Nature-Based Learning in an Urban Setting

Nature-based learning is not limited by geography. Even in urban settings, early childhood education can successfully incorporate the wonders of nature to stimulate learning, promote well-being, and instill environmental stewardship in young children.

Even in urban environments, nature-based learning can thrive, offering children rich, sensory experiences that foster curiosity, creativity, and a deep connection with the natural world. Here’s how nature-based learning can be integrated into early childhood education in urban settings:

Maximizing Green Spaces
Urban areas often have limited access to expansive natural spaces, but even small parks, community gardens, or schoolyard green spaces can provide valuable opportunities. Regular visits to these areas allow children to explore plants, trees, insects, and weather patterns.
  • Idea: Create a “tree watch” where children observe and document seasonal changes in a specific tree in a park or on the playground.

Urban Wildlife Exploration
Cities have their own ecosystems, including birds, insects, and small mammals. Observing pigeons, squirrels, or bees helps children understand urban biodiversity.
  • Idea: Start a “bird-watching” activity, encouraging children to identify different species they spot from their window, in the park, or on a walk.

Bringing Nature Indoors
Urban settings often face limited access to natural spaces. Bring nature indoors by setting up a classroom nature corner with potted plants, seeds, or terrariums for children to observe.
  • Idea: Have children plant seeds in small pots, track their growth, and discuss the life cycle of plants.

Sensory Gardens and Play
Urban areas can create sensory gardens in small spaces with diverse textures, scents, and colors for children to explore. This offers an opportunity for sensory play, which promotes emotional regulation and cognitive development.
  • Idea: Encourage children to touch and smell herbs like mint or lavender, sparking discussions about how nature engages the senses.

Recycled Materials for Nature Exploration
Nature-based learning can also focus on sustainability. Collect recyclables and natural materials like leaves, rocks, and sticks for nature-inspired art projects.
  • Idea: Make nature-themed collages using recycled paper, dried leaves, or flower petals collected during a neighborhood walk.

Urban Gardening
Container gardening or vertical gardening is a great way to introduce children to growing plants in an urban environment. They can learn responsibility by caring for plants and witnessing how food grows, even in small spaces.
  • Idea: Create a classroom garden where children help water, plant, and harvest herbs or vegetables.

Exploring Weather and Seasons
Urban settings provide an opportunity to teach children about weather changes and the seasons, even without large green spaces. Walks to observe leaves falling in autumn or snow in winter can enhance their understanding of the environment.
  • Idea: Have children collect leaves in different seasons and discuss how they change over time.

Outdoor Play and Physical Movement
Urban settings can offer unique ways to engage in nature-based learning through movement. Playgrounds and parks are essential for developing gross motor skills.
  • Idea: Set up nature-themed obstacle courses using rocks, logs, or leaves found in urban parks.
​Connecting Children with Community Nature Initiatives
Many urban communities have nature conservation or sustainability projects that children can engage with. Partnering with local organizations can provide a meaningful connection between the children and their environment.
  • Idea: Organize a field trip to a community garden or local park clean-up event, teaching children the importance of caring for their surroundings.

Fostering a Sense of Wonder
Even in an urban setting, nature can foster a sense of awe and discovery. Introducing children to the idea that nature is all around us, even in cities, helps cultivate a lifelong appreciation for the environment.
  • Idea: Set up a “Nature Treasure Hunt” where children find natural items (leaves, stones, feathers) in the city and discuss their discoveries.
Nature Knows No Zip Code.
Every child deserves access to the wonders of nature, regardless of where they live. Our approach brings outdoor learning to all neighborhoods, making nature’s magic accessible to every zip code.

How to Incorporate Nature 

​Incorporating nature into urban early childhood education settings requires creativity and resourcefulness, but there are many ways to bring nature into children's lives, even when surrounded by buildings and concrete. Here are some additional ideas for introducing nature-based learning into urban environments, focusing on bringing natural materials into classrooms and making the most of the resources available:

Nature Collection Baskets
Set up baskets where children can collect natural materials during outdoor time or on walks. Items like leaves, pinecones, rocks, sticks, and flowers can be gathered and brought into the classroom for sorting, counting, and sensory exploration.
  • Extension: Create a “Nature Table” where the children’s collected items are displayed for observation, discussion, and artwork inspiration.

Indoor Nature Walls or Murals
Designate a section of your classroom wall as a "Nature Wall" where you can hang dried leaves, pressed flowers, or pictures of local plants and animals. The children can contribute to the wall by adding their drawings or natural objects they find.
  • Extension: Use natural materials like leaves or petals to create murals or seasonal art projects.

Nature-Inspired Loose Parts Play
Bring natural materials like small logs, twigs, shells, acorns, and stones into the classroom for children to use during loose parts play. These open-ended materials encourage creativity and help children understand different textures, shapes, and patterns found in nature.
  • Extension: Use loose parts for building structures, creating nature mandalas, or incorporating them into pretend play.

Rotating Nature Exhibits
Set up rotating mini-exhibits featuring different aspects of nature, such as rocks, seeds, or bark. Encourage families to bring in items from parks, gardens, or community green spaces for display. Each week, focus on a different theme (e.g., "Rocks and Minerals" or "Autumn Leaves").
  • Extension: Children can magnify their discoveries with magnifying glasses and document their observations in a nature journal.

