A connection to nature and opportunities to notice and interact with the natural world are some of the many benefits of outdoor learning. If possible the outdoor spaces we provide for children should include places and opportunities for students to move their bodies, use their senses, and play. Nature play is defined as playing with, on, or among natural materials in an unstructured, child-directed way. When child-led nature play is added to school grounds, kids become empowered. They learn new skills and their self-confidence increases.

This article describes the benefits of nature play, provides ideas for types of spaces one might create, outlines considerations for health, safety, and community engagement, and offers ideas for obtaining materials and resources for further information.

Research connects access to nature—even the simple presence of trees—with improved social skills, enhanced physical and mental health, increased self-esteem, stronger emotional connections to people and nature, reduced anxiety and stress, improved test scores, improved and focused attention, a sense of wonder, and more! For information on the research, see the Resources section below.

Nature play opportunities can be provided by using what exists on site or adding natural materials such as wood, stone, sand, soil, water, plants, and plant parts to a space where children are allowed time to interact with the materials in their own ways. These materials provide children with a range of essential experiences: to engage senses; to rest and recharge; to observe and discover; to imagine, create, engineer, and build; and to play actively. Nature play spaces support social, emotional, and behavioral regulation and allow students (and staff) to decompress, regroup, and re-engage.

Stilt walk is a balancing element that allows children to choose different routes. Stepping stumps are bolted to the posts, and wood chips are the required safety surfacing. It is important for nature play elements to be consistent with safety requirements.

Be sure that when children are on elevated play elements, including straw bales, that you leave the required use zone around the natural elements.

Be sure any swinging elements, such as hammocks, are compliant with Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) guidelines.

Nature play can happen almost anywhere, from the forest to asphalt playgrounds and anywhere in between. Students can play on a tabletop or on an acre of land. Consider using wooded areas, grassy lawns, the corners of the schoolyard, the space beneath a single tree, and the space among bushes. You may even find an unused area that can be transformed by cleaning out trash or by removing dense understory. A bit of space, some simple materials, and time to engage are all that is required. Nature play can be as simple or as complicated as you make it.

Sharing the Space. The considerations for what makes a nature play space safe for children may vary depending on your site. In spaces where other humans might be on site in off hours, it will be important to inspect the space for trash before children play. In wild places, it’s important to respect creatures like birds, insects, and small mammals whose homes may be in the space.

Equitable Access. To ensure access for all abilities to explore, be sure to provide accessible paths into natural areas or place natural elements near existing accessible surfaces so that all kids can see, touch, smell, and interact with a variety of natural materials.

Unstructured Time. Time to play and explore freely in nature reduces stress, improves physical and mental health, and encourages active play that supports fitness and emerging motor skills. Let students experience unstructured time in nature and see what happens — it is magical.

Supervision for Nature Play. Consider how outside time and recess are supervised and move away from policies where kids are not allowed to pick up, collect or explore natural materials. Define reasonable limits and safe ways to explore, but allow greater flexibility to let kids discover. Say “yes” as often as you can!

Materials such as sticks, stones, and pickable herbs and flowers offer tremendous play value. If play with these materials is new to you and your students it is important to discuss expectations in advance. Encourage everyone to work together to come up with shared rules about appropriate uses for each material and the amount of cleanup that is expected at the end of each play period.

Playing WITH and AMONG Natural Materials. Students can make connections to nature simply by being surrounded by trees or meadow grass on campus. Natural materials that can be used, moved and arranged provide tactile experiences and encourage creativity.

Playing ON Natural Materials. The variety of textures, irregular shapes and surfaces, and changeability of natural materials over time all combine to invite kids of all ages to play actively-- often more actively than on manufactured play equipment. Natural elements can be arranged to provide opportunities for active physical play including climbing, jumping, crawling, balancing, and more. When children are inspired to move their bodies, they realize health benefits such as reduced obesity, increased fitness and endurance. Active play elements also give children the opportunity to take risks which builds self awareness and confidence.

Beneficial Risk. Risky play is often part of what can happen in a nature play space. According to the International School Grounds Alliance, (ISGA) “Risk taking opportunities are essential components of a well-functioning school ground. Adults and institutions have a responsibility to use common sense in providing and allowing risk-taking activities for children and young people.” Risky play helps students develop essential competencies, allows them to learn from experience, and teaches them to recognize and respond to risks in the world around them. ISGA asserts that spaces for children “should be as safe as necessary, not as safe as possible”, which means that there is tremendous value in allowing children to experience risky play. Avoid overregulating the spaces where children play.

Loose Parts 

By giving students the opportunity to build and create and change their environment, we are empowering them and allowing them to develop a sense of ownership and agency over their space. Loose parts play inspires creativity, problem solving, and small and large muscle activity such as lifting, pushing, pulling, and manipulating.

There is no limit to the number and variety of odds and ends that students can use creatively. Children love to create art and build shelters, miniature worlds, lookouts, and houses for bugs. Students can build and create with loose parts at any scale.

Natural Materials. Provide natural materials such as pine cones, shells, seed pods, bark, bamboo pieces, acorns, pine needles, leaves, and sticks of all sizes as well as rocks-- from tiny pebbles to larger stacking stones. “Tree cookies” are cross-sectional slices of tree branches or trunks of any diameter and length that can be used as work surfaces, stepping stones, stacking blocks, mud pie plates, and more. If there is a safe location, allow kids time to play in autumn leaf piles, before leaves are removed from the campus. Objects of different sizes and weights to lift, move, push, or pull on their own or in cooperation with peers supports the development of children’s proprioceptive sense which is essential for understanding where your body is in space.

