of course, this a wonderful topic for a presentation to educators and parents as well, but since I only have 5 minutes, and it’s for schoolchildren, I would make the presentation interactive. Finding a green space right outside their school, I might give them 2 minutes to draw a picture or write down how they feel when they are inside their classroom at their desks doing work, then I would take them outside and give them another 2 minutes to draw a picture and/or write about what they see there (using their five senses, of course), then I would tell them about how many teachers and researchers today believe children do not spend enough time outside and briefly state some of the things that nature can do for them (increase creativity, help them focus and find calm when they are feeling stressed, teach them about the world, help them in school, etc…) and end the presentation with opening up a discussion, giving children a chance to share the difference between their drawings/writing inside and outside and how it made them feel and end with asking them if they think the researchers and teachers could be right.