By Maureen Stine Years ago, I caught a friend’s reaction to a challenging work assignment. His supervisor wanted him to establish a 501(c)3 volunteer group for their civic center to enhance and support future programming. “Man,” he groaned (the boss out of range), “I don’t have the time, and nobody’s ever shown interest in volunteering for that.” Dismissing the...
Kate Bassett Harbor Light Newspaper Jan 16, 2013
Photos of elementary school children making patterns with leaves, taking “pictures” with cardboard frames, and practicing geometry by way of building forts, flashed across the projection screen during the Harbor Springs Board of Education meeting Monday, January 14. These images-- examples of how children can learn...
Hammer a Luminaria from a Recycled Can Materials
- Candle - small one such as a tea light
- Freezer
- Hammer
- Match
- Metal can
- Large nail
- Paper long enough to wrap around the can
- Pencil
- Scissors
- Tape
- Towel
- Water
- Work glove (optional)
Steps
Cut the paper so it wraps around the can.
Use your pencil to draw a pretty design on the paper made of...
Huffington Post – October 19, 2012 By Jackie Ostfeld The first time I witnessed one of my students being bullied was during the winter of 2002. Fresh out of college, I had just begun my first job as a naturalist with an outdoor environmental education program in South Carolina. One of my students, Amanda* was very tall for her age, overweight and noticeably...
Web Resources to help teachers use the natural world as a classroom
We hope that you find the following list to be a useful reference. This initial list is not comprehensive and will be augmented as new and relevant resources are discovered. Please send us your suggestions for additions by writing to info@childrenandnature.org. We will not be able to include every...
Our environment, we’re told by climate scientists, is fragile. But are children learning that their natural environment — the trees, dirt and grass that surround us — is “fragile,” too? Several educators, after observing years of children’s being taught to “look, but don’t touch,” have argued this summer that many programs and policies designed to protect the...
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By Denis Cuff
Outdoor activities
Campers try to tune their hand-eye coordination with a ring toss game during a session of Sarah's Science Camp at Roberts Regional Park, Thursday, Aug. 30, 2012 in Oakland, Calif. East Bay Regional Parks District, which runs the park, is applying for a $2.6 million Federal...
July 15, 2012
In the words of the renowned philosopher Henry David Thoreau: We need the tonic of wilderness. And yet, in the 21st Century, we find our children increasingly without this ‘tonic’, or what Richard Louv (2011) calls ‘Vitamin N,’ for Nature. All available evidence suggests that young Australians are becoming less likely to engage in free play in outdoor...National Kids to Parks Day Set for May 19, 2012
ROCKVILLE, Md., Jan. 25, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Classroom Contest Encourages Kids to Plan New & Exciting Ways to Explore Outdoors
Children, parents and teachers are gearing up for this year's National Kids to Parks Day (KTP), a nation-wide day of outdoor play organized by National Park Trust (NPT) in...
Education in the Outdoors
By Erin Crowell
Playing in the mud is okay at HumaNature School
Listen closely to the birds in the forest canopy, taste the edible roots and feel the wind in your hair. This is part of a primary satisfaction – the moments we experience first-hand, inaccessible by television, recollections in a magazine or Facebook...
Quotes
“Kids, it's time to get off the couch, turn off the PlayStation and get your hands dirty.”
- Margaret DeRitter, Kalamazoo Gazette
- Margaret DeRitter, Kalamazoo Gazette
Categories
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