Designing and Creating Natural Play Environments

What's In This Kit?
This training kit is designed to introduce teachers to designing and creating natural playenvironments. It contains:

• Expected training outcomes
• Preparation instructions
• Training strategies and tips
• Implementation steps
• Follow-up activities for teachers
• Follow-up activities for administrators/directors
• A learning assessment
• A training evaluation/further needs assessment
• A resource list
• The article “Designing and Creating Natural Play Environments for Young Children” byRusty Keeler
• A training certificate to award to teachers for attendance and participation
• A certificate for the trainer and other presenters

Who's the Target Audience?
The target audience for this kit is beginning, intermediate, and advanced teachers workingwith children from ages birth to 8. Teachers will explore designing and creating sensory-rich,natural, outdoor play spaces.

Teacher Skill Level

beginning intermediate advanced

Children's Age Level

infants toddlers preschoolers school-agers birth to 8

Kit Timeline:
Preparation time for this kit is estimated at 1.0 hour. Implementation time is estimated at 1.5 hours.

Training Outcomes:

1. Teachers will explore creating a more natural kind of outdoor environment that includesdifferent colors, sounds, textures, and scents.
2. Teachers will explore what children might discover, learn, and experience in a naturalplay environment.
3. Teachers will design a strategy for enlisting family members and staff to create a morenatural outdoor learning environment.

These training outcomes address the following:

• G-1b, G-6, and G-9 of the Accreditation Criteria and Procedures of the National Association for theEducation of Young Children (NAEYC, 1998).
• Standard 1 and 4b of NAEYC Standards for Early Childhood Professional Preparation, Initial LicensureLevel (NAEYC, 2003).
• 1304.21(a)(5)(i), 1304.21(b)(3)(i-ii), 1304.53(a)(1) of the Head Start Performance Standards (FederalRegister, Nov. 5, 1996, Volume 61, Number 215).

Note: Downloadable PDFs are only available for download in pdf format. Directions for downloading follow immediately after purchase.