COVID-19

At the end of 2024, the Children & Nature Network Founders’ Council published a report identifying the key issues that affect how children and youth meaningfully connect with nature in their everyday lives. Grounded in both scientific research and less formal ways of knowing, these observations help inform the ongoing contributions of the Children & Nature Network.

This Research Digest explores biophilic design – the intentional design of indoor and outdoor spaces to integrate natural elements and patterns into the built environment, with the aim of enhancing well-being. Biophilic design can be applied in a range of settings. In this Digest we focus on schools, libraries, childcare and urban settings where children learn and play.

Bring nature inside with Native Plant Party, a new card game created by Central Ohio Naturalist Jared Goodykoontz. Invite different “party animals” into your yard with various native plants from the Eastern US. Planting wild bergamot will swarm your yard with pollinators, while cultivating wasp-friendly plants will earn you a bonus! Make sure to keep the deer and bunnies from eating all your work, and steer clear of pesticide companies! Check out this free, printable version of the card game made exclusively available for the Children & Nature Network.

You don’t have to be an expert naturalist, or do it all alone. We’ve created this toolkit to help you plan and share outdoor experiences with like-minded friends and families who are yearning for “more green, less screen.”

As part of her thesis research, scholar-activist Alayna Schmidt collaborated with Asheville Writers in the Schools & Community, now known as the Artéria Collective, to publish an art zine on Black & Brown youth’s persepectives, opinions and ideas of nature. The project was the result of a year-long project that involved around fifteen youths, from elementary to middle school age. Find Schmidt’s full thesis here.

參與了 「綠化校園及戶外學習之全
球經驗」項目的薩爾茨堡全球研討會
會員,編寫了本聲明,籍此促進對校
園和戶外學習的思考、政策和方法

参与了 「绿化校园及户外学习之全
球经验」项目的萨尔茨堡全球研讨会
会员,编写了本声明,籍此促进对校
园和户外学习的思考、政策和方法。

Salzburg Global Fellows에 의해 작성된 본 성명서는, 모든어린이와 지역사회가 학교 운동장 내녹지공간과야외학습에 대한 권리를 보장받을수 있도록전

Los participantes del proyecto virtual Lecciones Globales Sobre Patios Escolares Verdes y Aprendizaje al Aire Libre desarrollaron esta declaración para influir en el pensamiento, políticas y estrategias para espacios escolares naturalizados y oportunidades de aprendizaje al aire libre.

Τα μέλη που συμμετέχουν στο διαδικτυακό πρόγραμμα Global Lessons on Greening Schools Grounds and Outdoor Learning ανέπτυξαν αυτήν τη δήλωση υπεράσπισης για να επηρεάσουν τον τρόπο σκέψης, τις πολιτικές, και τις προσεγγίσεις σχεδιασμού των σχολικών αυλών καθώς και να προωθήσουν την ανάπτυξη δυνατοτήτων για υπαίθρια μάθηση. Αυτό θα υποστηρίξει μια παγκόσμια ατζέντα δράσης που έχει σχεδιαστεί για να διασφαλίσει ότι όλα τα παιδιά και οι κοινότητες έχουν πρόσβαση σε πράσινες σχολικές αυλές και υπαίθρια μάθηση.

Os participantes do programa on-line Lições Globais sobre Espaços Escolares Naturalizados e Educação ao Ar Livre desenvolveram esta declaração com o objetivo de influenciar o pensamento, as políticas e as abordagens relacionadas aos espaços escolares e à educação ao ar livre. O documento apoiará uma agenda de ação global destinada a garantir que todas as crianças e comunidades tenham acesso a espaços escolares naturalizados e ao aprendizado ao ar livre.

Les participants au programme «Enseignements universels sur la végétalisation des cours d’écoles et l’apprentissage dehors» ont élaboré ce plaidoyer pour influencer la réflexion, les politiques et les projets concernant les cours d’école et les opportunités d’apprentissage en extérieur. Cela soutiendra un programme d’action mondial imaginé pour promouvoir l’accès de tous les enfants et toutes les communautés à des cours d’école plus vertes et des expériences d’apprentissage dehors.

