Resources and activities

Educational, fun and easy to use resources and activities to support children to have agency in their own learning. These resources are planned with educational rigour in mind.

Activities

Story Stones for creative storytelling

Story Stones are a creative way to share stories with children, and also encourage them to join in with the storytelling themselves!

Outdoor Play

Webinar: Getting Started with the Environmental Kinship Guide

Join the co-authors as they discuss the newly-created Children’s Environmental Kinship Guide, a framework for supporting early childhood administrators and educators who are interested in implementing a curriculum that deepens children’s kinship with the natural world.

Two children balancing on a log in the forest

Outdoor Play

Forest schools and risky play

Forest schools are becoming more and more prominent, benefiting children in a number of ways. Ottawa Forest and Nature School are leading the way with their amazing outdoor early learning program in a 900 acre forest! But can we bring outdoor learning into our early childhood programs even if we don't have easy access to a forest?

Children playing with rocks in the dirt with a soccer ball sitting in the foreground.

Outdoor Play

Outdoor learning: Outdoor adventures & using our senses

Some of the best learning can take place outdoors. We put together some ideas of activities you can do with your children that will help them use their senses and connect with nature.

Children rest on a bench as they climb a hill

Outdoor Play

The World Around Us

Imagine a classroom without walls

A big part of going on regular nature explorations, is giving children the opportunity to become familiar with a location and learn about all of the ways it can be explored over time. Dr Anne Meade shares some valuable ideas to consider when embarking on developing your own nature-based learning program.

A toddler stands in a puddle in the middle of the forest

Outdoor Play

The World Around Us

Supporting children’s nature play - 3 key ingredients

There are 3 key ingredients to supporting children’s outdoor play and they are a lot simpler than you might think!

A path through a forest with the words "5 Tips to bring nature into your home or early learning environment

Outdoor Play

The World Around Us

Learning in nature - 5 tips to get you started

Providing children with opportunities to have nature-based learning experiences is so valuable, and you know it, but… Where do you start? Here are 5 tips to get you started.

Taking seed balls out of a mould to lay on the ground

Outdoor Play

The World Around Us

Have fun with seed balls

Making and spreading seed balls is a fun and easy way to create little spots of color in your garden or other surprising places!

Connecting With Communication

Land as First Teacher

In Reggio Emilia, Italy, they commonly say that the environment is the third teacher. But at the York Region Nature Collaborative at Lake St George in Toronto, they talk about land as being the first teacher. Hopi Martin, Johnny Moore and Diane Kashin unpack exactly what this means for them in their nature-based learning space.

Worms lying in the palm of a hand in rubber gloves

The World Around Us

Create your own worm farm

Worm farms are a great hands-on way for children to learn about the ecosystem. Involving them in creating and maintaining the worm farm, and using the vermicompost and worm tea to nurture a garden gives great meaning to the ways we can grow and harvest our own food.

Children smiling with their newly build pallet planter.

Activities

Outdoor Play

Build your own pallet planter

No matter your location, if you have an outside area made of concrete, or have an inner city rooftop for a play area, a pallet garden is a great way to involve children in growing fruit, vegetables, herbs or flowers.

Small Children using magnifying glasses to look at insects

Activities

Fine Motor Skills

Create an explorer kit to nurture children's curiosity about the natural world

By giving children the tools to investigate the natural world around them, they can make new discoveries and consider patterns in nature. Explorer kits are a fantastic learning tool and help to foster inquiring minds.

A zip-lock bag filled with compost with a straw poking out

Activities

Creating compost in a bag with children

Compost in a Bag is a way for children to easily understand the decomposition process, and to learn the full cycle of an edible plant - from soil to seed to plant to table to soil.