Early education program leaders around the world are increasingly enthusiastic about nature-based learning. Many leaders want to jump in wholeheartedly but find shifting the culture of their organization incredibly challenging. This webinar is a pause to say, “Imagine if…” Imagine if nature were another teacher in the classroom, if nature-based learning were core to the program’s culture, and if families were choosing your program because of its nature-rich experiences. In this session, Dr. Larimore will explore different ways to consider a nature-based approach in your teaching—from the structure of the day and the physical environment to planning and teacher-child interactions. She’ll share a wide range of possibilities for imagining—or reimagining—the ways we support young children through nature-based learning.

In this action-focused webinar designed for program leaders and administrators, experienced early childhood nature-based program leader and author Dr. Rachel Larimore will share her Trail Map for Leading Change—an approach for inspiring and supporting staff as they move toward nature-based teaching. In previous ECI webinars, she focused on the big picture of the Trail Map for Change and Step 1: preparing yourself as a leader. In this webinar, she’ll focus on Step 5 of the Trail Map: reimagining teaching practices to embrace nature-based pedagogy.

Come be inspired by the diverse and innovative ways early childhood programs are integrating nature-based learning into their classrooms.

Objectives

Participants will be able to:

1. Describe the core components of nature-based pedagogy.

2. Identify at least two ways to reimagine daily structure to embrace nature-based pedagogy.

3. Identify at least two ways to reimagine the physical environment to deepen nature-based learning.

4. Describe ways to support teachers in making small shifts toward nature-based teaching.