Medskapare som deltagit i den digitala seminarieserien Global Lessons on Greening School Grounds and Outdoor Learning har utvecklat Salzburgförklaringen för att påverka synsätt, politik och tillvägagångssätt för skolgårdar och möjligheter till lärande utomhus. Denna kommer vara ett stöd till en global handlingsplan som ser till att alla barn och samhällen får tillgång till gröna skolgårdar och lärande utomhus.

साल्ज़बर्ग ग्लोबल फेलो द्वारा तैयार किया गया यह वक्तव्य, यह सुनिश्चित करने के लिए एक वैश्विक कार्रवाई एजेंडा का समर्थन करेगा कि सभी बच्चों और समुदायों की हरित स्कूल के मैदान और बाहरी शिक्षा तक पहुंच हो।

The Salzburg Statement for Greening School Grounds & outdoor Learning was drafted by Salzburg Global Fellows, with the aim to support a global action agenda to ensure that all children and communities have access to green school grounds and outdoor learning.

Environmental Racism is the intention racial discrimination in infrustructural and environmental policy making. This resource dives into how Environmental Racism affects communities, public health, and our environment.

This booklet is designed to be the starting point for anyone getting ready to take the next step toward doing more Placed-Based Education (PBE).

The national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published updated guidelines for Operating Schools During COVID-19. The new version of their guidance includes recommendations for protecting K-12 school staff using the outdoors as one of the strategies, for some types of classes and programs.

In mid-May the Children & Nature Network, in collaboration with dozens of partners, disseminated a non-scientific survey to better understand how COVID-19, and resulting restrictions, have influenced the value their constituents place on nature as well as how their constituents view changes in the value society places on nature.

Latinx* organizations across the United States have invited the National Park Service – Rivers, Trails and Conservation Assistance (NPS-RTCA) program to partner with communities in making their conservation and outdoor recreation visions a reality. Together, we have worked to create and restore parks and trails, and conserve lands and rivers. The National Park Service (NPS) has helped strategize solutions and develop diverse outdoor recreation opportunities in Latinx communities.

The North American Association for Environmental Educators presents these guidelines and promising tools for schools and districts throughout the United States. They believe community-based environmental and outdoor education programs are essential partners in creating a more just and sustainable future for all and can offer some solutions to challenges schools face now and in the future.

This project is an evolving work. So far, it includes the views and opinions of more than 100 contributors, which do not necessarily reflect the official position of any individual or organization. It is now ready to evolve with your input.

This is a short clip of Mayor Rosalynn Bliss from Grand Rapids, MI address a CCCN system change roundtable meeting.

Mayor Rosalynn Bliss from Grand Rapids, MI gave a welcome address where she shares her personal story of how nature impacted her and her path towards incorporating equitable access to nature into her city priorities.

Playgrounds are vital to the health and resilience of kids and communities. However, due to necessary COVID-19 public health measures, playgrounds across the United States closed this spring. KABOOM! has developed guidelines on how to reopen and promote safe usage of playgrounds

Tinkergarten has created a downloadable and easy to follow Camp Tinkergarten set up guide. These are simple steps plus resources to help turn your home into camp this summer.

The Outdoor CEO Diversity Pledge connects leading outdoor brands with inclusion advocates to advance representation for people of color across the industry. We’re focused on enhancing representation across staff and executive teams, media and marketing, and athletes/ambassadors. By building a relationship of support, empathy and understanding, versus external skepticism and internal stress, we’re moving the outdoor industry towards authentic inclusion.

The Audubon Society is promoting Black Birders Week from May 31st to June 5th. Follow and post on social media.

