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This section provides you general resources for how to frame your environmental education program starting with how to build knowledge around the history of the place you are teaching, sharing and exploring that history with students. In addition, it will help you design experiences for young children to explore, play and learn in equitable, inclusive and culturally-relevant outdoor environments.
History of Places
These resources will help you build background knowledge of the place you teach and how to share and explore that history with your students.
Design engagements for families, students, teachers, and communities to reimagine schoolyards.
Learn how to go further than land acknowledgements statements to build relationships and partnerships with indigenous communities.
Create an action plan highlighting the concrete steps you plan to take to support Indigenous communities into the future.
Native Land is a resource to learn more about Indigenous territories, languages, lands, and ways of life.
Native Land brings about discussions of colonization, land rights, language, and Indigenous history tied to personal histories.
Children’s Books
These children’s books can be used as read alouds to inspire students to explore the outdoors and how to look closely when they are outside. Many of these titles can be found at your local library.
Fatima's Great Outdoors by Ambreen Tariq & Stevie Lewis An immigrant family embarks on their first camping trip in the Midwest in this lively picture book by Ambreen Tariq, outdoors activist and founder of @BrownPeopleCamping.
My Five Senses by Aliki Sight, smell, taste, hearing, and touch—our five senses teach us about our world. Beloved author-illustrator Aliki’s simple, engaging text and colorful artwork show young readers how they use their senses to smell a rose or play with a puppy.
Flotsam by David Wiesner A bright, science-minded boy goes to the beach equipped to collect and examine flotsam--anything floating that has been washed ashore. Bottles, lost toys, small objects of every description are among his usual finds. But there's no way he could have prepared for one particular discovery: a barnacle-encrusted underwater camera, with its own secrets to share... and to keep.
Listen by Holly M. McGhee & Pascal Lemaitre Experience the power of listening to your heart, paying attention, love, and empathy in Listen, a simple and tender picture book.
Small Wonders: Jean-Henri Fabre and His World of Insects by Matthew Clark Smith & Giuliano Ferri Meet Jean-Henri Fabre, one of the most important naturalists of all time. As a boy in the French countryside, Henri spent hours watching insects. He dreamed of observing them in a new way: in their own habitats. What he discovered in pursuing that dream was shocking; these small, seemingly insignificant creatures led secret lives—lives of great drama!
What John Marco Saw by Annie Barrows & Nancy Lemon Sometimes the smallest people have the biggest things to say: John Marco is small and everyone around him is big and busy–too busy to stop and listen. The thing is, John Marco is busy, too! He's busy noticing and exploring the world around him. Maybe everyone should slow down and pay attention to John Marco. If they do, they might witness some the incredible things John Marco sees.
Tiny, Perfect Things by M. H. Clark & Madeline Kloepper The whole world is a treasure waiting to be found. Open your eyes and see the wonderful things all around. This is the story of a child and a grandfather whose walk around the neighborhood leads to a day of shared wonder as they discover all sorts of tiny, perfect things together.
Step Gently Out by Helen Frost & Rick Lieder What would happen if you walked very, very quietly and looked carefully at the natural world outside? You might see a cricket leap, a moth spread her wings, or a spider step across a silken web.
Sidewalk Flowers by JonArno Lawson & Sydney Smith In this wordless picture book, a little girl collects wildflowers while her distracted father pays her little attention. Each flower becomes a gift, and whether the gift is noticed or ignored, both giver and recipient are transformed by their encounter.
Tools for Outdoor Learning
These tools enhance young children’s outdoor experiences by teaching them how to observe and use tools like a REAL scientist!
Lightweight and rubber-coated, 10×32 National Geographic binoculars are a perfect observation tool for adventurers.
Help your students focus in on the incredible world of the small! This 3x magnifier is large, durable and user friendly for all ages.
Get up close with nature with our 2-Way Nature Viewer! With a 6x and 4x magnification, looking at nature, including aquatic invertebrates, is fun, easy, and clear.
Nature Play
The most important work of a young child is non-structured, open-ended play time. These resources help you develop and create playful outdoor learning opportunities and spaces.
Nature Play is a collection of walks and activities that tap into the magic of nature to help our youngsters grow in life. With a wide variety of themes, we explore unique ways of cultivating calm, creativity, and confidence through nature.
A collection of lesson plans, materials and resources to bring your teaching into the great outdoors, and developed some exciting new courses for educators.
A collection of learning materials for conducting learning in the outdoors.
SF Children & Nature is part of the national Cities Connecting Children to Nature (CCCN) initiative and is working to address the disparities in nature access along socioeconomic and racial lines to ensure all children have the opportunity to play, learn and grow in the outdoors.
How to give your children more outdoor play... and why you should!
Nature Journaling
Young children are naturally curious about the world around them. Nature journaling is a great way to teach children how to record their observations.
Activities and tools to engage children in outdoor learning.
Your Garden Year includes a little bit of everything. It’s about seeds that become plants. About how sun, soil, water, and air grows everything we eat and everything we wear. So the seasons of school have different lessons to teach us.
This unique collection of 22 cards features suggested nature activities and corresponding open-ended questions for instructors working with children ages 3 to 7. The cards are designed to encourage adults to help children to explore the natural world.
iNaturalist is an free observation platform that acts as a place for people to record biodiversity observations, interact with other enthusiasts, and learn about organisms.
Take your nature knowledge up a notch with Seek! Use the power of image recognition technology to identify the plants and animals all around you. Earn badges for seeing different types of birds, amphibians, plants, and fungi and participate in monthly observation challenge
Digital Content
The following links are useful online resources and programs that help you teach environmental concepts. They include a library of phenomena, online resources from the California State Parks, resources for outdoor science programs and opportunities for students to ask questions to REAL scientists!
PORTS (Parks Online Resources for Teachers and Students)® Program is a FREE distance learning program with California State Parks!
Learn about phenomenon! A phenomenon is simply an observable event. In the science classroom a carefully chosen phenomenon can drive student inquiry. Phenomena add relevance to the science classroom showing students science in their own world. A good phenomenon is observable, interesting, complex, and aligned to the appropriate standard.
BEETLES professional learning resources are designed for program leaders to use with field instructors. They provide experiences and rationale about outdoor science instruction designed to inspire instructors to improve their teaching. Their activities inspire students’ wonder and curiosity about the natural world, support their innate tendencies for exploration and guide them to make explanations based on evidence.
This site is a curated collection of science phenomena for the NGSS, along with phenomenon based learning resources and help for how to use phenomenon to drive student questions in the classroom centered around 3 dimensional teaching and learning.
​Skype a Scientist has a database of thousands of scientists and helps them connect with classrooms, families, libraries, scout troops, and more all over the globe! They give students the opportunity to get to know a real scientist and get the answers to their questions straight from the source.
Nature-Based Curriculum Guides & Lesson Plans
These curriculum guides and lesson plans cover topics such as the science and engineering practices (NGSS), the earth, the sky, water, plants, and animals.
Nature Anatomy Activities for Kids: Fun, Hands-On Learning by Kristine Brown Get ready to explore the sky above, the ground below, and all the plants and creatures in between! Made just for kids, this nature anatomy book teaches you about the incredible forces and living things that exist in nature.
Relevant activities to teach biodiversity, science practices, and other skills. Most are aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards (U.S.) but can be modified for other international standards.
Learn to teach outside even if you’re not outdoorsy! This eBook is written for teachers, parents, caregivers, and mentors who understand the value and importance of having their children spend time in nature but may not have the time, resources, or ability to dedicate a regular part of their schedule to outdoor education.