Repurposed Materials. Provide recycled materials such as cardboard, wooden planks, crates, fabric, rope, and string. Baskets, wheelbarrows, wagons, and bags are useful tools for collecting and transporting loose parts. Kitchen tools like pots, pans, muffin tins, spice jars, spoons, whisks and rolling pins enhance imaginary play, and when donated to the school by families, provide a nice connection to home.

Skeleton Structures. Lean-tos, tripods, and nest frames can be fixed in place for students to embellish with fabric, ribbon, cut vines, or sticks and saplings. Old boats, fishing nets, and other real materials, can provide frameworks that allow for larger scale construction and pretend play.

Storage. Loose parts can be used and stored in a designated area of the school grounds, in open or closed shelves, cabinets, bins, or sheds. Switch out materials regularly to keep kids engaged.

Use moveable tubs and wheeled carts to create pop-up nature play spaces on the schoolyards, in a park, parking lot, or any other temporary space.

Encourage students to use their senses while exploring the campus or community. Provide natural materials for students to touch, smell, listen to, and manipulate. Include herbs and fragrant plants to taste, smell, pick, and touch; dirt to dig in; tactile grasses that sway in the wind; simple wind chimes, bells, and ribbons; and sparkly things to hang in trees, like old CDs. Portable sensory tables can be for individuals or small groups, should be changed frequently and can include a variety of materials (birdseed, beans, sand, soil, water, ice cubes, and so on) that young students can explore. Be sure to check with local sanitation requirements and provide individual sensory bins if needed.

Quiet Spaces. Help each child to find a sit spot or a place to rest and reflect under a forest canopy, in the middle of a meadow, or in any quiet corner of the schoolyard. Having a place to retreat to when needed or during a designated time each day helps children to calm and restore themselves.

A pile of dirt or large stumps are low budget elements that add high play value.

Nature play areas can provide a wide range of play experiences and adventure. Physical play on natural elements allows children to move their bodies in different ways, to assess challenges, and to take the sort of beneficial physical risks that help them develop an understanding of their own abilities, build their confidence, and gain skills and experience important for becoming capable adults.

You may decide to begin with loose parts or a temporary balance course. Once you’ve tried a little bit of nature play you may decide that you’re ready to invest in adding a more permanent play space.

Consider whether nature play elements will be used with students’ feet off the ground. Introducing this type of active nature play on your schoolyard means that you will need to be aware of and comply with playground safety guidelines as you design, install and use your nature play space.

Trails and Courses

Temporary. Simply provide time and places to run, leap, skip, and otherwise move exuberantly: along a path, across a lawn, even down the sidewalk. Build obstacle courses and sensory courses that provide varying levels of difficulty with opportunities to hop here, jump there, climb here, balance along the length of rope. Adults or students can create short-term courses with chalk or paint on pavement or can arrange materials such as tree cookies, stepping stones, Hula-Hoops™, and bits of rope on lawns or along meadow or forest paths.

Long Term. For long-lasting obstacle courses and balance trails, use horizontal logs, log rounds and stumps, stepping stones, or larger stones, rocks, and boulders Be sure to follow safety guidelines for anchoring, spacing, and installing resilient surfacing around any raised elements.

Climbing. Nature play areas that include large-scale, heavy materials and involve site work can provide a wider range of play experiences and adventure. Spaces might include large tree parts, log structures, rocks and boulders, extensive plantings, water features, and even constructed terrain (e.g., sand pits, hills and berms, embankment slides, tunnels and caves).

Resources for Materials and Labor

Start small. Use found materials. Provide work surfaces like tables, tree stumps, or trays to build on and places to sit for small-scale nature play and exploration. Ask for donations of specific materials, such as wood blocks, shells, cones & seeds.

Post on Nextdoor.com and other neighborhood listservs to let the community know that they can donate materials like tree parts, pavers, bamboo poles, plant parts, and so on. 

Reach out to local parks departments and arborists to ask them to consider donating logs and branches from trees that they need to remove in the course of their work. Ask if they would be willing to cut the logs and branches to order and deliver them using their  equipment. They may also be able to provide wood chips for planted areas of the school grounds. Some schools organize school workdays to cut and sand logs and branches for students’ use. 

Garden groups, master gardener programs, and local public gardens and nurseries are also great resources to solicit donations of plants, cuttings, seeds, and plant parts (e.g., cones, seed pods, stalks) that can be used for play.

Local volunteer groups can help create, build, install, and maintain simple nature play spaces.  Such groups include scouts, high school tech and agriculture classes, master gardeners, corporate service partners, and parents. They can assist schools by delivering logs, creating tubs of loose natural or recycled materials, building planter beds, and planting vegetation.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

Identify key school and district officials and other stakeholders to seek support for nature play and to engage them in crafting the direction for the project and an overall implementation strategy. Include all voices in the design, planning, and implementation processes — including students when possible. 

If nature play is new to your school or district and you are planning a large-scale project, use the resources listed below to help frame the discussion and enlist the support of your facilities department and key local risk-assessment advisors.