Outdoor spaces are essential assets for school districts’ COVID-19 response across the USA. Green Schoolyards America recommends engaging school grounds and parks as strategic, cost-effective tools for improving academic, mental, and physical wellbeing as school reopen.

The Recreate Responsibly guidelines offer a starting point for getting outside to keep yourself healthy and to maintain access to our parks, trails, and beaches. #RecreateResponsibly to Protect Yourself, Others, and the Outdoors.

Keith Desrosiers, Thorne’s executive director, came up with the Outside Every Day Challenge and partnered with about 20 area nonprofits and government agencies as sponsors to promote ways to stay active during the coronavirus closures.

GP RED PRESENTS is a free YouTube channel designed to connect research and education into action to help parks and recreation and other professionals who help communities thrive and solve community problems faster.

This beautiful downloadable guide is filled with information, strategies and practical ideas to help children and families adapt to social distancing and self-isolation measures.

The National Parks Service created graphics related to NPS COVID-19 response and social distancing that anyone can use on webpages, social media, and physical locations to promote best practices for health and safety related to COVID-19.

Together Bay Area is offering an ongoing series called 30 Minutes Together where they have virtual conversations with experts on nature and non-profits.

Tune into this video recording of a webinar hosted by the Avarna Group with over 300 members of the outdoor recreation, conservation, and environmental community as they explore how COVID-19 has impacted staff, constituents, communities, program participants, park visitors, and exposed structural inequities and injustices that predated the pandemic.

Latino Outdoors writes, “While sheltering-in-place, we can still practice radical self-love, expand our capacity to foster social inclusion, exercise personal power, and enjoy the growth that comes from stepping outside of our comfort zone, all by engaging in the varied practice of lifelong learning.”

Indigenous Climate Action has gathered these resources for Indigenous folks north of the medicine line, specifically. Included among the resources are links to webinars on Covid19 and Indigenous communities.

As communities around the world are exploring new ways of teaching and learning at home, National Geographic invites you to join them for live broadcasts of Explorer Classroom.

The #NatureForAll Discovery Zone. Curated from #NatureForAll partner resources, and ranging from videos to lesson plans, comic books to coloring books, this collection will help you connect people with nature, instill a love of nature and learn about nature wherever you are.

Virtual Expedition! Short, online videos of various naturalists exploring places and animals around the world. From temperate and tropical rainforests to the polar ice and all the remarkable places in between, these naturalists guide you to see & learn.

The World Urban Parks compiled a page of media resources, infographics and resources for physical and mental wellbeing.

The CitySprouts mission is to cultivate wonder for all children with hands-on learning through urban gardens. During the pandemic, our goal is to provide structure and support for children at home. Materials are appropriate for middle school-aged children.

The Campaign for a Commercial-free Childhood is developing resources, tools and tips to help families adjust to the changes and anxiety of COVID-19. They are publishing resources from webinars with health experts to tips for managing social distancing for different age groups.

Wilderness Inquiry is offering online learning resources that will take you on adventures into Outdoor History and Culture, Environmental Science and Natural Resources, and more. New activities are released each week. Resources and opportunities available for older children and teens.

Sharing Nature Worldwide is offering free weekly nature awareness tips every Tues at 10 am PST via a Facebool live series. They will share stories, tips and activities for being with your child in nature during this social distancing time.

The Mighty Mississippi offers educators and students an electronic field trip down the Mississippi River. The curriculum is appropriate for students ages 5th – 8th grades and algins with NGSS standards. The experience offers interactive maps, short place-based videos, immersive 360 panoramas and multimedia activities.

Even if you have to stick close to home, there are still many activity guides and citizen science projects available for children of all ages to learn about environmental education. NEEF published the following list of resources which includes selected NEEF toolkits and activity guides that require minimal outdoor time.

Looking for nature-based activities to do at home? The Ecology School, an environmental school on the coast of Maine, is creating weekly short videos to help families connect with nature – indoors or outside. The videos are about 5 minutes long so they are easy and simple to watch.

