​David Sobel, author of Children's Special Places: Exploring the Role of Forts, Dens, and Bush Houses in Middle Childhood, has been working with, learning from, and writing about children for many years. Sobel, who teaches at Antioch University of New England, advises that it's best to introduce children to nature through age-appropriate outdoor activities. We don't need to overwhelm or burden young children by asking them to save the rain forests at age five.

" Young children do not have the coping skills to face the tragedies of environmental crises and problems. When faced with the loss of endangered species and environmental degradation, young children may respond with sadness, fear, and helplessness, which can lead to a defensive apathy," notes the North American Association for Environmental Education.

Sobel says that we must focus on teaching empathy for nature to children who are five – the age of our Kindergarteners. He notes the importance for young children to have the opportunity to play like animals, learn about animals, move like deer, and slither like snakes. He explains how to teach empathy for animals in an interview with Rae Pica for the BAM Radio Network. Listen to the interview here.

The Laboratory School at the Dr. Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study at the University of Toronto has produced Natural Curiosity: Building Children's Understanding of the World Through Environmental Inquiry / A Resource for Teachers. There is a nearly 90-year history of research and practice at The Lab School as a demonstration school. This resource grew from the professional insights and experiences of The Lab School’s teachers.

The Lab School defines Environmental Inquiry as a combination of Inquiry-based Learning, Integrated Learning, Experiential Learning, and Stewardship.  Part 1 of this resource provides detailed sections devoted to each of the four branches that comprise Environmental Inquiry. Part 2 of this resource describes the experiences of teachers who have integrated Environmental Inquiry into their practice.

The accompanying  Companion Guide for Natural Curiosity: Making Environmental Inquiry Work Through Teacher Collaboration helps to bring teachers together to discuss the Inquiry-based learning and teaching methods described in Natural Curiosity. The Companion Guide is comprised of sessions meant to be led by a facilitator to create a forum for teachers to discuss options for putting inquiry into practice. 

Chiarotto, Lorraine. Natural Curiosity: Building Children's Understanding of the World through Environmental Inquiry / A Resource for Teachers. Toronto, ON:  The Laboratory School at The Dr. Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study, 2011. PDF.
The Laboratory School at The Dr. Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study. A Companion Guide for Natural Curiosity: Making Environmental Inquiry Work Through Teacher Collaboration. Toronto, ON:  The Laboratory School at The Dr. Eric Jackman Institute of Child Study, 2011. PDF.

Learning for a Sustainable Future (LSF)  is a non-profit Canadian organization that was created to integrate sustainability education into Canada’s education system. LSF has published the 2014 publication Connecting the Dots: Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability. This resource guide for teachers outlines learning strategies for environmental education that teachers may employ to prepare students to enter adulthood as informed, engaged citizens. The learning strategies presented are:

1. Learning Locally
2. Integrated Learning
3. Acting on Learning
4. Real-World Connections
5. Considering Alternative Perspectives
6. Inquiry
7. Sharing Responsibility for Learning with Students

Kosak, Stan and Susan Elliott. Connecting the Dots: Key Strategies that Transform Learning for Environmental Education, Citizenship and Sustainability. North York, Ontario: Learning for a Sustainable Future, 2014. PDF.

In Laurie Rubin's book To Look Closely: Science and Literacy in the Natural World, Rubin reflects on what she learned by taking her second grade students outdoors for weekly stream study excursions. Rubin taught first and second grade in Ithaca, New York for 23 years. In To Look Closely, Rubin chronicles a year of experiences at the stream. She shares strategies for teaching outdoors, and discusses how to integrate the skills students acquire through nature study into every subject.

The Children & Nature Network published Thriving Through Nature: Fostering Children's Executive Function Skills. The 2015 report, by Chiara D'Amore, describes how time in nature from infancy through adolescence helps children to develop executive function skills. These skills include the ability to reason, plan, remember, use self-control and solve problems. Pages 10-12 provide a variety of nature-based activities that teachers of K-8 students may introduce outdoors. The report notes the recommendations of writer and educator David Sobel that "early childhood activities that foster a connection with the natural world should center on enhancing the developmental tendency toward empathy with nature, in middle childhood exploration should take precedence, and in adolescence social action should assume a more central role." Sobel explains these three stages of bonding with the earth in his article "Beyond Ecophobia" in Yes! Magazine.  

The Pennsylvania Land Trust Association produced the 2014 publication Nature Play: Nurturing Children and Strengthening Conservation Through Connections to the Land. Authors Ken Finch and Andrew M. Loza explain how nature play enhances children's cognitive and emotional development. On pages 30 and 31, they provide lists of age-specific nature-related activities for children. Finch and Loza explain the connection between immersion in nature during childhood and the decision as an adult to serve as a steward of the natural world. They discuss the importance of unstructured nature play, along with the design of natural playscapes. The publication also addresses safety and liability concerns.

The Children & Nature Network's Natural Teacher Network produced the eGuide 10 x 10: Tools for Teaching, which offers tools and resources to help teachers connect students to nature. The guide offers ten reasons to take students outside and provides links to original research and studies that support each statement. It also provides ten examples of nature-centric programs at schools in the U.S. and Canada. Additionally, the guide provides a list of organizations that support nature-based learning.

Journey North, a global study of wildlife migration and seasonal change, is a free internet-based program presented by Annenberg Learner, a division of the Annenberg Foundation. Journey North engages students and citizen scientists around the globe in tracking wildlife migration and seasonal change. Journey North offers the teacher guide Observe, Describe, Wonder: Building Inquiry Into Instruction. This resource helps teachers to:

1. Create a climate for inquiry
2. Support productive discussions
3. Encourage students to ask "how do we know what we know?"
4. Support students in generating questions
5. Plan science investigations with students
6. Support students in gathering data
7. Help students make sense of data
8. Help students review science research critically