You are receiving this email because you are enrolled in WEESSN or signed up to receive this monthly newsletter.

With the majority of young children in the United States enrolled in child care, often for 8 to 10 hours per day, the outdoor environments of our child care programs are important. Research shows that having access to outdoor green spaces is vital to children’s physical and emotional well-being. Child care settings with naturalized outdoor environments provide children with safe, ready-made access to green spaces where they can interact with nature. This month’s Farm to ECE newsletter will focus on ideas to enhance your program’s outdoor environment for the children in your care.

Last month, we asked providers what parts of their outdoor environments the children loved most. There were so many great ideas shared! Here are the top 10 responses:

1. The garden
2. Grassy space for running and playing
3. Walking path
4. Mud kitchen
5. Sensory spaces
6. Water play
7. Playhouse
8. Shrubs and trees that provide shade and play nooks
9. Sandbox
10. Digging area

Read on for more ideas for your program’s outdoor environment!

Celebrate Wisconsin’s Cucumber Crunch

Celebrate summer by participating in the Cucumber Crunch! This is a simple, celebratory event to promote local foods and farm to school activities. Pick any date this summer and have staff and children crunch into local cucumbers.

Register your program for the Crunch! Registrants will receive free stickers and a packet of cucumber seeds for registering on a first-come, first-served basis.

Garden Tips Texting Program 

Do you want to plant and tend a garden this year in your child care program, but you just need a little advice? Join our FREE Garden Tips Texting Program! Each week on Monday evening, you’ll receive a text from the Food Systems Coordinators with useful gardening tips for the week. Information like, “Now it’s time to put your tomato plants in the garden. Here’s the best way to plant them,” or “How to plant seeds with preschoolers.” A few things to know about our texting program: 

• If you received the Garden Tips texts last year, you don’t need to do anything. You’ll remain on our list for this year (you can opt out of the texts at any time.) There will be new content for the 2024 growing season! 
• This is just for us. We won’t sell or give away your number to anyone. The program’s only purpose is to help you garden more successfully with the children in your program. 
• We won’t try to sell you anything! 
• Message and data rates may apply, depending on your cell phone plan. 
• You can opt out at any time. 

Local Foods and Resources

Sourcing Inexpensive or Free Materials for Your Outdoor Environment

Most of the loose parts that make for creative, interactive outdoor play spaces are free or inexpensive. If you have the time and are willing to do some collecting and hauling, you can find lots of great materials on your next nature hike. Connecting with a local arborist is a great way to get logs or stumps for climbing or sitting. Many other items, like baskets, pans, and recycled items, can be found at yard sales or thrift shops.

Here are some free or low-cost items to look for to enhance your outdoor environment:

• Rocks (small ones in baskets, flat ones on the ground to make a walking path)
• Wood (sticks, stumps, planks, pallets and boards, tree coins)
• Shells
• Seeds (acorns, nuts, dried beans, seed pods)
• Pinecones
• Straw bales
• Milk crates
• Old sheets and clothespins for building forts
• Recycled rain gutters, cut in half and anchored on a fence to make a trough for toy boats
• Pots, pans, and buckets of all sizes
• Recycled toy xylophones to make a music wall

Learning in an Outdoor Environment

Outdoor learning offers infinite opportunities to engage the senses. Outdoor learning environments are sensory-rich, including opportunities to play with sand, water, soil, and natural materials such as branches, pinecones, grasses, stones, flowers, seeds, and much more. Some outdoor learning environments contain traditional playground equipment, while others choose to focus on the elements of nature for gross motor skill-building and outdoor play.

Are you thinking of adding learning opportunities to your outdoor environment? Consider the following elements:

Outdoor Gathering Areas: These areas can invite collaborative play between a small group of children or host large groups for stories and circle activities. Bean huts are fun for a small group, while a circle of stumps or some blankets or small rugs in the grass work well for larger groups. Grassy spaces give children space to run and play large group games, as well as a soft place to relax or practice new skills.

