Learning with Nature: A How-to Guide to Inspiring Children Through Outdoor Games and Activities

By Marina Robb, Victoria Mew and Anna Richardson

An extensive book of outdoor activities suitable for a wide range of children and environments

Learning with Nature is full of fun activities and games to get children outdoors, to explore, have fun, make things, and learn about nature and help them grow up happy and healthy. Suitable for groups of children between ages 3 and 16, the graded activities help children develop key practical and social skills, awareness of their place in the world, and respect for the natural world, all while enjoying the great outdoors. Written by experienced forest school practitioners, using tried-and-tested games and activities, it provides comprehensive information for enriching children’s learning through nature. The games and activities are clearly categorized, with step-by-step instructions, an age guide, a list of resources needed, and invisible learning points. This book is a unique must-have resource for families, schools, youth groups, and anyone working with children.

• Language: English
• Publisher: UIT Cambridge Ltd.
• Release date: Apr 1, 2015
• ISBN: 9780857842404

Book preview

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Introduction

Over the last few years, the need for encouraging young people to get outdoors has captured the interest of educators, families, researchers and policymakers worldwide. The nature connection movement has gained momentum through such books as Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods, which speaks of an emerging ‘nature deficit disorder’, referring to the negative consequences of a childhood without sufficient time spent playing and connecting with the natural world. There are now forest schools all over Britain, and increasingly worldwide. We have abundant research telling us that nature is fundamentally beneficial and leads to well-being, health and happiness. Nevertheless, children are rarely allowed to roam outdoors. In a single generation since the 1970s, children’s ‘radius of activity’ – the area around their home where they are allowed to roam unsupervised – has declined by almost 90% (Sanford Gaster, ‘Urban Children’s Access to their Neighbourhoods’, 1991).

Simply spending time outdoors and interacting with the elements gives our senses a host of stimuli that cannot be recreated indoors. The significant cultural changes towards indoor play and interaction with video games, iPads and television are known to be a threat to healthy development. It is not that technological advances should not be celebrated, but they are addictive and take us away from other pastimes.

For anyone to care for nature, they need to know it; to know it in their bodies, to feel it through their senses. This process begins most naturally in childhood: going outdoors lays critical foundations for a healthy developing brain. Splashing in the mud, making shelters, hiding, pretending and imitating, and exploring the world are all multi-sensory experiences that grow neural pathways and reduce cortisol, which is released in response to stress. When we are stressed, we cannot learn.

Children naturally explore and experiment, whether this is poking around in streams, climbing trees or mixing ingredients. It is part of feeling fully alive. Things can sometimes go wrong. But, statistically, the chance of anything going seriously wrong is vanishingly small, and the risks can be managed through taking a thoughtful, balanced approach. What is more, these adventurous behaviours lead to all kinds of benefits, including hard-wiring the brain, building and maintaining resilience and, in an uncertain world, helping children to manage their choices and grow their capacity to take healthy risks. Tim Gill, one of Britain’s leading thinkers on childhood, gives a simple example in an article in The Guardian on 3 April 2009:

Climbing a tree – working out how to start, testing for strength, feeling how the breeze in your face also sways the branches underfoot, glimpsing the changing vista through the leaves, dreaming about being king or queen of the jungle, shouting to your friends below once you’ve got as high as you dare – is an immersive, 360-degree experience that virtual or indoor settings simply cannot compare with.

As parents and teachers, we need to consider how and why we prevent risk-taking, and own our fear so that we do not pass it on to the youth of today.

The art of questioning: a mentor’s tool

Have you ever been curious about something, perhaps a type of tree, and asked someone what it is? After receiving the answer, ‘a silver birch’, you are left satisfied and move on. We witness this many times. A direct answer usually results in very little further interest. Igniting a person’s authentic curiosity by responding to a question with another question or a descriptive observation is a useful technique known as the ‘art of questioning’, developed by Jon Young. There are three levels to the question: the confidence builder, the edge question and beyond-the-edge question. It is a vital approach in this book also. The idea is to join the person in their curiosity with an open mind. It really is an art, however: taking the concept and applying it in an unskilled way can result in others feeling patronised by a ‘know-it-all’. To avoid this, find a question you can genuinely develop.

With an open mind we learn more. A series of questions upon finding a burdock seed head could be: what does this plant depend on for its disposal? If we were to plant some of the seeds, where do you think it would like to grow? The parent plant must have grown from a seed; I wonder where the parent plant is and what kind of journey the seed had to get here?

The more we learn about nature the more we realise there is to learn. Finding your own edge of curiosity enables you to engage and explore something with the person through questions and observations before giving it a name, if the person still wants a label for it. It is like planting a seed – the person’s curiosity tells you the ground is fertile. In Coyote’s Guide to Connecting with Nature, Jon Young describes how we as mentors must get back to the ‘beginner’s mind’ – the mind of humility and fresh discovery. Over the years, this approach instils an open-minded fascination with life, the kind of sparkle you witness in someone who is truly alive.

Naturalist profiles: a learning tool

During any outdoor experience, we come into contact with a variety of species. To maximise learning, it can be satisfying, when back home or in the classroom, to create a naturalist profile of a species that sparked your interest (see opposite). Over time, building up a file or filling a scrapbook becomes a source of pride.

Use field guides, the Internet or other resources to find out more about the plant, animal or mineral and enjoy recording the results in words and drawings. Some helpful headers include: size, life-span, habitat, habits, diet, predators, tracks and scat (droppings).

