Take learning outdoors with these fantastic resources! Encourage children to become involved in nature as they discover hidden treasures during outdoor play. Bush kinder programs give children a unique opportunity and freedom to learn through play with natural materials in outdoor environments. 🌱

Our favourite outdoor activities

• Treasure hunting & collecting – anything can be deemed precious with our treasure collecting resources. Leaves, flowers, twigs, rocks or lost items; encourage children to find their favourite things while out on a walk. Capture them in treasure tubes, blocks or collection trays. 🌸
• Discovery & investigation – use magnifying glasses, kaleidoscopes, binoculars and notepads to discover the intricacies of nature. Look through coloured perspex or kaleidoscopes to change the way the world looks, binoculars to look for birds in the trees or sky, and magnifiers to zoom in on bugs and leaves. 🦋
• Garden & grow – discover how life cycles and growth stages work through the simplicity of gardening. Start with a seed and nurture it through rain, hail and shine to see what grows. Gardening helps develop vital life skills such as patience and caretaking. Use what the children have grown in the garden for their snacks or mud kitchen play. 🪴
• Nature walks – take a long walk in nature with magnifiers or other discovery tools and look for things that can only be found out in the bush or park. Is that a kookaburra or a lorikeet? What colour flowers can you see? How many different kinds of leaves can you find? A nice walk in nature can help children develop physical development skills as well as nurture their love for nature and science. 🍃
• Messy play – get little hands dirty with mud kitchens, gardening or searching for hidden treasures. Activities that involve a bit of mess can be so much fun. Set up activities with loose parts for children to put into potions, go searching for in a treasure hunt, or resources they can use to play in puddles. ☀️

By increasing the amount of time children spend outdoor and in natural environments, bush kinder programs can help improve children's wellbeing, physical development and motor skills as they develop deeper understandings of STEM and the environment.

Outdoor play and bush kinder programs can help to:

• improve children's wellbeing, physical development, fine and gross motor skills, core strength, coordination, balance, eyesight and physical endurance
• encourage children to build deeper understandings of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) 
• support children to make decisions and judgements that challenge and safely explore established boundaries 
• improve children's connections to nature, which can encourage their knowledge and commitment to environmental sustainability into adulthood.

Source: Bush Kinder Grants Program.

These resources are perfect for exploring nature and encouraging children to develop and strengthen their patience, and their scientific and inquisitive skills. These resources fall under safety equipment, tools and plants and gardening materials as outlined on the Victorian Government grant website.