Riverside Park

Week 14: Wandering

The next time that Mike and I went out to explore La Crosse, I made an effort to have so unstructured time.  We had driven around the area before, but I had yet to visit one of the parks in La Crosse.  After driving around for awhile, we made a stop at the Riverside Park on the Mississippi River.

We walked along the side of the river, exploring the fountains, restaurant menus, and frozen flowers.  The lights and decorations for the Rotary Lights were up around La Crosse.  They were even pretty to look at in the daylight.  Though the Mississippi River has just about frozen over, there was still a lone duck wading in the river between the ice patches. It was lovey to just go for a walk without having a plan or an itinerary.

A child's day has a lot of structure during the school day.  They are told when they can eat lunch, when they can rest, and what they are allowed to do and not do all day.  When one add's after school-activities, many student's spend most of their day in structured activities. I will use unstructured time in my classroom to allow children to have time to let their mind wander and utilize their creativity.