[sarah]

creating a year round nature center could include making a collage during each season with available items found outside during each season.

[Trainer]

Great idea, Sarah! Collages are a wonderful way to engage with seasonal changes and promote creativity in nature exploration.

[Shannon Winbun]

At our center we have a variety of flower and vegetable garden boxes on all of our playgrounds. We plant different seasonal flowers and vegetables for the children to take care of and watch as they grow and change with each season. The children get really excited when it’s time to pick the different vegetables that they planted and helped grow, they also like to decide how they will use those vegetables that they picked.

[Trainer]

Shannon, your garden boxes beautifully engage children with nature, fostering excitement and responsibility throughout the seasons! Great idea!

[Debbie]

We have a fun gardening lesson where we plant seeds and watch them grow. Then we move them to our garden outside to enjoy in the summer. Child water and care for their garden. They pick, wash, and cut up the food from the garden and we then enjoy it for snack and lunch.

[stephanie]

Ideally, I would love to have a nature center located outside, decorated with local plants and insect figurines with each changing of the season, I would of course change out the decorations inside the nature center to match the new season and also do a class lesson each time the season changes about the new plants and insects that we will be seeing

[Janet]

Each season change, supply new photos of the season approaching. Follow winter, spring, summer, fallSupply items that are present in each season. May be a center that works outside. Potting table. Garden tools, seeds, water can, garden gloves. Leaf rake, wheel barrow, snow shovel, snow brush,

[Angelo]

the core space will remain modular, with seasonal rotating items the fit with the weather and other items of that season’s theme.

[Trainer]

Great idea, Angelo! Modular design allows for flexibility and engagement with each season’s unique characteristics.

[Sally]

I would have laminated photos of real life flowers, insects, trees, different types of clouds, snowflakes…depending on the season. Along with real life nature brought in.

[Trainer]

Great idea, Sally! Laminated photos combined with real nature will enhance hands-on learning and seasonal exploration.

[vanesha]

incorporating a variety of plants with different seasonal features, using natural elements as focal points, and designing adaptable indoor spaces

[Trainer]

Great ideas, Vanesha! Emphasizing seasonal plants and adaptable spaces will truly enhance the nature center’s appeal and educational value.

[Jiyon Kim]

Indoor GardenSet up a table with a line of pots with labels such as perenial flower, herbs and beans and cactus. There will be a watering schedule chart for each pot to avoid overwatering. Children can measure the amount of water and count the number of leaves and measure the height of plants every week to keep track of growth. Outdoor Garden-When the weather is warm, the seedlings can be left in the raised bed in the playground. Children will rotate between watering and weeding the garden. They can also make decorative stones and a picket fence to protect the garden. A picnic table and chairs for reading a book about plants and drawing flowers and plants as they observe.

[Trainer]

Jiyon, your ideas for hands-on gardening activities beautifully engage children with nature across seasons. Great job!

[Kristin Stockton]

We would read books about the seasons when a new season is upon us. We go outside and look for signs of what we have been reading (changing or falling leaves in fall, collecting leaves for art projects or to study, looking for bird nests, bees in spring). I bring in different pinecones from trees when I am out and about so children can compare and contrast them. We find interesting rocks at school or at home, bring them in and study them, draw them and look at them in different lighting, in water etc.

[Jade]

I would create a large interactive tree that children can change with each season. An example of this would be giving them brown, orange, red and yellow colored leaves to put onto the tree during the fall time.

[Trainer]

Great idea, Jade! The interactive tree is a fantastic way to engage children with the changing seasons creatively!

[Nicole]

I would have a sensory bin where I could put certain things in it depending on the season. In my classroom in the fall we do activities with leaves. We have leaf rubbing, and then also the children can collect things from outside and make an art project out the the items they collected.

[Trainer]

Great ideas, Nicole! A sensory bin enhances hands-on learning and creativity, beautifully connecting children to seasonal changes.

[Te’Niesha]

Indoor nature table with rotating seasonal items and access to outdoor exploration space. Sensory bins, sorting natural objects, nature art, and observation jars. Nature walks, gardening, scavenger hunts, and seasonal play (leaves, snow, water).

[Trainer]

Great ideas, Te’Niesha! Your emphasis on hands-on activities and seasonal experiences will truly engage learners with nature year-round.