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3,352 Flowers will Bloom

May 29, 2020 By sfcan

By Damien Raffa, Presidio Trust

Since shelter-in-place orders commenced, local health care leaders have emphasized the critical importance of access to nature in the midst of this crisis, including nature experiences at home.

With the San Francisco Children’s Outdoor Bill of Rights’ “Plant a seed and watch it grow” in mind, our collaborative quickly conceived a simple project to distribute seeds, soil and a biodegradable pot to families living in the city’s equity zones.

Thanks to a partnership with SFSU’s EDvance program and First 5 San Francisco, 3,352 trilingual seed kits along with books, sidewalk chalk, and other educational materials, will go home with families of early childhood centers, family childcare homes, and emergency childcare sites.

Sueli Nunes, Preschool Program Supervisor at the Felton Center in the Mission, helped prep the kits in the nature-rich courtyard of her site and sees the value of this experience as an opportunity “to bring nature into the home and learn to care for a living thing.”

The kits were lovingly assembled by volunteers from the Family Child Care Association of San Francisco, Felton, the Presidio Trust, SF Public Library, KaBOOM!, SF Rec & Park, SF Department of the Environment, EDvance and SF Children & Nature. We could not have done it without them.

In a few weeks, 3,352 flowers will bloom across San Francisco. If you have some in your home or in your students’ home, please send us some pictures and share your story.

The World’s Most Powerful Classroom.

April 30, 2020 By sfcan

These are stressful times. Nearly half of all adults in the U.S. report the pandemic and resulting isolation and economic downturn has worsened their mental health. Parents are trying to provide reassurance to their children while needing it themselves. Families and communities are trying to build resilience and hope amid uncertainty.

The good news: NATURE is helping.

That’s because time in nature has dramatic benefits for our mental and physical health. Among them? Improving children’s ability to learn by both calming negative emotions and stimulating curiosity.

Read more about the importance of our children being outdoors during this crisis, and ideas to keep them engaged in the recent Bay Nature Magazine op-ed courtesy of our SF Children & Nature Executive Council Chairs:
+Chuck Collins
+Jean Fraser
+Jenny Lam
+and Phil Ginsburg

Experiential Outdoor Learning in Early Childhood

October 10, 2019 By sfcan

Text by Sharon Danks. Photos by Maria Durana
This post originally appeared in Green Schoolyards America’s blog, Dec 2019.

On October 1st, Green Schoolyards America collaborated with San Francisco Children & Nature to create an event focused on experiential outdoor learning in early childhood.

Ms. Humphries is the Founding Headteacher of The Coombes School in Berkshire, England, which is famous for its ecologically rich school grounds and the child-centered educational model she pioneered. Her work at Coombes over 50 years has influenced outdoor experiential education for schools around the world. We were honored to collaborate with her and treasured the experience.

The workshop was held at the Cayuga Club House in San Francisco’s Cayuga Park. It began with a tour of the park and playground—one of San Francisco’s hidden gems with unique themed gardens and whimsical wood carvings created as a labor of love by local legend Demetrio Braceros. Braceros immigrated from the Philippines and is a retired long-time SF Recreation and Parks Gardener.

The workshop with Susan Humphries followed the park tour. It included a presentation and discussion session focused on her work at Coombes and her approach to experiential outdoor learning and play on school grounds. Her slideshow included a discussion of children’s social-emotional, mental, and physical health needs in early childhood, and the ways in which preschool and early care settings can develop their outdoor environments to become nature-filled oases that broaden play opportunities and bring curriculum outside. The presentation was followed by a lively discussion with the audience.

FREE | Experiential Outdoor Learning in the Schoolyard

A compilation of 13 hands-on activities developed by Green Schoolyards America featuring the work of Susan Humphries.

Download here

Experiential Outdoor Learning in the Schoolyard

This special workshop was generously funded by our partners at First 5 San Francisco and the Low Income Investment Fund, and was produced in collaboration with San Francisco Recreation and Parks, San Francisco Office of Early Care and Education, San Francisco Unified School District, and Children’s Council San Francisco.

