Nature Play Books & Guides
ECHO has developed and curated free resources to help you bring nature play and outdoor learning to life in outdoor spaces.
DIY Guides
Explore these DIY Guides to get started on building select components for your outdoor learning environment.
Components & Settings
Impact of Naturalized Early Childhood Outdoor Learning Environments
This research brief was created by the Natural Learning Initiative to highlight the importance of bringing nature play and learning to every community. It identifies several ways naturalized outdoor learning environments, or natural play and learning places, benefit children’s physical health, social-emotional growth, cognitive growth, and more.
Offsite Play and Learning Resource Guide
This guide was created through a collaboration between ECHO and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to help Colorado communities extend outdoor play and learning opportunities beyond the boundaries of home or center-based child care settings. It is intended to help child care providers think through the steps required to safely and successfully take young children off-site.
Naturalized Outdoor Learning Environment Stewardship Guidelines
These guidelines were created through a partnership between the National Wildlife Federation and the Natural Learning Initiative to help communities manage and maintain their naturalized outdoor learning environments. It is intended for those working to engage children, youth, and families with nature and natural processes in the places of everyday life.
Playing by the Rules
A Practitioner’s Guide to Rules, Regulations, and Rating Systems for Outdoor Learning Environments in Colorado Child Care Facilities.
Nature Play at Home
Developed by the National Wildlife Federation and the Natural Learning Initiative, this guide shows easy, affordable ways you can turn your backyard or other types of domestic outdoor spaces into vibrant nature play spaces for children so they can reap the physical and mental benefits of playing outside. Creating natural play opportunities can be part of the solution to increasing the amount of time kids spend in the great outdoors for the health of their minds, bodies, and spirits.
Download the full Nature Play at Home guide above, or select a nature play space from our individual guides below:
Nature Play & Learning Places
These National Guidelines were created through a partnership between the National Wildlife Federation and the Natural Learning Initiative to bring nature play and learning to every community. It is intended for those who create, manage, or promote the development of nature in the everyday environments of children, youth, and families, especially in urban/suburban communities.
Download the full Nature Play and Learning Places book above, or read through Chapter 6 – Risk Management, below: