Resources
Place-Based Scientific Inquiry: A Practical Handbook for Teaching Outside
Cover image for book Place Based Scientific Inquiry, showing three students touching a soil sample
A new open-access book for educators focused on justice-first and place-based scientific inquiry, following best practices from the Next Generation Science Standards.
How-to Guide for Caregiver & Child Classes
7 Recorded Sessions, View at Your Own Pace Inspired by LEAP Outside, this wonderful, one-of-a-kind resource is for those who wish to create a community-based infant/toddler/preK program. Includes four seasons of lesson plans, pre-recorded coaching sessions from LEAP founder Evie Wilkinson, and MANY, MANY downloadable shortcuts.
We're constantly looking for great resources for our members. Below is a complete list of the resources we've gathered so far. You can select the types of resources you're looking for. To select more than one type of resource, hold the control button while you make your selections.
This book examines the reasons why children should interact and connect with real animals, and it identifies the rich learning that results. You'll find lots of practical ideas to create authentic experiences that bring children and animals together - even if live animals are not permitted in your setting.
Coop Ecology provides the essential design features for those wishing to start a school based on cooperative and ecological principles. Though out of print, this is a PDF version for free. It has been used by dozens of place-based schools since its publication almost twenty years ago.
The guidebook serves as an educational resource and training tool that highlights research-based design procedures for both parks and school grounds. The publication brings cost effective design solutions to communities to support the development of new play environments and the retrofit of existing play areas.
The book Cultivating Joy and Wonder is the fruit of Shelburne Farms’ years of experience brought into your early childhood classroom through engaging activities, essays, and resources that encourage children to explore and engage in the world.
CULTIVATING KIDS features a school farm on South Whidbey Island, WA, and shows that a garden can be a valuable addition to the curriculum while encouraging a healthy diet.
This book is filled with guidance to help you plan, design, and create an outdoor learning program that is a rich, thoughtfully equipped, natural extension of your indoor curriculum - promoting the idea that if you can do it indoors, you can probably do it outside as well.
Dig In! Outdoor STEM Learning with Young Children
Dig In! Outdoor STEM Learning with Young Children
Authors Lea Ann Christenson, PhD, and Jenny James, MA, have created an easy to read, thought provoking book, complete with descriptive photos from a real outdoor preschool classroom, for teachers interested in bringing nature-based learning to their young learners.
ECEERS is a formative evaluation tool designed to assist programs in improving their environmental education curriculum. Private and public early childhood programs, be it center-based child development or family day care centers, can all benefit by making needed improvements in the quality of activities, experiences, interactions, and instruction pertaining to the world of nature .
This systematic review of 25 years of empirical studies of early childhood environmental education revealed strongly positive outcomes in environmental literacy development, cognitive development, social and emotional development, physical development and language and literacy development.
The project is committed to synthesizing the best thinking about environmental education through an extensive process of review and discussion. Reviewers include classroom teachers, daycare and early childhood education center staff members, educational administrators, environmental scientists, curriculum developers, and natural resource agency and education department staff members.
According to site creator Rusty Keeler, the Earthplay site is an online community designed to help people create playscapes that connect children with nature. The site includes ideas for do-it-yourself playscapes, resources, a blog, and more.
Nature-based preschools are powerful programs that fuse early childhood and environmental education to develop a child’s lifelong connection with the natural world. With the number of this program growing throughout the country, many nature centers are asking, “Is a nature-based preschool right for us?”
Exchange is committed to supporting early childhood environments where adults and children thrive – fosteering friendship, curiosity, self-esteem, joy, and respect; where the talents of all are fully challenged and justly rewarded. Exchange often includes articles related to connecting children to nature and other topics of interest to early childhood environmental educators.
A DVD that describes and vividly depicts the value of outdoor learning.