The National Park Service and the National Park Foundation, the official charity of America’s national parks, joined forces to offer ways to celebrate National Park week virtually, including a website focused on games and challenges.

Nature Play WA put together new resources to support families spending time together during the COVID-19 pandemic, and will be sharing some great resources for other like-minded organizations!

Experiential Consulting, LLC provides online, free resources for outdoor programs and schools to help navigate the COVID-19 pandemic.

Schools may be closed – but that doesn’t mean learning has to stop. We pulled together Captain Planet Foundation-created resources that can be enjoyed by home learners and curated a guide of other free resources for K-12 students to continue learning and exploring their environment.

During this time of global health crisis, Families in Nature is offering families resources and ideas to get out into nature in your own backyard, to encourage siblings to play and learn together at home and to support or supplement a family’s science education. These resources are suitable for older school-aged children.

This page brings together activities from across Audubon’s national network of environmental educators, including classroom curriculum and related DIY activities and content from Audubon’s editors. These activities can be done at home or in a yard or park, sometimes with the help of a computer.

Julián Ruiz Sáez is a nature and forest therapy guide living in Uruguay. He created this indoor nature connection guided practice, a very simple, 20 minutes practice that you can do from your home, which only requires you to have “something natural” in your hands.

Green Schoolyards America is offering several resources to help bring outdoor learning home. Current resources explore “Math in Your Backyard” and “Bringing Outdoor Learning Home!”

In this time of extra stress and upheaval, getting outside every day is especially valuable. At the same time, there are many new challenges to making it happen — from the need for social distancing, to accommodating new remote learning and working schedules, and beyond.

The Child Mind Institute presents “Coping during COVID-19: Resources for Parents” with links to video chats, daily tips for parents, blog posts and other clinical and supportive resources to support families during this stressful time.

The American Hiking Society has put together a resource for hiking, walking and running with your family during the Covid-19 pandemic. Please remember to follow the guidelines of your local government and the CDC.

A resource from the National Parks and Recreation Association (NRPA) with tools such as blogs, webinars, infographics, podcasts, official statements and more related to access to parks and the outdoors during the global coronavirus pandemic.

In Tinkergarten® classes, trained leaders deliver our expert-designed curriculum of activities that help kids build the skills that matter most. Try them on your own and begin to see the power in outdoor, play-based learning. To a kid, these are just plain fun! Search for a new nature-based activity for your child here.

The coronavirus outbreak is officially a pandemic, according to the World Health Organization. Because of the racial and economic inequities embedded in our country’s systems, the effects of the coronavirus could be compounded for Black, Brown, Asian, and indigenous communities, as well as other population groups. The NAACP has released a resource to guide officials responsible for addressing health, economic, and other impacts, in remediating some of the issues that are disproportionately affecting communities of color.

The National League of Cities and Bloomberg Philanthropies have teamed up to collect and share actions taken by local leaders in response to the COVID-19 Pandemic. They ask that local leaders collect and share the steps that local governments are taking to flatten the curve of COVID-19 transmission and respond to community impact.

From the Austin Parks Foundation, this downloadable resource shares tips for using parks during the COVID-19 Pandemic. The visual and easy to read tool is presented in English and Spanish.

The Children & Nature Network resource, Together in Nature, shares dozens of ideas for experiencing nearby nature with children of all ages. It also provides background on the benefits of the outdoors for families as well as FAQ.

This video from the Cities Connecting Children to Nature Initiative provides an overview of how cities can incorporate nature play spaces.

Watch this short video about the national CCCN initiative and three of the 18 innovative cities working towards a vision where every child in every city has regular access to nature.

The City of Houston has a vision for a more equitable city – one where all it’s residents have equal access to the city’s resources.

In this video, learn how being part of the CCCN initiative has helped the City of Rochester plan, execute and sustain city efforts to more equitably connect children to nature.

