TIMBER LINN PARKAlbany, Oregon.

By Sarah Bourne

ED 487

http://www.cityofalbany.net/parks/parks.php?show=Timber_Linn&view=Timber_Linn-18.jpg

How Can Parks Help

Educate Children?

According to the American Planning Association, “City parks offer children the daily benefits of direct experience with nature, the motivation to explore, discover, and learn about there world and to engage in health promoting, physical activity.”

Timber Linn Park Offers Children-

A chance to explore and learn from:

Nature Creek Pond Bugs Ducks Fish Plants Trees

Sports and Activities Soccer - AYSO Baseball and T-ball Frisbee Golf Horse Shoes

War Memorial Home of the 63rd Blue Star Veterans

Memorial.Events and Recreation

Picnics Parties Sporting Events Outdoor Concerts Wah Chang’s Art and Air Festival

A three day event at the park.

Wah Chang’s Art and Air Festival

Hot air balloons each morning.

Craft booths with displays and items for sale.

Old Cars. Children's crafts and

activities. Youth Eagle Flights free

for children ages 8-17. Night glow one evening. Concerts each night.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/ photo/5WblZE_O87J4Z5iUYK5RNQ

Location

The park is located on 90 acres. Within a mile of the ridges schools. Next to the Albany Municipal Airport and

the Fair Grounds. Located on the city bus route.

Using Timber Linn to Build School and

Family Partnerships.

Classrooms can take field trips to the park, and encourage parents to join them on the field trip.

Ask parent to take a trip to the park with children and complete a scavenger hunt. The teacher can make one with questions like find

three things that are the color red, or how many steps are there on the slide. The questions can vary depending on students age.

This can promote cognitive skills like counting and color recognition in young children.

This also encourages parents to be creative and engage children in learning outside.

Class picnics or BBQ’s can be held at the park.

Family fun day’s, where the families of the class can get together at the park for a day of fun and games.

Things you can do with

children at the park.

Look at and compare rocks, are they flat, round, smooth, or sharp.

Look for bugs, ask children about where they think bugs might be.

Skip rocks on the pond. Watch and feed the ducks, depending on

the time of year watch the ducklings. Ask children where the ducks might build a nest.

Play tag or ball. Go fishing.

“Adults ability to use the resources available in the parks either enhances or limits what is learned.”

A park allows for the whole family to be involved in learning and teaching.

Teachers can use parks as an educational tool, to encourage families to visit parks.

Parents can use natural resources to educate children by exploring parks in the community they live in.

Parks encourage physical activity.

Barbour,C, Barbour., N., & Scully,P. (2011) Families, Schools, and Communities Building Partnership for Education Children. New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.

“Play gives children a chance to practice what they are learning....They have to play with what they know to be true in order to find out more, and then they can use what they learn in new forms of play.”

--Fred Rogers of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood

Resources http://www.scribd.com/doc/22929/play-qu

otes http://www.planning.org/cityparks/briefin

gpapers/helpchildrenlearn.htm Barbour,C, Barbour., N., & Scully,P. (2011)

Families, Schools, and Communities Building Partnership for Education Children. New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.