Shade: Shady areas can be created by planting clusters of trees or shrubs, with an arbor of grapevines, a covered deck or pergola, or using other vining plants to create tunnels or hoops.

Sand and Water: These areas could be near each other to encourage the use of water in sand creations.

Pathways: Main pathways of cement, asphalt, or crushed stone invite bikes or trikes into the environment and connect the indoor and outdoor environment. Woodchip pathways connect gardens and quiet spaces.

Outdoor Classrooms: This area includes storage for learning materials to be used outdoors, plus tables for children to complete activities.

Tomato is the Harvest of the Month!

July means tomatoes ripening in the garden. It’s no surprise that the juicy and delicious tomato is the most popular garden vegetable in the U.S. It is featured in favorites from condiments to soups and salads, and everything in between.

Tomato facts:

• Tomatoes are native to Mexico and the Andean regions of Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia in South America. The Incas and Aztecs have cultivated these plants since 700 AD.
• The word “tomato” comes from the Aztec language. The Nahuatl word tomatl means “something round and plump.” When tomatoes were first introduced to Europe, the French called them “the apple of love” and the Germans called them “the apple of Paradise.” Italians refer to the tomato as “pomodoro” which translates as “golden apple.”
• Tomatoes come in many varieties, including cherry, grape, beefsteak, plum, paste, slicing, and pear. Tomatoes are most common in shades of red, but orange, yellow, green, pink, and purple varieties exist too!

Try a new recipe featuring tomatoes:

Pico de Gallo

Roasted Vegetable Sauce

Tomato Cucumber Avocado Salad

Gardens

Theme Gardens

Growing gardens following a theme creates excitement and engagement. Invite children to be part of the planning process. Whether you create a themed garden for the fall, or plan to create themed gardens next year, check out some of these ideas for inspiration. We love seeing your gardens grow! Tag us in pictures of your garden on social media at #weessngarden

Salsa Garden: Grow ingredients to make salsa, including tomatoes, onions, garlic, cilantro, and jalapeno!

Fairy Garden: This garden typically includes mini figures and decorations that inspire fantasy play. Include plants like miniature ferns, creeping thyme, and mosses. Add flowers like alyssum, petunias, or impatiens for a pop of color.

Tea Garden: This garden includes ingredients that make delicious teas or infused waters. Mints, lemon balm, lemon verbena, chamomile, anise hyssop, and tulsi (also called holy basil) are perfect for the tea garden.



Pizza Garden: Grow ingredients to make delicious pizzas all in one garden! Include basil, garlic, tomatoes, onions, and bell peppers.

Color Garden: Grow several plants that feature the same color. A mixture of flowers and vegetables can be included. A red garden, for example, could have red zinnias, cherry tomatoes, red snacking peppers, and red radishes, or red potatoes.

Enter Our Monthly Drawing!

This month, we are giving away children's watering cans from Grow Organic. Three people will be chosen randomly to win a colorful 5 1/2" tall metal watering can. Fill out this form to enter. The entry deadline is 5 p.m. on Tuesday, July 16. Items will be mailed in late July.

Congratulations to June's Winners:

Maria Reyes, New Generation Family Child Care

Ieyduh Ali, Epic Childcare

Daisy Palma, Daisy's Daycare

Healthy Early at Home

Healthy Early at Home, a guide for families on well-being, healthy eating, and physical activity, is now available as a FREE download from our partners at Healthy Early! This guide is packed with great resources for mental health, feeding children healthy foods on a budget, and being active as a family.

Share this free download with families in your program today!

Do you have questions or suggestions for future content in our Farm to ECE newsletter? Contact Catherine Hansen and Mary O'Connell, WEESSN Food Systems Coordinators.

Explore more of what WECA has to offer:

T.E.A.C.H. | REWARD | FOOD PROGRAM | WECA MEMBERSHIP |

CONFERENCE | TRAINING | WEESSN | RAISING WISCONSIN