Ask a Nature Explore Educator
Are you curious about how to help your outdoor classroom flourish, manage risky play, organize materials, or engage staff and families?
During this FREE 1-hour live online session, you will hear from Nature Explore’s lead Child Development Specialists Heather Fox and Kirsten Haugen, about how to work with your outdoor classroom to foster rich relationships and learning, while also building effective approaches to common outdoor classroom challenges.
Heather and Kirsten will give a brief presentation, followed by a Q&A session to answer any questions you have about how to care for and use your natural outdoor classroom with the children, staff, and families in your program.
Takeaways from this session include:
- A stronger understanding of how to support discovery, wonder, and learning in a natural outdoor classroom
- Creative approaches to obtaining, organizing and caring for materials and furnishings outdoors
- Addressing risky play and other behaviors that challenge us
- Strategies for engaging staff, families, and your community in building a strong natural outdoor classroom program
Meet our Nature Explore Child Development Specialists Heather Fox, MS, and Kirsten Haugen, MA. Together, they design and lead professional development efforts for the Nature Explore program and bring a deep understanding of how to foster children’s development, well-being and sense of belonging to our outdoor classroom designs and materials.
Heather has spent more than 25 years training and supervising early childhood professionals. Her years of experience in the classroom with children and adults have helped her to develop a deep understanding of early childhood environments. In her current role, as the Director of Outreach at Dimensions Educational Research Foundation, Heather facilitates workshops for educators, speaks at national conferences, and helps to design outdoor classrooms. She is an Exchange Leader and a contributing author with Environmental Kinship International where she is studying the reciprocal relationships in nature. Heather finds joy and satisfaction when mentoring early childhood professionals and exploring nature.
Kirsten has been teaching and learning alongside children and adults since the 1990s, drawing on her background in early childhood special education. She is a nationally and internationally recognized writer, speaker, and workshop facilitator. Her areas of specialization and passion include natural outdoor classrooms, neurodivergence, and supporting young children in a climate changing world.
To help us learn more about you and your goals please fill out this brief survey where you can submit a question in advance for consideration. Thank you for all you do to support children, families, and early childhood professionals!
You will receive an email the day before and the day of the event with the Zoom link.
Start Time: 7:00 pm Eastern / 6:00 pm Central / 5:00 pm Mountain / 4:00 pm Pacific
Duration: 1 Hour
Cost: Free
Date: January 30, 2025
Category: Live Online
Focus: Natural Materials, Relationships, Social-Emotional Development, Teaching and Learning Outdoors, Whole-Child Development
Registration
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