Create a Nature Park corner

How you create your Nature Park corner is up to you and your learners. As you progress through your Nature Park journey, learners will get to know their outdoor space and use creative decision-making to improve it for both people and nature. Your Nature Park corner is a special place in your learning environment to document and celebrate your achievements so far. Below are some displays and activities you could include in your corner.

• your Nature Park timeline: Why not display photographs, drawings and observations of your site before, during and after making changes? This display will help children to understand events in the past and how things have changed and evolved over time. Displaying photographs of the children participating in making change happen, as well as their own activity outcomes and reflections, will remind them of the positive impact they have made You could use a washing line or string as your timeline, or display work on a wall or board in chronological order.  
• leaf washing line: Once children have completed the leaf identification activity, have them showcase their most interesting leaves on a washing line (this could be a long piece of string and clothes pegs). If you can hang the washing line low enough for children to access, this could also become an ordering and categorising activity – can children order the leaves from largest to smallest, from most alive or most green to most brown, widest to narrowest?
• role play: Role play is a powerful tool to help children make sense of the world – by creating a role play area within your Nature Park corner, you are showcasing potential future careers that children may not otherwise have come across or considered. Can you use objects in your Nature Park corner to inspire role play and problem-solving activities?  
• Nature Park museum: Why not invite children to bring in natural items that they find whilst outdoors and add them to a display in your Nature Park corner? These could sit on a bookcase or shelf. Showcase the objects next to a quote from the learner, stating why that particular item is special or interesting to them. You could ask learners to imagine they are creating a museum for people in the future – what would they want them to see or learn about?
• what’s in the bag? Place a bag in the area with a selection of natural objects inside. Sing the song, ‘What’s in the bag?’ and ask children to choose an item from the bag. They could try to guess what the object is just by touching it, or by removing it from the bag and looking at it. This activity also helps to develop language skills by describing the item – is it big or small? Soft or hard? Smooth or rough? What colour is it?  
• sticky phonics: Place a pot of sticks/twigs in the area and a choose a ‘letter of the week’ each week. Can learners create the shape of the letter using the sticks? To engage learners further, go on a nature walk with them and ask them to collect small sticks along the way.
• measuring sticks: The sticks can also be used for a measuring activity – can learners measure the length of the sticks? Can they order them from longest to shortest? How much longer is the longest stick compared to the shortest? 

Other ideas

• use your Nature Park corner as a storytelling corner with a selection of nature-themed books. Activities such as Imagining our space and Observing changing states give examples of using storytelling to inspire Nature Park discussions and ideas
• making nature art – have a selection of natural materials in the area and give children the opportunity to make patterns or artwork by arranging the items
• display visual resources from activities on an interactive wall that children can engage with and move around, for example cards from Guess the habitat or Plants and their jobs