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It's Take A Child Outside Week! Get ready with this handy checklist: How to Prepare for a Day in Nature with Children.
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Don't let a busy schedule stop you from taking your students outdoors. With a few creative tweaks, almost anyone can find time in their day for outdoor education.
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The July Natural Start Alliance Newsletter is loaded with ideas for increasing access to nature-based early learning in a variety of settings! Read the July Member Spotlight, featuring Dondero Elementary School, a public school in New Hampshire with a robust outdoor education program. For even more…
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Ready to start your outdoor classroom? Follow these 10 steps get your outdoor education program up and running right now. No need to wait for September!
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As another year of Forest Fridays comes to a close, I am doing a lot of reflecting on the days gone by as well as a fair amount of dreaming and planning about future days. Here are my top takeaways from the school year.
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Are you interested in engaging visitors and summer campers with meaningful science projects? Check out the following list of citizen science resources and trainings that you can participate in.
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In the face of our massive climate change challenges, should I/we be focusing attention on taking small individual actions or working to support larger changes via governmental policy shifts? A new study shows that convincing people to live greener lives makes them LESS likely to support real…
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The May Natural Start Newsletter includes great stories and resources you don’t want to miss! Learn about Mass Audubon, a leader in the nature preschool movement. Stay up to date with the latest research by reading the spring issue of the International Journal of Early Childhood Environmental…
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Communities across the globe are rethinking how we approach plastic use in our daily lives. Opportunities for recycling large portions of our plastics are diminishing, and communities are being forced to cancel parts of their recycling programs. What are communities, cities, and even countries…
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There are two more opportunities to participate in the Chicago Zoological Society's Nature Start program this year. This professional development program trains informal educators along with other professionals who interact with young children and families to develop and facilitate early childhood…
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It can be hard for teachers and parents to tolerate seeing their students and children uncomfortable or upset. Read advice from Natalie Crowley, Early Childhood eePRO group moderator. Let them struggle. The benefits will be immense.
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Get advice on how to plan and build an outdoor learning environment at your school. Fnd out how to register for the 2019 Natural Start Conference. Browse curated resources on nature preschools, nature-based early learning in public schools, advocacy, and more!
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On Earth Day 4/22/19, NPR released the results of their poll about climate change education – and there’s plenty of good news in the results!
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Register for the 2019 Natural Start Conference in historic Manchester, NH, July 31-August 3, to connect with an international community of nature-based early learning professionals. This is the nation’s largest professional event for teaching, administration, research, and advocacy in nature-based…
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Not all kids are born loving the great outdoors. For some, “nature” is synonymous with dirty, scary, and unpleasant. How can we help these children change their associations with the natural world and learn to see it as an exciting, fun, and comforting place?
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Enroll now for a free educator certification program sponsored by National Geographic.
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Explore how nature-based learning empowers young children to see themselves as agents of change in our latest Feature Story, read a Q-and-A from a veteran nature educator, and find out who will be delivering the keynote address at the 2019 Natural Start Conference in our March Newsletter.
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Two weeks left to submit your proposal for a session at NAAEE’s Annual Conference Oct 16-19 in Lexington, KY. This year’s theme: “Educating for a Just and Sustainable Future” will attract hundreds of fellow environmental educators who focus on Climate Change Education. So, you’ll have loads of…
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A website that embraces data, storytelling, science, history, journaling, digital literacy, and much more.
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Get ideas for planning a safe and rewarding nature field trip for young children, find inspiration in a beachside preschool, and review the latest professional development opportunities in Natural Start’s February Newsletter.
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In this guest blog, middle-schooler Dalia Melody Hembal shares her research on water conservation. To learn more about Grades of Green, visit https://www.gradesofgreen.org/.
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Learn how children’s connections to the natural world can happen anywhere. Get tips for incorporating a range of books into your nature-based early learning program. Read about an urban nature preschool providing children with daily access to nature in a concrete jungle. And don't forget to submit…
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The Utah Society for Environmental Education (USEE) embarked on a Strategic Planning process during the summer of 2018. To ensure they were supporting the needs all of our environmental education communities here in Utah, USEE convened focus groups (called them mini-summits) in 5 distinct regions of…
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Each year, children are endowed with a Nature Name that is theirs for the year. The animal chooses them, and not the other way around. There is a very special reason that the animal chose them, and it is the child's job to determine why they were chosen by that particular animal. But what happens…