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Mary Crane: home such as incorporating natural items into play. “We
were intentionally unstructured, let children take the lead.
Weaving Nature Play into our Institutional Fabric The parents are able to see through their child’s play with
natural materials how much their children can learn with
Mary Crane Centers serve nearly 350 children from these natural items, and how much they already know.
329 families, 97% which are low-income families. Through our partnership with the U.S. Forest Service,
Forty-nine percent of families that participate in Mary we bring Monarch caterpillars to the families and they
Crane’s programs identify as Black, and 40% identify learn how to raise the butterflies at home. Parents are
as Hispanic. Many Mary Crane Head Start families interested in learning more information on Monarchs,
have limited access to neighborhood green spaces, so about their migration and about their role as pollinators.
until they participated in the NatureStart Network, The children were excited about coming to the Center
staff didn’t really appreciate the benefits of nature play. to release their butterflies. Now almost everyone at El
Incorporating nature into activities, “we saw curiosity, Valor knows about Monarchs and migration!” Guidelia
wonder, imagination, a love of plants and animals,” says Hernandez, Head Start teacher, and her team used trees
associate director Claudia Rivera. “Now that we’ve had as a gateway to nature play learning. “We asked the
this training and experience, we actively look for ways to children what they knew about trees—which foods they
incorporate nature spaces into our planning. We gather enjoyed came from trees, which animals live in trees? We
natural materials for activities; our teachers research investigated who takes care of trees. We planted cilantro
natural spaces to make field trips more intentional seeds and tracked their growth.”
and reflective. We raise the topic of nature play in our
parent meetings and gather ideas for how to extend
the learning at home.” Mary Crane’s next steps include
institutionalizing their nature play plan by including it
in the organization’s annual budget; continuing to infuse
nature programs in classrooms; continuing to send staff
to professional development opportunities, inviting
teachers to share how they are incorporating nature in
their lesson plans; and partnering with the FPDCC on
outings and activities.
El Valor: Starting Small, Staying Relevant Try This When Planning Your Nature Space
“We visited other nature centers and watched
For El Valor, the key components to creating nature play what the kids liked to do.”
programming that was sustainable was to take small but “Sometimes less is more. Don’t overdesign the
deliberate steps, to ensure that activities resonated with space. Leave it unfinished, natural.”
the children in their urban-dwelling lives, and to involve “Scouts and high school students are looking
families. Onelia Rios, parent infant educator, explains for service opportunities – engage their help!”
how staff started with small nature-based activities at “Our organizational partners are fluent in
Spanish. We recruited their translation skills
to make our own materials more accessible to
our visitors.”
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