Books

Unwalling Childhood: School as a place to encounter nature

• ​ An incredible resource from the Alana Institute

• This book aims "to share good news and best practices that will help the reader to improve the way school grounds are designed and used, so that more children will experience an “unwalled” childhood."

Quality Outdoor Play Environments: How Good Design Integrates Nature and Loose Parts to Support Healthy Play and Development in Young Children

• By Laura Newman, with site designs by Sashie Misner, Landscape Architect

• 160-page illustrated guidebook

• Ideas here include: What Happened to Play? How The outdoor space is “the Third Teacher." Choosing Affordances. Effective Layout and Placement. Evaluating and Mapping your Site. Budgeting and Planning a Timeline. Construction, Maintenance & Use. Engaging your community in the process

​Teaching the Primary Curriculum Outdoors

• Edited by Learning Through Landscapes ​

• "Learning through Landscapes has three decades of experience supporting teachers with the everyday challenges of teaching outdoors.  Through this real life understanding of teaching and step by step guidance, this book shows you that every curriculum subject in primary schools can be taught outdoors."

 

 

Projects

Global Lessons on Greening School Grounds & Outdoor Learning

• Engaging leaders and practitioners around the world to learn more about successful approaches and scalable strategies for greening school grounds. This site includes case studies, lessons, recommendations and so much more

 

 

Guides

Nature Exploration Guide

• ​Resources for Nature Connection. Written by Bay Tree Design with San Francisco Children & Nature, Green Schoolyards America, SF Recreation and Parks features design guides, a nature check list, and much more

Guide to Outdoor Learning

• ​From the Alana Institute put together by their Children and Nature Program, to support city and state governments in the planned use of outdoor spaces

NATURAL PLAY SPACES The Brazilian Experience

• ​From the Alana Institute

​Parques Naturalizados: Paisagens Para O Brincar

• ​From the Alana Institute​

Guide on Natural Play Structures and Furniture

• ​From the Alana Institute​

Paths for Implementing Natural Play Spaces

• ​From the Alana Institute​

Schoobio: Schoolyard Bicultural Diversity Community

• A research based curriculum accessible for free that guides teachers and students through a progressive transdisciplinary high school and middle school curriculum using experiential and place based learning addressing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and so much more

• Designed by LC member Shari L. Wilson, Ed.D.

 

 

​Articles

Designing Activating Schoolyards: Seen from the Girls’ Viewpoint

• Charlotte S. Pawlowski, Jenny Veitch, Henriette B. Andersen, and Nicola D. Ridgers

Finnish Report Card 2014 on Physical Activity for Children and Youth

• ​Arto Gråstén, Jarmo Liukkonen, Timo Jaakkola & Tuija Tammelin

​​A repeated measurement study investigating the impact of school outdoor environment upon physical activity across ages and seasons in Swedish second, fifth and eighth graders

• Peter Pagels, Anders Raustorp, Antonio Ponce De Leon, Fredrika Mårtensson, Maria Kylin, and Cecilia Boldemann

​​Participatory Schoolyard Design for Health and Well-Being: Policies that Support Play in Urban Green Spaces

• ​Victoria L. Derr and Alessandro Rigolon​

​The Creation of the American Playground Movement by Reform Women, 1885–1930: A Feminist Analysis of Materialized Ideological Transformations in Gender Identities and Power Dynamics

• Suzanne M. Spencer-Wood and Renée M. Blackburn

​Effects of a playground marking intervention on school recess physical activity in French children

• Aurélie Blaes, Nicola D. Ridgers, Julien Aucouturier, Emmanuel Van Praagh, Serge Berthoin, and Georges Baquet

Integrating bicultural diversity into urban school grounds through transdisciplinary curriculum design 

• Shari L. Wilson