In the recent decades, people have started to lose genuine contact with nature. Trying to protect their children, some parents prefer keeping them at home or have them play at a playground under their supervision. In doing so, they probably do protect children against dirt and possible injuries, but they hinder them from gaining invaluable experience and knowledge. Not only parents, but also kindergarten teachers and teachers bear significant responsibility to enable children to often come in direct contact with nature, thus ensuring their quality integrated development. While playing and learning outdoors, children develop their motor, cognitive, emotional and social skills. However, the goal of outdoor activities should not only be acquiring knowledge and skills, but also encouraging excitement at, curiosity about and respect for nature and everything it entails. In the early 1970s, Joseph Cornell, a scientist and writer, was already aware of that, and he developed an outdoor teaching method, named flow learning. In addition to supervised outdoor activities, great importance is attributed to free play, guided by children’s imagination and curiosity. Nature offers countless sensory perceptions and non-structured materials, which children, if allowed, willingly benefit from. Said approaches – Joseph Cornell’s flow learning teaching method and outdoor free play – were used in our research, in which we analysed changes in children’s perception and experience of the forest. Pupils of the first three grades of a primary school were divided into two groups; one engaged in outdoor free play, while the other learnt about the forest through activities based on Joseph Cornell’s flow learning teaching method. By gathering children’s drawings and conducting surveys, we acquired data on their perception and experience of the forest. The results of our research showed that supervised activities designed for children to actively learn about nature contribute more to the perception of the forest, compared to children’s free play in the forest. In the forest, both groups of pupils experienced mainly positive emotions. Children who engaged in free play remember the most how they played with natural materials, while children who participated in supervised activities based on Joseph Cornell’s flow learning teaching method remember the most how they explored nature through different senses. We can confirm that pupils gained extraordinary experience through outdoor play and activities they deem interesting and fostered relationships, which are important for their future.
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