The Dig Pit
These kids love to dig! One thing our preschool space must have is a designated digging area. As our garden space began to come to life at this onset of spring, we knew that one of the first steps had to be making our Dig Pit. Before any plants reached the soil, we determined which part of the garden was going to be reserved for digging. Elliott, Miah, Braden, and Dominic spent all morning digging a huge hole in what would become our Dig Pit, letting everyone know that they’re planning to dig “so deep, all the way down to the Ninja Turtles!”
After Together Time the following day, we took a whole-group excursion into the garden and worked together to create our Dig Pit, where we found a couple huge bags of soil! The children worked together to figure out how to open it and get the soil out (after puncturing the bags with shovels, it was quite tricky to lift and tilt and push and pull to empty it!). They then used rakes and shovels to spread the dirt across our whole digging area until it was full enough to play.
After all of that problem solving and hard physical work, we gathered materials to make our Dig Pit complete. It has now become the permanent home to our rakes, shovels, watering cans, dump truck, and construction sign. Since its completion, our Dig Pit has been getting lots of use. We’re seeing even more problem solving, motor development, collaboration and cooperation, sensorial learning, creativity, and language blossom in this area, and the kids really seem to love having a functional area in the garden just for digging play!
