Learning With Nature

A beautifully designed book full of creative ideas and fun activities to get your children outdoors, with a foreword by Chris Packham. Spending time outdoors and interacting with the elements gives our senses a host of stimuli that cannot be recreated indoors. Whether you're splashing in muddy puddles, making shelters, foraging blackberries, playing hide and seek or watching birds, experiencing the natural world reduces stress, makes us feel alive and lays critical foundations for a healthy developing brain. Learning with Nature is ideal for parents, teachers and youth workers looking to enrich children's learning through nature and teach them to enjoy and respect the great outdoors. Written by experienced Forest School practitioners, it is packed with more than 100 tried and tested games and activities suitable for groups of children aged between 3 and 16, which aim to help children develop key practical and social skills and gain a better awareness of the world. The book is well-organised and features step-by-step instructions, age guides, a list of resources needed, and invisible learning points. Explore, have fun, make things and learn about nature with this fantastic guide.

An extensive book of outdoor activities suitable for a wide range of children and environments Learning with Nature" is full of fun activities and games to get children outdoors, to explore, have fun, make things, and learn about nature and help them grow up happy and healthy. Suitable for groups of children between ages 3 and 16, the graded activities help children develop key practical and social skills, awareness of their place in the world, and respect for the natural world, all while enjoying the great outdoors. Written by experienced forest school practitioners, using tried-and-tested games and activities, it provides comprehensive information for enriching children s learning through nature. The games and activities are clearly categorized, with step-by-step instructions, an age guide, a list of resources needed, and invisible learning points. This book is a unique must-have resource for families, schools, youth groups, and anyone working with children."

“A wealth of ideas for adults to engage children and themselves in the wonders of the natural world with suggested activities for all seasons.”―Robert Bateman, artist and author of Life Sketches: A Memoir The Big Book of Nature Activities is a comprehensive guide for parents and educators to help youth of all ages explore, appreciate, and connect with the natural world. This rich, fully illustrated compendium is packed with crafts, stories, information, and inspiration to make outdoor learning fun! The Big Book of Nature Activities features: · Nature-based skills and activities such as species identification, photography, journaling, and the judicious use of digital technology · Ideas, games, and activities grounded in what’s happening in nature each season · Core concepts that promote environmental literacy, such as climate change and the mechanisms and wonder of evolution, explained using a child-friendly, engaging approach · Lists of key species and happenings to observe throughout the year across most of North America

Learning outside the classroom is a key part of early years and primary practice and is on the rise in settings across the world. This book centres on outstanding outdoor practice and how children can learn and develop in natural environments. Focussing on children aged from 2-11 this book contains: A self-evaluation toolkit for educators to reflect on what they’re doing now and where to develop to be more effective. Examples of practice from around the world and in various environments, including urban settings. An entire chapter on assessment and planning to help ensure and demonstrate quality of provision. Looking at all the possibilities and approaches, there are models for practice to suit every setting so that everyone can make outdoor learning part of the core teaching and learning objectives. Claire Warden is an educational consultant with an international reputation for pioneering work in education and a focus on children’s connection to the natural world.

This book is a complete guide to Forest School provision and Nature Pedagogy and it examines the models, methods, worldviews and values that underpin teaching in nature. Cree and Robb show how a robust Nature Pedagogy can support learning, behaviour, and physical and emotional wellbeing, and, importantly, a deeper relationship with the natural world. They offer an overview of what a Forest School programme could look like through the year. The Essential Guide to Forest School and Nature Pedagogy provides ‘real-life’ examples from a variety of contexts, sample session plans and detailed guidance on using language, crafting and working with the natural world. This accessible resource guides readers along the Forest School path, covering topics such as: the history of nature education; our sensory system in nature; Forest School ethos and worldview and playing and crafting in the natural world. Guiding practitioners through planning for a programme, including taking care of a woodland site and preparing all the essential policies and procedures for working with groups and nature, this book is written by dedicated Forest School and nature education experts and is essential reading for settings, schools, youth groups, families and anyone working with children and young people.

This book brings together the lessons of research on both the nature of learning and different educational applications, and it summarises these as seven key concluding principles.

Nature-Based Learning for Every Preschool Setting is designed to provide ideas for all early childhood educators ranging from novice nature educators to highly experienced nature educators in a wide range of ecosystems, including forests, cities, prairies, coastal, and deserts. It includes background information on a range of nature topics, reproducible parent newsletters, sample play-based lesson plans, guidance and health and safety issues related to nature activities, ideas for free/inexpensive equipment and materials and for big ticket items, ideas for family involvement, and connections to early childhood learning standards. Chapters are divided by nature topic so readers can dip in right away where they want to start exploring.