Lying beneath the shade of a tree, feeling the texture of bark, listening to waves… share some quality time in nature during the first year of your baby’s life with our ‘25 Things to do with children in nature before they turn 1’.
Year Level: Early Years
A straightforward resource from the US that details what makes great nature play, why it is important, and how you can restore it to your children’s daily lives.
This episode of the Sage Family Podcast is an engaging interview with Peter Gray, Evolutionary Psychologist, blogger and author of the inspiring book Free to Learn. Peter explains why the adult way of looking at childhood can have a negative impact on childhood learning and the consequences of disallowing inoculations of risk. Peter is a research professor of psychology at Boston College and founding board member and president of the alliance for self-directed education.
Subject Area: Risky Play
Why does the phrase “Drive fast, take chances” elicit both laughter and fear? Researchers have identified a kind of developmentally important play called “Scary Funny.” Listen to this engaging conversation between Occupational Therapist Kathleen Lockyer and Dr Mariana Brussoni, risk researcher from the University of British Columbia to learn more about how a little bit of risk can go a long way towards a child reaching their true potential.
Length: 1h : 33m : 00s
Subject Area: Risky Play
A collection of printable posters from our Educator Magazine Issue 2.
This article explains why getting dirty in the garden can be even more beneficial for mental health than previously thought. Antidepressant microbes in soil may increase production of serotonin, a stress reducing hormone in humans. The Mycobacterium vaccae bacterium was tested both by injection and ingestion on rats, and the results were increased cognitive ability, lower stress and better concentration on tasks than a control group. Includes links to original research.
This toolkit from the World Forum Foundation’s Nature Action Collaborative and Nature Explore contains over 80 pages of activities to use with children ages 3-8 years old in early childhood and school settings. The guide is focused on positive actions that teachers and children can take together to make the world a “greener” and healthier place.
Year Level: Early Years, Primary
This document from Western Australia is a powerful resource for recognising and linking curriculum, outcomes and capabilities to Nature Play/Pedagogy from Early Years up to and including Year 6.
Outdoor learning spaces are a feature of Australian learning environments. They offer a vast array of possibilities not available indoors. Play spaces in natural environments include plants, trees, edible gardens, sand, rocks, mud, water and other elements in nature. These spaces invite open-ended interactions, spontaneity, risk-taking, exploration, discovery and connection with nature. They foster an appreciation of the natural environment, develop environmental awareness and provide a platform for ongoing environmental education (DEEWR, 2009, P. 16).
Year Level: Early Years, Primary
Subject Area: Curriculum
This easy to use App from FrogWatch SA contains a regional catalogue of frogs found in South Australia with species identification information including full colour photos and frog call audio. It also gives users the chance to contribute valuable habitat information to a public online database via the Frog Survey tool. The survey tool has provision to auto capture your location via GPS, allows for audio recording, picture taking and habitat information collection for each survey conducted. You can create groups, submit your surveys and read other people’s surveys easily from a map view.
Positive risk-taking in outdoor physical play is important for children’s optimal health and development. Despite this, there is mounting concern that many developmentally beneficial activities are now seen as dangerous and something to be avoided. Perceptions of risk are very much subject to cultural interpretation, and the growing risk aversion evident in some developed Western countries, namely Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States, is less obvious in other developed countries, notably some of the European and Scandinavian countries. To explore some of these cultural differences, early childhood practitioners from Australia and Norway were asked about the outdoor play experiences they provide for children and their attitude towards risk-taking in play. Results showed that practitioners from both countries recognised the importance of risky play for children’s development and well-being. However, differences in the extent to which children’s risky play was supported were evident. Factors associated with the quality of the outdoor play space, regulations, and threat of litigation were identified as constraints for the Australian practitioners. These findings have implications for the development of policy supporting teachers’ pedagogical decision to provide developmentally challenging play environments for children.
Year Level: Early Years
Subject Area: Risk