With winter coming just around the corner, now is a good time to make sure everyone is ready for the season.

At YPCE our outdoor focus means we spent a significant part of our days outside, so we have lots of experience in dressing children and adults to have a great experience.

This video shows the process of dressing a young child for a day of outdoor winter play. It also highlights the different layers that the child should wear to help keep warm.

Adults and children both need to stay warm in cold weather, so our Nature Educator team has put together a tip sheet on her best ways to keep warm on a cold day.

Tips to stay warm in the cold weather

Dress Like a Goose

• Bundle up! The more skin that is covered the warmer you will be.
• Dress in layers. Have an inner, warmth and outer layer. Don’t forget to layer your socks too. The best way to keep feet warm is by wearing two pairs of socks that serve a different purpose. The under layer should be a thin pair of ‘wicking’ socks. They remove perspiration from the skin to a thicker outer sock. Sweating is a cooling mechanism and can lead to cold feet.
• Wear wool. Have you ever seen a cold sheep? Wool is incredibly warm. It’s particularly good on a wet winter days because (unlike other natural materials) wool retains heat even when wet. Wool does this because it’s made up of a complex web of fibers. And although down is actually the material with the best insulation-to-weight ratio, it doesn’t cope nearly as well when wet. Wool socks are best, as cotton does not provide insulation when damp or wet.
• Wear a scarf. The neck is a pulse point. When pulse points are warm, in general the body stays warm. Hats are vital as they keep the warmth in.
• Tuck everything in. This is to avoid something called the “chimney effect” Dense cold air works it way into pant legs or sleeves and pushes light warm air out of other holes.

Give extra care for fingers and toes

• Fingers and toes get cold most easily because they are the parts of your body the farthest from your heart, and because once they are cold, your brain directs the capillaries in your extremities to cut off circulation to those parts (known as vasoconstriction) to protect the body’s core from cold blood returning to the heart.
• Pre warm gloves and boots by a heater before going outside.
• Carry two pairs of gloves, keeping the second pair on your body so that your body heat keeps them toasty. If your fingers get cold, remove your gloves and place your bare hands against your belly or against your thighs. Once the blood has returned to your fingers, put on the gloves you’ve kept warn and put the cold ones in your pocket.
• Also mittens are warmer than gloves because fingers benefit from their collective warmth, and get cold easily when isolated. Whenever dexterity isn’t critical, or in extreme cold, wear mittens.

Movement is Key

• Clothing only helps trap heat; your body is what keeps you warm.
• Anytime you get cold, the single best strategy for rewarming is to start moving and increase your pace. Children have less body fat and mass then educators so they cool off more quickly than adults do.
• High knees, lunges, and jumping jacks are great to turn up your bodies’ furnace.

Pace Yourself

• Minimizing how much we perspire in cold temperatures is critical to keeping warm, because wet clothing conducts heat away from your body. Try to set a pace that keeps you warm without causing overheating.

Adjust Layers

• Sometimes its impossible to avoid sweating, so adjust your clothing layers. Allow to open jackets, remove hats for short durations

Eat More

• Our bodies need more fuel in cold temperatures to keep our internal furnace burning. Having snacks outside will support keeping the furnace full. Feeling a chill or fatigue is often an indicator that your body needs food.

Sit on something

• The ground, rocks, logs and all other natural objects are frozen in winter and will suck the cold from your body via thermal conduction if you sit on them. Instead use garbage bags, small cushions, tarps etc. to sit on.

Worship the sun

• Just like you would seek shade on a hot day, in cold temperatures, seek the warmth of the sun. Find a spot to explore sheltered from the wind

If you are really cold

• Try rubbing your wrists. Rubbing your wrists helps you warm up quickly because these are parts of the body know as ‘pulse points’, where the blood vessels come close to the surface of the skin. Heating this area will help heat the blood and the rest of the body.