Get outside for Nature Play Week

Nature Play Week  (14-25 April) is all about getting kids and parents outside and enjoying, playing, imagining, relaxing and exploring in the natural environment.

What are your favourite childhood memories? Building cubby houses? Making mud pies? Climbing trees? Children today have less freedoms and many are missing out on the critical learning and development opportunities that come from extended time playing outside. Teachers and occupational therapists have noticed a massive decline in the attention span, motor skills, emotional regulation and mental wellbeing of children, as we spend more and more time indoors and on screens. Source.

People of all ages who participate in nature-based activities tend to be happier and healthier than those who do not! Source.

Why not join us for Nature Play Storytime? Chinchilla Storytime at the Parkland on Friday 16 April or Dalby Storytime by the Creek on Tuesday 20 April.

For more Nature Play inspiration, check out these resources available from your Library:

Hugless Douglas and the nature walk by David Melling

Douglas is very excited – he’s off on a nature walk with all his friends from Little School! Miss Moo-Hoo has given everyone a worksheet with a list of interesting things to find – flowers, twigs, berries… and bugs! Soon everyone is too busy searching to notice that… DRIP, DROP… it’s started to rain!

Nature Play at Home: creating outdoor spaces that connect children with the natural world by Nancy Striniste

Access to technology has created a generation of children who are more plugged in than every – often with negative consequences. Unrestricted outdoor play reduces stress, improves health, and enhances creativity, learning and attention span. This book provides hundreds of inspiring ideas and projects.

Explanatorium of Nature

Jaw-dropping, up-close photography shows the natural world and animals as you have never seen them before. From fruit to flowers, shells to sharks, ants to elephants, this extraordinary book will keep animal and nature enthusiasts absorbed.

Nature Art (STEAMSquad at Home Kit)

Explore symmetry in nature and use flowers and leaves to create beautiful artworks.

How to Get Kids Offline, Outdoors, and Connecting with Nature: 200+ creative activities to encourage self-esteem, mindfulness, and wellbeing by Bonnie Thomas

Full of ideas, activities and exercises, this book provides imaginative ways to inspire young people to put down the computer games, disconnect from social media, and spend more time away from a screen.

Wild Scientists by Steve Mould

Meet amazing engineers, such as the spiders who build immense webs stretching over rivers; funky physicists, like the bats that can see with sound; and surprising chemists, such as the corpse flower that smells like smelly socks to attract insects to pollinate it!

Let’s Get Gardening! 

This book is a wonderful start to building any child’s green thumb and encouraging them to do their bit for the environment. Learn about conservation, recycling and sustainability in simple and practical ways, while getting outdoors learning about plants and wildlife.

Collecting Sunshine by Rachel Flynn (Storytime at Home Kit)

Celebrate the joy of imagination and the wonders of the natural world. Two children love to collect things on their walk. But when they are caught in the rain and can’t take their collection home they have an even better idea.

Walk with me by Margaret Wise Brown

A beautiful rhyming bedtime story to encourage gentle dreams of nature.

Learn more at Nature Play Learning, Nature Play Queensland, and Nature Play Week.

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