Nature Pedagogy - Foundation skills

An innovative and inspiring approach to early childhood education values the child as strong, capable and, resilient, rich with wonder and knowledge. By allowing children to immerse themselves in activities that promote imaginative and creative play, every child brings with them deep curiosity and potential, and this innate curiosity drives their interest in understanding their world and their place within it.

The Image of the Child: Children are competent and capable learners.

Children are driven by their interests to understand and know more. Children are viewed as active and valuable members of the wider community who are capable members of society. Each child can naturally question, interpret and understand the world around them. The educational focus at Woden Valley ELC is on the individual strengths and needs of the child. Children are always encouraged to explore, have opinions and provide suggestions.

Children form an understanding of themselves and their place in the world through their interactions with others.

There is a strong focus on social collaboration, working in groups, where each child is an equal participant, having their thoughts and questions valued. The adult is not the giver of knowledge. Children search for knowledge through investigations. Our role as adults is to observe children, listen to their questions and stories, find what interests them and then provide them with opportunities to explore these interests further.

Children are communicators.

Communication is a process of discovering things, asking questions, and using language as play. At Woden Valley ELC, children are encouraged to use language to investigate, explore, and reflect on their experiences. They are listened to respectfully, believing their questions and observations are opportunities to learn and search together.

It is a continual collaborative process. Rather than the child asking a question and the adult offering the answers, the search is undertaken together.

The environment is the third teacher.

An integral element of our philosophy is the physical environment and immediate surroundings. The space encourages collaboration, communication and exploration. The space respects children as capable by providing them with authentic materials & tools. The area is cared for by the children and the adults.

ACCESS TO NATURE SURVEY - Have your say!

Until February 2023, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child will host a series of offline and online consultations and workshops with the global community, including specific consultations with children and young people, to inform the General Comment launching in 2023. The invitation can be found here https://childrightsenvironment.org/global-community/

In the absence of a feedback tool for children aged birth - 5 years, Woden Valley ELC has created this survey.

General Comment 26 Assessment tool final.pdf

Download PDF • 1.15MB

* In the PDF attached, you will find the survey pages are in a strange order that will make sense if you ask your printer to print two pages per A4 sheet. This will then make an A5 booklet.

Why participate?

The Convention on the Rights of the Child requires States parties to “assure the child who is capable of forming his or her own views has the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child(...)” (Art. 12).

This survey aims to identify and remove barriers that children (birth to 5 years) face in accessing the full enjoyment of their human rights. In the below video, you can see how we’ve used the survey with the children at our Centre.

This survey gives children in early learning settings an opportunity to have their opinion on the environment documented and submitted to the United Nations by the 15th of February, 2023.

Have your say!

#accesstonature #naturepedagogy #rightsofthechild #UN #ECA

Nature Pedagogy - Beginnings

Woden Valley ELC Nature Pedagogy Leader, Gabby Millgate presents a snapshot of the environments, as well as the connection and contribution of the children in Term 2 (Autumn/Winter) at Woden Valley Early Learning Centre.

In this video, you will see our environments and the natural elements made available to the children, those include:

- Jerusalem artichoke tubers to dig up and line up to count

- edible greens

- crackable eggs

- climbable trees

- seed planting

- chicken taming

Autumn is a time when we clear the summer garden beds and prepare for spring with bulbs and pansies. It is also time to grow cauliflowers and broccolis. Berries, fragrant herbs and flowers can be used in artistic endeavours. It's also time to start preparing for fires and to assess the children's capacity to listen to instructions and stay safe during fire experiences.

Embedding Ngoonawal wisdom and language meaningfully into the children's experiences is part of the foundation for intentional teaching around “...our responsibilities for a sustainable future and promoting children’s understanding about their responsibility to care for the environment...” [EYLF; pg. 18]

As 2020 was the first year of COVID-19 lockdowns; being outside become idle to everyone's sense of well-being. Due to COVID-19 and many events being cancelled; our service got to participate in Floriade Reimagined. In this video you will see all children connect and contribute to this community event by collecting compost, digging dirt, building garden beds, planting seedlings and bulbs, and adding mulch. It was the epitome of connecting and contributing to our world.

The final part of the video is to share ways to make literacy accessible to children in the format of nature pedagogy cards, with words and pictures from the children's environments. You'll also see how a child, who is not very verbally communicative, uses these cards to create stories with his educators and peers.

In this video, you will see children’s emerging and essential relationship with nature. We hope you will be inspired when you see how capable children are at connecting and contributing to their world.