Investigating the potential of nature play with children

Abstract

Nature play has emerged as a global movement in the last decade. In Australia, this has inspired state government nature play initiatives, bush kinder and forest school programs and nature playgroups. However, as yet, Australian nature play research is somewhat limited and the potential for nature play in varied Australian settings is to be fully explored. In this study we investigated the potential of a new nature plays pace for environmental education programs atThalgarrah Environmental Education Centre (TEEC), Armidale, NSW. In particular, we focussed on young children's responses to the nature plays pace and their perceptions of the play affordances. Our intent was to inform the ongoing development of the TEEC nature playspace and programs.