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Children are so highly creative and learn to express their world and what’s around them in their own unique way from an early age.

Yet often we as adults try to stifle this creative freedom.

Perhaps by showing children how we expect their painting of a pumpkin to look and only offering one paint colour.

Maybe setting up a craft station where all the children have to make a paper spider with pipe cleaner legs.

Or

How about giving children templates, outlines to colour in or pre-determined shapes to use in their craft activity.

These stop us from focussing on the process of the learning and instead give the child the message that the outcome is what’s important here.

Instead talk to the children, “Ok so you want to make a representation of the bumblebee you saw outside, what materials shall we use? What colours would work best here? What shape will you make the body? How would be the best way to create the stripes?’

Consider the creative freedom you offer ...

Autumn is the most perfect time of the year to collect natural treasures in the great outdoors. 

Some of my favourites that I mention in the Wanderlust Child Nature Journal are;

• Crab apples
• Elderberries
• Rosehips
• Pears
• Acorns
• Ferns
• Pine cones
• Conkers

I like to give children little bags to collect these in and then offer sorting trays, jars and ten frames to explore with once back in setting. You might even give your children a numbered paper bag and ask them to collect the amount on the bag. There are many ways you can then extend this further with the language you use afterwards. How many would we have if we added one more conker to the bag? What happens if we added two bags together? What would happen if an acorn fell out of the bag? How could you sort the natural items you've collected?

How about asking your children and their families to make 100 jars of loose parts? Then ask your children to make their own labels and put these out to use in your loose parts ar...

‘Put your coat on Joe’
‘Jumper on Evie!’

The weather creates a brilliant way for us to learn key life skills but if we find ourselves just telling children what to do they won’t always understand the why.

Instead we can use experiences as a learning tool. Sometimes we need to let children go outside for a few minutes without a coat in winter but make sure our adult interactions support a learning opportunity here. Talking to the children about the weather, the way the coldness feels on the skin, wondering with the child what they could do to stay warmer. Linking back moments and other experiences. ‘Remember when we went to the farm last week and the wind was blowing and we were so cold. We wished we had our hats on to keep our ears warm!’

I also like to talk about the weather with the children as part of our morning meeting. Checking the weather forecast together and opening up discussions about what to wear, or to predict what might have happened to our puddles outside.

How do you like...

In this video from our Free 5 Day challenge (Join for FREE here) we explore how to document and support child led interests. 

By the end of our 5 days of training together you will be enthused to make learning happen outdoors and have a bank of knowledge and ideas on how to make it happen. Taking inspiration from Scandinavia.

I walk you through bringing more nature into your day through a series of short sessions and a little task for you to try. 

Day 1: Why nature based learning is needed
Day 2: Daily rhythm in nature
Day 3: Creating an environment for outdoor learning
Day 4: Child Led Learning in nature
Day 5: Provocations in nature

Kimberly 

Story telling/ small world play and nature

As a setting we are always outside exploring the outdoors whether it be the beach, woods, National Trust places or simply our garden. We feel being outdoors is as important as introducing books and rhymes into the children’s every day life so why not combine the two. We do this regularly and will pack props and story books based on the themes and childrens interests into our daily bag and take them out with us.

We find that by using props out and about grasps the children’s attention a lot more than sitting and listening on a rug. The children want to be involved, they want to take turns to hold the props - they will also use the props to retell and re enact the story later on in their play. Recently we visited a local National Trust place and explored the mud kitchen - we took Tiger who came to Tea story with us as it is a favourite and we felt that this would link in beautifully with the physical play around the mud kitchen. We...

My Wanderlust: A Nature Study Programme is an online programme that challenges the way we live our lives and encourages us to get outside more! Encouraging our next generation of scientists, explorers and adventurers.

Click Here! 

I know that November can be a less appealing time of the year to get outside with the gloomy damp weather but actually it’s a great time to learn and have fun!

First of all you just have to have the right clothing to prevent anyone getting miserable and cold (that includes you and your team!). I provide my children with a set of waterproof overalls that they need to wear if they are learning outdoors. I prefer the seperate waterproof over trousers with braces so these can still be worn in the warmer months with a t-shirt underneath or layered up over the winter. We also invest a part of our budget each year in supplying water proof gloves, wooly hats and waterproof boots and liners. This includes having a bank of clothing for our staff to borrow too. A c...