Develop children’s problem-solving and critical-thinking skills? Check.

Support children’s communication and collaboration skills? Check.

Inspire children’s creativity and innovative thinking? Check.

Meet early learning standards in literacy, math, and more? Yes, please!

How can early childhood teachers do all this? By engaging children in outdoor STEM discoveries!

Dig In: Outdoor STEM Learning with Young Children provides strategies, ideas, real-life examples, and information to help you get children outside and learning, all while meeting required early learning standards and objectives. Explore the Learning Life Cycle and discover fresh ideas for engaging children in deeper explorations and experiences outdoors that will stick with them into kindergarten and beyond. Have more aha moments, seize learning opportunities, invite questions, and investigate answers—while supporting rich STEM learning.

Chapter 1: The Richness of Outdoor Learning

Chapter 2: The Learning Life Cycle

Chapter 3: The Deep Thinkers and the Child-Teacher-Land Relationship

Chapter 4: Planting the Seeds of Experiential Learning

Chapter 5: Growing the Roots of Wonder: 21st-Century Skills

Chapter 6: Unearthing STEM in the Learning Life Cycle

Chapter 7: The Sun and the Rain Make the Garden Grow—Directors, Teachers, Families, and Stakeholders

Chapter 8: Making the Outdoor Classroom a Reality