Nature Sensory Bins
Create sensory bins filled with natural materials such as sand, dirt, pinecones, or water with floating leaves. These bins give children hands-on opportunities to experience nature up close, even indoors.
  • Extension: Incorporate themed sensory bins that reflect the current season (e.g., fall leaves and acorns in autumn, snow and ice during winter).

Terrariums and Mini Gardens
Bring small pieces of nature into the classroom by creating terrariums or mini gardens in glass jars, containers, or small pots. Children can help plant seeds, care for the plants, and watch them grow, fostering responsibility and excitement for the natural world.
  • Extension: Try a “Herb Garden” where children plant and care for herbs like basil or mint, learning about plant life cycles and smells.

Natural Fabric and Textile Exploration
Introduce natural materials like wool, cotton, bamboo, or silk into the classroom. Children can explore the different textures of these materials and learn where they come from, making connections to plants and animals in nature.
  • Extension: Offer weaving activities using natural yarn or fibers, helping children develop fine motor skills while engaging with natural materials.

Water Play with Natural Materials
Set up water play stations that incorporate natural items such as leaves, pebbles, sticks, or floating seeds. This is a great way to explore the properties of water and how objects behave in it (e.g., floating, sinking, moving).
  • Extension: Create a “rainwater collection” activity to show children how water can be collected and reused for plants or play.

Nature-Inspired Art Projects
Offer art materials that reflect natural elements, such as using clay to mold shapes found in nature, or using natural dyes made from berries or plants. Children can create leaf rubbings, nature collages, or print-making using natural items like leaves or flowers.
  • Extension: Incorporate eco-friendly paints, or make your own paints from natural sources like beet juice or turmeric.

Bringing In Local Nature Experts
Invite local environmentalists, gardeners, or ecologists to come and share their expertise with the children. Whether it's learning about urban wildlife or how to plant a rooftop garden, this creates an enriching connection between the children and their local environment.
  • Extension: Encourage parents who work in green spaces, conservation, or sustainability to come in and share their knowledge, or take a small field trip to a community garden.

Natural Storytelling and Imaginative Play
Set up a corner with natural props like sticks, stones, leaves, and pinecones, where children can create their own nature-themed stories and imaginative play scenarios. The open-ended nature of these materials encourages creativity and connection to the natural world.
  • Extension: Develop a "Nature Puppet Show" where children use natural materials to make puppets of animals or trees and create stories about the environment.

Nature-Themed STEM Challenges
Incorporate nature into STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) challenges. For example, challenge children to build a bird nest using twigs and leaves or create a bridge out of natural materials like sticks and pebbles.
  • Extension: Combine nature and engineering by experimenting with how natural materials can be used for building, testing, and problem-solving.

Creating a Classroom Weather Station
Set up a simple weather station in the classroom, where children can track the temperature, rainfall, and wind conditions. Connect the weather observations to discussions about how weather affects plants, animals, and natural cycles.
  • Extension: Encourage children to observe how the weather changes the appearance of nearby plants, trees, or insects over time.

Nature-Themed Music and Movement
Bring natural elements into music and movement activities by using instruments made from natural materials (e.g., drums made from hollow logs or maracas made from seeds). Children can also engage in movement games that imitate animals or plants in nature.
  • Extension: Create a "nature sound orchestra" where children use natural objects to create music or recreate sounds they hear in nature, like bird chirps or wind blowing through trees.

Rain Garden Exploration
If space allows, create or visit a rain garden that helps manage stormwater while providing a natural space for children to observe water-loving plants and insects. Rain gardens also offer opportunities to discuss the importance of water conservation.
  • Extension: Collect rainwater with the children and use it to water plants, teaching them about the water cycle and sustainability.

Nature Museum
Create a dedicated “Nature Museum” space in your classroom to showcase children’s natural finds. This interactive display invites children to examine, classify, and share stories about their discoveries. Use labels, magnifying glasses, and nature journals to deepen exploration and build scientific thinking. The Nature Museum becomes a living exhibit that grows with the seasons and the children’s curiosity.
  • Extension: Invite children to curate themed exhibits — such as “Signs of Spring” or “Textures in Nature” — encouraging them to group and present items with purpose. Add QR codes linking to audio recordings of children describing their finds to integrate literacy and technology.
No Nature? No Problem!
Bring the outdoors inside with a Nature Museum, a hands-on space where children explore, discover + connect with natural materials, no matter where they live. Perfect for schools without green space, it’s nature learning made accessible + fun!

Getting Families Involved

Incorporating family engagement into nature-based learning in an urban setting enhances children’s connection to nature and builds a strong bridge between classroom activities and home experiences. By involving families in nature-based learning activities, urban early childhood centers can deepen children’s connections to nature while building strong home-school partnerships. These activities offer opportunities for families to experience the joy of nature together, while reinforcing the center’s sustainability goals. When families engage in these experiences, children see the importance of nature and sustainability modeled by their loved ones, creating lasting habits and a shared appreciation for the environment.

Nature-Based Learning in the City

CONNECTING CHILDREN TO NATURE, NO MATTER WHERE THEY LIVE 

Urban spaces can be nature-rich classrooms. By bringing plants, animals, and sensory experiences indoors and outdoors, we help children explore and care for the natural world ... right in their neighborhoods. Nature is everywhere!

Early Foundations for a Sustainable Future (Birth–5)

Rooted in Ohio / Grounded in Nature / Inspired by Mother Earth / Nuturing the Next Generation