Top 5 FREE Resources to Promote Nature Play
What do you remember most fondly about growing up? Chances are, your memory includes playing outdoors. Unfortunately, many children in today’s world don’t have that opportunity. Whether you are a parent, educator, or an advocate of outdoor play and learning experiences for children—we encourage you to take the next steps to connect children with nature. This list is for you!
Nature Explore Resource Guide
If you haven’t already requested your complimentary Nature Explore Resource Guide, you can get one here. This full-color guide highlights outdoor classroom design services and workshops for educators who support learning with nature. You will also find beautiful outdoor furnishings and natural products to enhance children’s learning and play. Contact us if you would like to request multiple copies for conferences, college courses, events, or to distribute to your decision-making committee.
World Forum Foundation Environmental Action Kit
Are you looking for activities and resources to engage children outdoors, or for ways to inspire children’s love for the earth? The Environmental Action Kit has been made possible through the support of many committed organizations and funders, all working in partnership with the World Forum Foundation. It features activities geared for ages 3-8 that focus on a variety of stewardship-related themes. Each activity follows a similar format and includes a field-tested, science-based, hands-on activity, tips for educators, an action step, a celebration, and a list of resources that can help you find other fun ways to support the topic.
Nature Explore Families’ Club Kit
Find nature-filled, developmentally appropriate interactive activities to use with students, families or clubs. This resource also includes forms and tips to help you organize your own local Nature Explore Families’ Club. A facilitator’s guide with helpful hints on organization is included, as well as notes specific to each activity. You can download the entire Families’ Club Kit or order a low-cost, pre-printed package so you have everything at your fingertips and ready to go.
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Schoolyard Habitat Project Guide
The Schoolyard Habitat Project Guide was developed by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in partnership with teachers, students, administrators and community members from across the country. The Schoolyard Habitat Program helps teachers and students create wildlife habitat at their own schools, including areas of wetlands, meadows, forests and variations based on specific ecoregions. The how-to guide includes everything from planning, installing and sustaining the habitat project. From establishing your team, to creating a planting plan, calculating quantities of soil and mulch, and acquiring resources, this guide can help enrich the process of planning and implementing an outdoor classroom.
Nature Explore Community Connection
If you haven’t already, we invite you to explore the rest of Community Connection, which is a great link to more inspiring blog posts, funding resources, and volunteer information. Specifically, funding resources includes a complimentary fully customizable grant template, developed to assist you in fundraising for a Nature Explore Classroom. Also offered is a list of organizations who have financially contributed to outdoor classrooms in the past. Many of these organizations offer grants that may be available to your program. Finally, read tips for submitting a funding request, written by a grant writing professional.
Do you have additional resources that our growing community might find valuable? Let us know in the comments below!
