Tips, Posts, and Announcements

There are many fun ways to spend valuable outdoor time with your little ones this Fall and Winter. We reached out to educators that lead programming at three of the Alliance for Watershed Education Centers, asking them to share their insights on getting outside and engaging young tots about the natural world around them. 

Little Explorers at Bartram’s Garden, Nature Tots at John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge and Tiny Trekkers based at Cobbs Creek Park all host monthly meet-ups of nature-based activities for preschoolers. The season for these gatherings is coming to a close but many trails and park grounds are open all year long with events and programs returning in the Spring.

Read our interview with the Director of Tiny Trekkers PHL, Elaine Wells and plan your next trip with GoPhillyGo.

What is your favorite lesson to teach and why?

My favorite lesson to teach is that we all (humans, plants, animals, even bugs) play an important part in nature and we have to be accountable for taking care of each other to make sure that we all live happy healthy lives. Teaching kids this early in life gives them the knowledge and the  agency to continue being stewards of green spaces and more likely to be mindful of the environment and nature as they grow up. 

Are there any books about the environment or nature that you recommend for pre-k age?

Yes.

Rosa explores life cycles - Jessica Spanyol

Eco Girl - Ken Wilson-Max

I Like Bugs - Margaret Wise Brown

Let’s Go Outside - Ben Lerwill

These are all early readers that teach the importance of nature and being outdoors through storytelling with diverse characters and relatable experiences. 

What is a fun activity folks can do at home?

One that I love to do with my grandkids and have done several times with Tiny Trekkers is to create a nature bracelet or a picture bouquet. For the nature bracelet we simply wrap a piece of packing tape backwards (sticky side out) around a wrist and have them collect and stick small flowers, petals, leaves, buds, and pebbles to it and they wind up with a colorful collection of nature to wear around. 

For the picture bouquet, we just take a plain 8x10 piece of cardboard (recycled Amazon boxes) and draw a vase on it, have the kids color or paint their vase, and then using scissors or any sharp object poke 10-12 holes all around the top of the vase. We go out in the yard or on a walk through the neighborhood and pick dandelions and thread their stems through the holes and they wind up with a pretty picture of real flowers in a vase.  

What is your advice to a parent who might be a little hesitant to take a small child on a trail or in a park?

Join up with Tiny Trekkers! We curate experiences in nature with youth ages 2 through 9 and their families to expose them to the wonders of trail walking, hiking, birding, bug hunts, etc. in an effort to get them used to the experience and get comfortable with doing it on their own - they are always welcome to keep coming to our FREE events if they want but will definitely have more confidence to do it on their own once they’ve had the experience. We encourage the children to explore and be curious (under our and their parents’ watchful eyes) and to run and jump and climb and touch and smell and learn about and  see what nature has to offer and they do this organically as children are naturally curious about things around them. 

What is your favorite park, nature-space in the Philadelphia area, to take a pre-k age child?

I would have to say Cobbs Creek Park & Trails just because of the variety of outdoor & nature based interactions that can be had there. There’s access to everything from Tennis and basketball courts to a new nature play/spray ground, entrances to  the trails, the meadow, the creek, the Environmental Center, the Laura Sims Skate House and soon-to-open, the Recreation Center. All have free programming!

Do you have any tips for nature activities in the fall or winter?

Yes- One idea that I’ve done with my own kids/grandkids is to go to a park or trail once or twice a week when the leaves start changing and pick one location to come back to and take pictures of the same group of trees as they progress through the season, and then show the littles the pictures all together. It’s amazing to see the transformation side