Since 2016, San Francisco has built a coalition of over 30 organizations and city departments all working together to more equitably connect all children to the many benefits of nature. Their story is one of collaborations, partnerships and a shared vision of equity.

Watch Mayor Sylvester Turner of Houston, TX address a CCCN Houston stakeholders meeting in 2019. About 75 stakeholders from across sectors came together to discuss a common vision and path to connecting kids to nature in Houston.

Watch the recording of our Babies, Toddlers and Preschoolers in Nature event featuring Alexis Burroughs, Jessica Carrillo Alatorre, and Gabriel Pickus. They discuss benefits of nature engagement for young children, tips on how to prepare for the elements, tangible tools for nature play, whole-child centered learning with nature as the teacher and more!

Watch the recording of our November 29 Member Appreciation event moderated by Jesús Aguirre, Board Chair of the Children & Nature Network, and CEO of the Waterloo Greenway Conservancy with panelists Sarah Milligan-Toffler, C&NN President and CEO, Dylan McDowell, Executive Director for the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators and Amanda O’Rourke, Executive Director of 8 80 Cities. They discuss trends and approaches to health and well-being that might influence, impact or present opportunities for children and nature leaders in the coming year.

Join C&NN to explore effective and inspirational practices at this intersection that are greater than their individual parts and to map your organization’s progress toward achieving positive youth development outcomes through quality nature engagement. Featuring conversation with Therese Ryley from Southwest Conservation Corps and Shandiin Nez from Continental Divide Trail Coalition.

Editor’s note: We’re thrilled to share excerpts from the new book “Naturally Inclusive: Engaging Children of All Abilities Outdoors,” authored by our Research Library curator Ruth Wilson....

Watch the February 23 recording of the first workshop of the Inside-Out Youth Leadership Development Series. In this session, we explored what makes a YAC successful and how to ensure meaningful engagement for youth. Hear from Tyler Massias from Earth Guardians, Diane Lill from Conservation Nation, and Kerstin Johansson and Ashleigh Cibelli-Pettus from the City of Austin on their experience with building relevant, authentic and responsive YACs.

Watch the recording of of the December 7 Member Appreciation Event. A screening of “Wood Hood,” Best Short Film winner at the Banff Mountain Film Festival and conversation with creators Manny Almonte and Carlos Davila.

The last of our fall event series! Watch recording of the November 17 conversation with Marlow Baines and Richard Carlbom.

Watch recording of the October 13 conversation between Dr. Hanaa Hamdi and Kimiko Russell-Halterman, two experts working in different spaces connected to this topic.

Watch recording of the September 14 conversation about our first global case study, Peru. Our green schoolyards team traveled to Perú to document an inspiring initiative happening across the country, from the Pacific coast to the Amazon. Hear from them and Joaquín Leguía, founder of the nonprofit ANIA, to learn how Tierra de Niños (or Children's Lands) are supporting the health and education of children in Perú -- and around the world.

Join us on Sept 18-19 for a 24-hour livestream event touring dozens of green school grounds

Jaime Zaplatosch, C&NN Sr. Vice President, Green Schoolyards for Healthy Communities, joins a panel of expert for this webinar focused on increased use of outdoor learning spaces during the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition to reducing virus risks, outdoor learning benefits students’ social, emotional, and mental well-being. Research shows that trees and gardens create better learning environments for students by alleviating mental fatigue, improving attention, and encouraging hands-on learning outdoors — all of which can bolster academic performance. Learn strategies for bringing trees and nature to school campuses and students of all ages. Find out how to design for success by anticipating roadblocks, identifying feasible opportunities, and engaging with key stakeholders.

This webinar discusses the essential role of green schoolyards in a post-COVID area. With play structures being closed due to COVID-19, the public access of green schoolyards is even more critical.

Watch a recording of C&NN, NLC, City Parks Alliance, National Recreation and Parks Association (NRPA) to learn how city leaders from Houston and Seattle navigate the provision of nature connections during a time of physical distancing.