Host Nature Play in the Park
Nature Play WA is proud to introduce Nature Play in the Park – an innovative learning program aimed at three- and four-year-old children and their families, that encourages exploration of the natural environment within existing, local parks.
What is Nature Play in the Park?
A fabulous way to get families spending time together at a park within your shire, city or town, Nature Play in the Park provides prior to school age children with a range of engaging learning experiences in nature that foster curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking skills.
Over the course of an eight week term, our qualified staff will lead enrolled families in:
- Open-ended play activities suitable for 3-4-year-olds, such as sand and mud play, facilitated by an early years educator;
- Creative experiences, such as making boats and potions from natural, found materials;
- Singing and story telling;
- Movement activities developed with an occupational therapist to improve fundamental movement skills; and
- Simple food preparation, such as making rainbow fruit kebabs, guacamole and ‘fun’ sandwiches, and advice on promoting healthy eating choices with a nutritionist.
Why Host Nature Play in the Park
With research-based evidence that time in nature is associated with many aspects of better child health, including physical and mental wellbeing, sleep, behavioural development and eating behaviours, Nature Play in the Park has been thoughtfully designed to encourage families to adopt a healthier lifestyle.
The program of nature-based, outdoor group sessions aims to provide families with simple, fun ideas for spending time together. We want to encourage families away from sedentary time spent on devices and towards fun, interactive outdoor experiences.
This comprehensive and considered approach has been carefully designed to provide pre-school-aged children with the best start on their educational journey.
Plus, our innovative program includes caregiver access to a short, weekly podcast introducing the upcoming activities and how they relate to the program’s core themes of outdoor play, food exploration, physical activity, and child development.
Nature Play in the Park Program Goals
The outdoor group sessions have a specific focus each week but all contribute to the following overarching themes:
- Develop community (participate, engage, and communicate)
- Develop connectedness to nature (awareness of, responsibility toward, enjoyment of nature and specific places)
- Develop healthy ways of living and sustainable practices (reduce, reuse, recycle)
- Develop a playful mindset (e.g., what to say instead of “be careful”)
Through these sessions the children will:
- Develop lifelong habits or dispositions of creativity, curiosity, confidence, enthusiasm, endurance, independence, persistence, resilience, imagination and problem-solving
- Learn independent self-care skills
- Participate as engaged, motivated and contributing members of a community
- Develop an explorative mindset
- Engage with their senses (sight, sound, touch, taste, smell)
- Engage with nature
- Develop social, emotional, physical, cognitive, and language skills
- Develop risk assessment skills & safety sense (what’s safe to explore)
What Participants are Saying about Nature Play in the Park
We know Nature Play in the Park is meeting the program’s goals thanks to the glowing feedback of previous participants;
An exceptional free program that promotes outdoor play and wellbeing, not only for children but also their caregiver.
We’ve formed a group of friends that we continue to play with and meet with, the boys feel ‘at home’ in our park and have special memories attached to where we’ve completed activities.
The nutrition ideas were brilliant and helped with my super fussy eater. I got so many ideas and I just feel better equipped to make healthy choices.
We have absolutely loved attending the program and are so sad it’s over. We are going to continue to support the program however we can and only hope this runs for years to come so other families can benefit from it like we did.
5 Reasons to Partner with Us to Host Nature Play in the Park!
- Your local community will receive a professionally developed nature play program for 3-4-year-old residents and their families.
- We will help you to choose the best location for the program – getting families from your community actively engaged with an outdoor space within your local area.
- We prepare marketing materials and handle all registrations and communication with enrolling families.
- Our qualified staff will provide all activity materials, managing set up and pack up, and weekly program delivery.
- At the conclusion of the program we will undertake our award-winning process of collecting and collating all participant feedback into an evaluation report detailing outcomes for children, parents and the community.
Nature Play in the Park In Action
Watch our short video for a sneak peek into a Nature Play in the Park session.
Want to Know More?
Local Government representatives interested in having Nature Play in the Park delivered at a local park should contact Sarah McGowan, Strategic Business Manager, for more information via [email protected]
