The “Play and Learn… in Nature” Project aims to stimulate the development of children's potential with games and outdoor activities, allowing children to explore their full potential, acquire healthy lifestyle habits and respect Nature. In the official documents issued by the European Union and the UN, recommendations have been made for the child to have the right to a quality education, which guarantees the possibility of developing in all its domains and which promotes the child's respect for the environment, as mentioned in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly. These premises are reinforced in the Curricular Guidelines for Pre-School Education (2016), which recommend to educators the importance of a diversified quality learning, centered in different educational contexts, not just based on the activity room, due to the possibility develop various forms of social interaction and contact and exploration of natural materials ”, valuing contact with living beings and other elements of nature, resulting in very stimulating experiences for children, developing“ awareness of the importance of each one's role in preservation of the environment and natural resources. ” In order to further strengthen the importance of nature in the lives of children, we have been sustained by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which we have disseminated in our educational communities, and which, together, we intend to make our contribution. Although we have children who are interested in nature, like to explore, learn about plants and animals, and have, in our schools, the experience of playing outdoors, we realize that there is a need to put in place an action plan that develop environmental awareness in children and their families, As additional objectives we intend: To have more informed, trained and attentive professionals to environmental issues; involve families and local associations in a common focus, valuing learning with environmental practices; encourage staff to improve their English language communication and professional skills; share new methodologies with European partners and create own resources. For that, we brought together schools from Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Poland and Portugal to join forces and complete the project.
The Play and Learn in Nature project is a project that proves to be innovative in its educational practices by transcending the school walls and contextualizing itself in outdoor environments, in a collaborative action between kindergartens in Portugal, Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia and Poland. Context: The project originated from the need to provide quality educational practices where the outdoor spaces of schools were valued as learning spaces in contact with nature, caring for and respecting it. In this sense, it was essential to share educational experiences between partner schools, with their differentiated knowledge, which allowed them to complement and enrich the methodological strategies of each educator. Likewise, cooperation with local institutions in promoting activities and projects was recurrent and resulted in high input, both for children and teachers who began to include the activities they learned in their practices and who, by disseminating them , inspired other colleagues. The involvement of families was extraordinarily relevant in the implementation and execution of the project, often providing basic support in carrying out the activities, whether with physical help or with the logistics necessary for success. The objectives are: to develop children's potential, allowing them to explore and learn in nature; encourage the adoption of healthy lifestyle habits, such as practicing physical activity outdoors; promote respect and care for nature, both in prevention and solution; train staff in alternative educational practices to the detriment of traditional ones; value outdoor spaces as educational learning spaces; encourage collaborative practices between local staff and European project partners; encourage the creation of new projects whose focus is linked to the SDGs; invest, on an ongoing basis, in the digital and linguistic training (command of the English language) of staff and children. The activities carried out in the project were carefully planned between the partners in order to satisfy the children's interests, help with their difficulties, meet their needs and expand their knowledge. When preparing these plans, the team of coordinators took into account the added value of each school involved to be shared. He also considered the educational offer of his community to enrich the project and the way in which families could be agents that drive and energize the project. This achieved a global involvement of all educational actors responsible for education, in carrying out very functional activities for the motor, cognitive and emotional development of our children. These activities included outdoor games, creation and exploration of the school's organic garden, walks and games in the forest, observation and identification activities of animals and plants, among others. The results of the project show that the goals established at the beginning were achieved or even surpassed, an excellent indicator of success, which means that the project achieved its main objectives and obtained the desired results in different aspects, namely: with the children, we verified who spend more time playing outdoors, who are more motivated for curricular learning and have a great active participation in protecting and preserving the environment; with the team, it is evident the change in pedagogical practices in which they value playing, the promotion of nature preservation actions, collaborative work, training as teacher training in the areas of the environment, digital and English language skills; with families and the community, there is a high level of participation in school life (in projects and activities), a greater predisposition to learn about alternative and innovative educational practices, greater concern about environmental issues, and a growing curiosity about educational practices from other countries. The expected long-term benefits are the integral development of children, including their physical and mental health, increased environmental awareness, the formation of healthy lifestyle habits that can last until adulthood, a change in the educational practices of childhood, in order to value playing more as the most serious activity a child can carry out, and greater community involvement in children's education. We consider that this project has and will have a significant impact on education and we hope that the project will contribute to the formation of more conscious and responsible citizens, capable of dealing with the ecological problems of the 21st century. In conclusion, we believe that this project has created a significant impact on the educational community and we believe it will have a lasting effect on children's lives and teachers' practice.