Burdock (Arctium lappa)

Making the most of this book

The games and activities in this book have been tried and tested on a diverse range of groups, from nursery children to adults, and from families to school groups and camps. In many cases, the activities and games can be adapted to cater for a wide range of ages and players. Each game or activity lists a ‘how to’ section, the relevant resources, variations on the activity, and an insight into the invisible learning that can be gained from a game.

Each page speaks of a way of learning that is timeless, that invites mutual exploration and fun, where the line between adult or teacher and child or learner becomes blurred. The learning appears invisible at times, but occurs none the less.

Before you get going

When working in a woodland, or the outdoors more generally, it is essential to have a clear idea about boundaries and agreements for games or activities. For boundaries, use a landmark or a number of chosen trees. Perhaps decide on an animal sound to signal the end of the game – a wolf howl works well!

In terms of agreements, aim to leave the land better than you found it, taking care of the natural resources. Consider the following before working with a group: tool safety (see pp.82-3), looking after nature (see pp.18-21), foraging wild plants (see p.158), and fire safety (see pp.160-1).

The following pages offer hundreds of inspiring ways to be outdoors that will bring laughter and fun to a walk in the park, woods, garden or playground! It will encourage enthusiasm and understanding about the value of nature through engaging, practical and useful activities for all ages, forging a heartfelt relationship that will renew and inform our culture, creating love and respect for the natural world.

Looking after nature

Human beings have always had an important role as caretakers of the natural world. Human interaction with natural resources often involves manipulation of nature for our benefit and, at times, we directly use parts of living plants and trees. Indeed, all living things including humans share in the cycle of life and death. This is unavoidable. By developing our relationship with nature through the activities in this book, we begin to interact with nature in a considerate and respectful manner that fosters long-term personal and planetary well-being.

Some of our generation have inherited a way of thinking that says it’s OK to exploit natural resources in unsustainable ways. In response to this, some well-intentioned people and organisations tried to over-protect nature, severely limiting what people could do. Neither of these positions – exploitation or protection – has proven successful in developing responsible environmental behaviour in the younger generations. We now know that people need to connect with and learn from nature for a healthy and happy life. We also know that nature flourishes through the tending of the land, water and all its inhabitants.

Our hunter-gatherer ancestors understood the interplay between nature and people. Through caring for the wilds while meeting their own needs, they lived in landscapes that thrived. Examples of this have been found on all seven continents. In California, after the indigenous people were moved to create national parks, the population of oak trees aged and very few young oaks grew. It was discovered that, for generations, the native Californian tribes gathered acorns to process for food, and planted thousands of acorns along their way, resulting in the oak forests of California. Indigenous people around the world surely had extensive knowledge of natural resources that were carefully managed. Today we have much to learn from our roots.

A core principle of the caretaking mindset is to always ensure the regeneration of natural resources. Our message is: always leave a place better than you found it.

Caretaking approaches and activities

Fire

It is a good idea to keep fires in one location, as a fire will destroy the seed bank in the soil immediately beneath it. When wandering in woodland, it is essential to first check whether you are allowed to make fires, and then ensure that they are only small.

Small temporary fire

Leave no trace

Remove all the leaves and sticks to clear a circle about 1.5m wide.

Make a small fire (see fire lighting, p.178).

When it is time to go, put out the fire with water. Use a stick to mix the water with the hot sticks to ensure the fire is out. Check this by touching the ash and water to feel it is cold (do so carefully). It is best to wash wet ash off your hands, as it can be alkaline.

Pick up all cool blackened sticks and charcoal and scatter widely in the surrounding area.

Try and replicate the layers of the forest by gathering the decomposed leaves and materials from another area and scattering them where the fire was, as the first layer. Cover this layer with the top layer of the forest – usually leaves that have not begun to decompose.

If done well, any trace of a fire should be undetectable!

Remains of fire

No trace

Other considerations

While dry dead wood is essential for a fire, leave enough for habitat piles; for long-term sites, consider buying firewood from sustainable forests.

Always check the subsoil of the ground before making a fire. Underground fires can occur, especially if there are peat soils or conifer tree roots in contact with a fire.

Never leave a fire unattended.

Trees and plants

Plants are essential to life on Earth as we know it. They provide oxygen, food, shelter, clothing and medicine; they are the only living things able to convert sunshine into food that other life can consume. Plants have their own communities and life cycles within our ecosystem, so it is important to look after them and to harvest with care and respect in a regenerative way (see foraging wild plants p.158).

Caretaking ideas

Planting trees and wild flowers.

Pruning and cutting back.

When gathering plants for tea, see if there are any seeds. If so, collect them! Consider the habitat these plants like – could you grow some?

If you find berries that birds like, put some on your bird table or feeder. Who knows where the birds will disperse the seeds!

Animals and habitats

For wild animals, survival is a constant challenge. Our impact on their world is far greater than we imagine. It is important to consider this when spending time in nature. Getting outdoors is great, but do not bring indoor habits outside. Can you find signs of what creatures live in this place? How does cold, or lack of rain, affected them? If you take or eat berries, are you leaving enough for the birds and animals?

By asking these kinds of questions, you end up becoming a caretaker, and conservation ideas spring up without any effort.

Caretaking ideas

Feed animals in the colder months.

Leave areas of the woods or the garden completely untouched, as havens for wildlife and plants.

Provide water that is not frozen for birds and animals to drink in winter.

Leave nest materials on branches or fences, e.g. wool in spring.

Remove litter and recycle.

Build a hotel for insects (see p.94).

Create hedgehog habitats by leaving brush piles.

It is often said that caring for nature, or promoting going outside, is in some way going backwards. On the contrary! Once you get outside, something happens that feels good and does good.