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This collection of free toolkits, reports, infographics and advocacy tools is designed to help you or your organization connect children, families and communities to nature. Please check back often. We add and update resources regularly!
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GROWING POWER: Urban Roots connects young people with natural spaces, food systems – and one another
"Being in nature - it's a luxury, right?" Paloma Cardoza, a child of immigrants, leveraged her educational background in habitat restoration to work with a major...
Growing food on your green schoolyard? Follow these protocols for safe and healthy harvest and food service.
A kindergarten-only school in Toronto, Canada, has teamed up with a local farming group to introduce little ones and their parents to nature through a community garden. At guided sessions, participants learn about growing carrots and the local ecosystem. The program brings nature’s benefits to residents and restores habitat in a dense urban neighborhood, while providing free organic produce to community members during a time when food can be increasingly hard to afford. CBC.
This guide provides information, examples and considerations for working with public agencies and developing partnerships with public schools to develop school gardens.
Encouraging children and youth of all ages to participate in gardening, whether at home, school or in the community, can positively impact their health, development and the environment. In this toolkit, we share research, resources and recommended reading to help children and teens experience the benefits of nature through gardening.
This Digest highlights research relating to inequities in opportunities for children’s engagement with nature. Included are studies that (1) raise awareness of inequities, (2) demonstrate the potential of increased nature engagement in narrowing disparities in health and well-being, and (3) provide examples of specific initiatives designed to address inequities in children’s access to nature.
In this three-part series, Rosalind Allen, Education and Families Development Officer for the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of...
This Climate Resilience-Nature Connections Toolkit demonstrates how cities can pursue both goals of increasing climate resilience and fostering deeper connections to nature, simultaneously. Four proven strategies in this toolkit, Nature in Early Childhood, Green Schoolyards, Nature-Smart Libraries and Nature Exploration Areas, when combined with climate goals, create healthier, more resilient communities where children thrive and ecosystems are protected.
At Kiddie Academy in Wilmington, North Carolina, children learn math by counting apples, conduct taste tests on herbs grown in their school garden, and enjoy lunches made of peppers that they harvested.
The Nature in Early Childhood Toolkit offers a structured, multi-layered approach to ensure that nature is fully integrated into early childhood education systems. It provides tools, case studies and implementation guides to help communities think through the various stages of implementation, from partnership building and workforce training to amplifying and sustaining efforts through policy change and funding.
On April 23, 2015, a prestigious, international group of leading scientists – including a Nobel Prize winner and several nominees – issued the Helsinki Alert of...
The new nature movement comes in many forms. Courtney White is one of the leaders of the new agrarianism, which he says reflects the “growing interest in local, family-scale sustainable food, fiber,...
A few weeks ago, we marked the one year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic. Vaccines and the arrival of spring bring hope, but the disparities in housing, food, education and employment that became glaringly apparent during the pandemic remain deeply entrenched.
Climate-related fires and floods are all too common these days for cities in the western United States. Unfortunately, this is precisely the story of Flagstaff, Arizona and for the...
“I’m a scientist!” the elementary school students exclaim, flanked by the greenery of the Blooming Classroom as they triumphantly wave their science worksheets above their heads. These students are...
Cincinnati, Ohio, is best known for the Reds and Skyline Chili. But in the children and nature movement, the city is also synonymous with green schoolyards.
As the planet continues to warm and natural disasters like wildfires and flooding become more frequent, 59% of youth and young adults
“Bees are superorganisms. They all work together, and they can’t survive outside the hive,” explains Audrey McCollough. “It really surprised me that you treat a beehive like...
Students at Lovin Elementary School in Lawrenceville, Georgia, are leading by example through a student-run composting program. Known as “Food Waste Warriors,” the students collect fruit and vegetable scraps from their fellow students during lunchtime to compost. Under the guidance of their teacher, they weigh the food waste, practice math skills by adding up measurements, balance their compost ratios and turn the compost pile. The finished compost nourishes the school’s garden, and the students use other scraps to feed the chickens on campus — both of which produce food for students and staff to enjoy. Unopened food is placed on the school’s “Share Table” to combat food insecurity among students. ABC News.
re·sil·ience: noun, the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness. Resilience is now firmly woven into our everyday vernacular, in the contexts of climate change and Covid19. Nature’s role— particularly...
“Bees are a unique teaching tool,” says Tami Enright, Co-founder and Executive Director of nonprofit The Bee Cause Project. “They’re cute, they’re fuzzy… kids start caring for...
The Twin Cities Advisory Council has been integral to the planning and development of the 2025 Nature Everywhere Conference. Composed of twenty distinguished leaders...
From the bustling streets of urban centers to the serene landscapes of national parks, young activists are driving change and advocating for equitable access to nature across...
More cities are using Nature-Smart Libraries to connect children to nature. Here, Noah Lenstra traces the movement back to its origins.
Editor’s note: Thank you to Lisa Donahue, Nature Connection Network, for nominating Atiya Wells and for providing the content for this piece. BLISS Meadows founder Atiya Wells was named as...
Gardening can promote children’s physical, emotional, social, and academic development, as well as pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors. Children of all ages and abilities can benefit from garden-related experiences.
What if high schools and colleges helped students create a nature-rich future and helped them become outdoor entrepreneurs? By that, I don’t mean careers devoted only to energy...
As disconnection from the natural world grows, how can we help our children foster a healthier and more intimate relationship to nature? Since time immemorial, Indigenous...
When it comes to green schoolyards, kids know just what to do — play! So where does “activation” come in? Before the kids even get there!...
Dr. Hanaa Hamdi looked out at a sea of over 600 faces. The buzz from early-morning greetings and fresh cups of coffee had faded to a charged...
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