Music Nature-based early childhood education is this broad umbrella term that incorporates lots of different program models and though all of those program models have in common that they bring together the best of early childhood and environmental education. What happens is there's dual goals of both child development but also environmental sustainability and this connection to the natural world and something bigger than ourselves. So a nature-based preschool has three physical spaces of the inside outside and beyond the area outside the place.
area and they're outside or beyond 30% of the day at minimum. Generally speaking, there's sort of a typical structure of the day. So we start with outdoor play and that's anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour to maybe longer depending on how play is going, right?
It's all dependent on what the children are engaged with. Then they will gather as a group and welcome everyone, you know, who's missing, sort of community building time. And then during that group meeting they will often do do an activity, a teacher-led activity, that will then prompt whatever the hike is going to be, the experience to the beyond. Then they'll go out onto the beyond. The beyond time might be a half hour, might be an hour.
It could be the rest of the day. Music Then there's usually snack time. Again snack might be back in the main building, it might be outside in the play area, it might still be out in the beyond that they've taken with them.
And then there's always another choice time where there's free play again and that play might happen again indoors, might be in the outdoor play area, it might be in the beyond. So the location of these parts of the day varies but the parts of the day happen in the same order so that children know what to expect. Often programs will have a small group group activity towards the end of the day where a teacher is working with five or six kids on a particular activity that's led by the teacher but of course still open-ended and that I think that with the role of the teacher being a co-learner right more than just didactic all-knowing being of here I'm going to teach you what I know but if I'm a co-learner with the children I'm discovering all this wonder and awe as well and so then we can learn and learn together. Oh no, I made the wrong choice. It got stuck against the tree.
Should we go the other way? Okay. Look, look, I saw a bug, I saw a bug.
Ooh, he's a cool roly poly. He kind of has stripes on him. Oh, look at all his friends. Look it, look it, look it.
Oh, he landed on me. He's strong. Does it take long? You know what I noticed about his antenna?
Look at his antenna are kind of bent. They go boop boop boop. Let's see if he can flip himself over. You think he can do it?
There! He did it! Everything that happens related to the curriculum is centered around nature and what is happening seasonally because the children are outside playing in that natural world what they're interested in is of course going to be seasonally based and driven by their interest but they're also emphasizing learning with nature more than learning in or about nature so that we're really using the natural world as another teacher and and our learning is emerging from what we're experiencing at the time Children need to be outside.
They need this connection as part of their day-to-day life. Not as an extra, not as some thing we just do every once in a while, but an ongoing regular experience with the natural world for their whole development. If they're going to be whole children and ultimately whole adults, which is which is our goal.
No matter where you are, whatever your program is, every program can integrate the outdoors in on some level. So even if it's an urban space or in a very natural wild space in the middle of nowhere, everyone has the opportunity to. integrate nature into their program in more authentic and meaningful ways.
The nature-based approach really does change lives across the board from kids to parents to teachers and the more we do it, the more we can have a positive impact on the world.