All Outdoor Content

Young girl smiling
Children drawing with chalk outside.
Article
Teaching Young Children
July 1, 2024

Eight Tips for Teaching in the Outside Classroom

These eight tips will help you establish or finetune an outdoor learning program.

Authored by

Authored by: 
Julia Luckenbill, Kathleen Reddick
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children playing together in fall leaves
Article
Teaching Young Children
April 3, 2023

Eliminate Barriers to Risk Taking in Outdoor Play

The benefits of outdoor play aren’t just physical. It allows children to challenge themselves and become appraisers of risk. This, in turn, helps develop cognitive, social and emotional, and self-regulatory skills.

Authored by

Authored by: 
Amanda Steiner, Anne Karabon, Leah Litz
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children in raincoats playing outdoors with a traffic cone
Article
Young Children
March 1, 2023

Rainy Day, Let’s Play! Outdoor Learning for All (Voices)

Challenged by the pandemic, educators at an urban, public school embraced outdoor learning and recommitted to a play-based curriculum.

Authored by

Authored by: 
Lena Johnson, Lydia Mackie
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some kids playing with outdoor toys
Article
Young Children
June 1, 2022

Outdoor Recess Matters!: Preventing and Reducing Children’s Challenging Behavior on the Playground

Spending time on the playground is a great opportunity for children to be physically active and engage in various forms of play, as well as develop a variety of foundational social and emotional skills.

Authored by

Authored by: 
Hsiu-Wen Yang, Michaelene M. Ostrosky, Paddy Cronin Favazza, Yusuf Akemoğlu, W. Catherine Cheung, Katherine Aronson-Ensign
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A child writes a poem.
Article

Learning Joy and Resilience Through Kindergartners

We may not be able to control the spread of the virus, the changing mandates, or the inequities and social justice issues intensified by the pandemic, but we can control how much our children feel loved by us.

Authored by

Authored by: 
Larissa Hsia-Wong
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child with flower
Blog
November 17, 2021

10 Tips for Finding Nature to Bring into Your Classroom

Here, we share 10 tips for finding nature-based objects to prompt curiosity, questioning, observation, and learning.

Authored by

Authored by: 
Kendra Nenia, Melissa Clucas Walter
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children playing on a playground
Article
Teaching Young Children
September 1, 2021

Stepping Back to Nurture

Stepping back from children’s play, rather than always inserting ourselves into it, gives us time to intentionally observe, listen to, and record children as they play.

Authored by

Authored by: 
Krystina Tapia, Emma Pickering, Jesse Robert Coffino
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a bucket of nature items like pinecones and leaves
Article
Teaching Young Children
September 1, 2021

Using Nature Contact to Support Children Under Stress

Contact with nature can help mitigate the negative effects of stress. Through nature-based encounters, we can provide children with strategies to use while they are in our care and beyond.

Authored by

Authored by: 
Becky L. DelVecchio, Susan Ferguson, Wesley Knapp
Members Only
the cover of the publication Teaching young children, Volume 14, Number 5
Issue
Teaching Young Children
Vol. 15, No. 1
September 1, 2021

Fall 2021

Nature Learning Indoors and Out
Teaching Young Children is NAEYC's magazine for anyone who works with preschoolers. Colorful, informative, and easy-to-read, TYC is packed full of teaching ideas, strategies, and tips.
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a teacher showing a child a nature book outside
Article
Teaching Young Children
July 1, 2021

Preschool in the Park: Place-Based Learning in Unexpected Spaces

Place-based education uses local cultures, heritage, landscapes, opportunities, and experiences to create a curriculum in which literacy, mathematics, social studies, science, and arts learning occur in the context of place.

Authored by

Authored by: 
Rachel J. Franz
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