Presidio Tunnel Tops | Prototype Field Station + Outpost

June 28, 2019 By sfcan

by Damien Raffa

In the Fall of 2021 the Presidio’s new Tunnel Tops park will open, featuring extraordinary new experiential features that will substantially add to the now actively enlarging “ecosystem” of nature connection in the city. For the second summer, the Presidio Trust prototyped experiences envisioned for the outdoor 2-acre nature play Outpost and the indoor multi-sensory investigative Field Station.

More than 2,500 children, youth and grown-ups have participated in our staffed programs this summer, and countless others enjoyed the nature play on other days of the week. This Nature Exploration Area pop-up will remain for public enjoyment through the end of October. Go check it out on the Presidio’s Main Post (map search “34 Graham Street“) and play “grass is lava” on the logs and stumps, barefoot even!

To create the pop-up installation, we worked with renowned natural playground expert, Adam Bienenstock, and 35 participants representing early childhood educators, project managers, planners, architects, teachers, foresters and gardeners as part of an SF Children & Nature design-build workshop. The Presidio Trust’s forestry crew crafted the “bones” of the Nature Exploration Area with logs from park forest management projects. See video

Innovative Nature Exploration Area Opens in Rolph-Nicol Park

July 20, 2018 By sfcan

Text by Zach Pine | Photos by Maria Durana

“Grownups always told us, ‘Don’t touch,’ and ‘Don’t climb on that.’ But this is totally different!” -Stonestown Family YMCA counselor

Two “play days” in early July brought over 120 Stonestown Family YMCA campers and preschoolers to the newly-opened Rolph Nicol Nature Exploration Area (NAE). The 3 – 7 year olds used natural loose parts—sticks, leaves, bark, and tree chunks to create bridges, ships, an ant home, a Chinese drum, and much more. Others scrambled across long horizontal tree trunks laid on the ground, jumped from stump to stump, or ran on the twisting wood-chip path that meanders under the trees.

“I liked the track. I followed the path and it was looking a little bit like a racing track.”

“I liked the low stumps and how I can walk and jump on them.”

“I had so much fun and also built a house.”

“I liked building with the sticks and playing with the acorns.”

-YMCA St. Francis Preschool students

Aligning with the vision statement of SFRPD to “connect us to play, nature, and each other,” the park welcomes visitors to have FUN, express themselves, and collaborate and learn through play.

“This was a labor of love,” park section supervisor Robert Muhammad remarked. “We transform spaces all the time, but it’s not every day we get the opportunity to create. Everyone chipped in and was excited. I don’t believe that kids have the opportunity to connect with nature as much as they should. Local neighborhood spaces like this are important for all of our mental health. They help us unplug from all of the noise we create for ourselves, balance our mental psyche from the stresses of everyday life, and reflect on the good things in life.”

The Nature Exploration Area at Rolph-Nicol Park is poised to become a model for nature play citywide. Its play days exemplified the benefits of nature play: being active; strengthening social skills, creativity, and problem-solving; practicing beneficial risk-taking and motor skills; and connecting with nature.

Teacher Mabel Wins Award

May 26, 2018 By sfcan

VIDEO | SFUSD Presidio Early Education School’s Mabel Young receives the First 5 San Francisco and OECE excellence in teaching award for raising the bar and delivering on the promise of high-quality early childhood education in San Francisco.

Teacher Mabel Young was born in San Francisco, grew up in Chinatown and has been teaching and inspiring countless children for over 30 years. You will see for yourselves in the touching video, what an outstanding educator she is. You will feel her passion for teaching and her whole-hearted commitment to bringing kids outside and connecting them to the natural world.

Thank you Mabel for everything that you do in caring for and stewarding our next generation, for giving them the ability to grow and learn to their fullest in their unique experiential way through the joy of exploration and discovery in the natural world.

For your ingenuity and creativity in using our parks as classrooms to feed young hearts and minds.

Mabel, congratulations! It is truly an honor to celebrate you.