Kids for Nature (PAL Outdoor Education)
What is the programme about?
Kids for Nature is an outdoor education programme developed by NParks to meet the objectives of the Ministry of Education’s Programme for Active Learning (PAL) initiative.
As Singapore progresses from City in a Garden to City in Nature through extensive tree planting and integrated greenery throughout the city, it is important to educate children to appreciate nature and understand the importance of our greening efforts.
Targeted at the P1 and P2 levels, the Kids for Nature programme aims to:
- Equip children with relevant skills and knowledge to enable them to be safe and comfortable in the outdoors
- Cultivate a sense of ownership for the environment, encourage and provide opportunities for pupils to take action to sustain our City in Nature
- Shape children’s character and attitude through experiential learning in their immediate outdoor environment
Kids for Nature places strong emphasis on helping children develop Social Emotional Learning (SEL) competencies. The activities are crafted to include both group and individual tasks, presenting each child with many opportunities to develop self-awareness, social awareness, self-management, relationship management and responsible decision-making skills.
How is the programme structured?
Both the P1 & P2 modules consist of eight two-hour lessons. The first seven lessons consist of outdoor activities conducted within your school compound such as exploring your school’s garden. The final lesson is a park excursion. For the P1s, we recommend the final activity to be a picnic in a park near your school. For the P2s, we recommend that they go on a guided walk at either Jacob Ballas Children’s Garden or HortPark.
The P2 module is designed as a comprehensive follow-up to the P1 module. While it is possible to take up either the P1 or P2 programme individually, we encourage the adoption of the programme in its entirety. This allows your students to benefit from a more extensive range of outdoor skills.
How is the programme conducted?
Kids for Nature is tailored for your school teachers to conduct. In order to equip your teachers with the relevant skills and knowledge, your school will be provided with the soft copies of the P1 and P2 Kids for Nature programme guidebooks, which contain detailed lesson plans, worksheets and other relevant resources.
P2 teachers are encouraged to book a guided walk at either Jacob Ballas Children’s Garden or HortPark. The duration and cost of the guided walk can be found in the link provided.
How can I find out more about this programme?
If you are interested in taking up the Kids for Nature Programme, please fill in this form to receive the programme guidebooks.
Download the “Introduction to Kids for Nature” slides
here.
Download the sample lesson plan
here.
Kids for Nature provides students with opportunities to engage in experiential learning. These students are amazed by the furry texture of the leaves of the Elephant Creeper plant at HortPark.
Going outdoors and seeing fascinating plants up close helps students to be more appreciative and respectful of nature.
This group of students chanced upon a tapioca harvesting session during their P2 field trip at Jacob Ballas Children’s Garden. One of them even got to help!
Teachers exploring their school garden during the teachers’ training workshop.
During the workshop, the teachers try out the activities themselves, making them better equipped to conduct the lessons for their classes.