Nature in Early Childhood: Learning Through Relationship With the Living World
In early childhood, nature cannot be viewed as an extra to the curriculum; it is an essential component of how children build their understanding of the world, their bodies, and their sense of belonging. Even in an urban setting, access to the natural world does not have to be distant or rare. It can be woven into the daily life of a school through intentional design, care, and a commitment to keeping the environment alive and responsive.
At Clover Montessori School, we practice this every day.
Our outdoor environments are not decorative spaces separated from learning. They are extensions of the classroom—living, changing, and deeply interactive spaces where children form relationships with the earth. Low-mow lawns, soil, plants, insects, animals, wind, and weather are integral parts of children’s experience.
Young children have a deep need for exploration, movement, and order. Natural environments meet these needs in a way few indoor materials can replicate.
Outdoors, children experience:
uneven ground beneath their feet
the resistance of soil when digging
the texture of leaves, flowers, and roots
shifting light, wind, and temperature
observation of life cycles
These experiences are foundational for brain development. When a child waters a plant and returns days later to see it taller, or notices a swallowtail caterpillar on a dill plant, they begin to understand cause and effect, growth, and time in a concrete, embodied way.
In an urban environment especially, where so much is built, paved, and controlled, these experiences become even more impactful. There is a common misconception that meaningful nature experiences require forests, fields, or rural landscapes. While those environments are valuable and beautiful, early childhood does not require wilderness to develop a relationship with the natural world. What children need is consistent access to living things, opportunities to care for growing systems, space to observe change over time, and adults who value and protect those experiences.
In this way, city nature is not a lesser version of “real” nature—it is nature made visible in everyday life. It exists in small plots of land between buildings, in carefully tended gardens, and in pollinator pathways created in places that once seemed unused or overlooked.
The role of the outdoor environment in Montessori education
In Montessori education, the prepared environment is not confined to shelves or classroom materials. It is the broader living system that supports the development and well-being of both children and their guides.
“The teacher must not content herself with merely providing her school with an attractive environment; she must continuously think about this environment, because a large part of the result depends on it.”
— Dr. Maria Montessori
Outdoors, this idea becomes even more visible.
At our school, children move freely between caring for plants, observing insects, digging in soil, and engaging in large motor play.
We have intentionally designed our outdoor spaces to support this work:
Gardens that children tend themselves
Children participate in planting flowers, watering, harvesting, and observing. These gardening experiences are real responsibilities that are joyful and engaging. After harvesting the flowers, they are utilized in the classroom for flower arranging.
Grass and soil areas for movement and exploration
Unlike artificial or fully manufactured playground surfaces, natural ground offers variation. It challenges balance, coordination, and spatial awareness in ways that strengthen the whole body. Even the fall zones around climbing equipment are filled with natural, playground-certified wood chips rather than rubber.
Edible plants
Children learn that food does not begin in a grocery store. They see herbs, vegetables, and fruits growing and participate in the rhythm of growth and harvest. They learn safe harvesting practices and the work that goes into growing food.
A pollinator garden
What was once a patch of rocks and weeds next to the parking lot is now a thriving habitat for birds, butterflies, bees, and other pollinators. Children observe these visitors daily, learning that even city spaces can support complex ecosystems. This transformation is especially meaningful in a roadside urban location. It communicates a powerful message: we are not separate from nature, even here. We are active participants in it.
Benefits of outdoor learning
Time outdoors supports more than physical development. It also plays a significant role in emotional regulation and social growth.
Natural environments tend to:
reduce stress and overstimulation
support immune health
extend periods of concentration
encourage cooperative play
reduce conflict over materials and space
In outdoor environments, children often engage in more collaborative problem-solving. A shared pile of soil becomes a construction site. A garden bed becomes a collective responsibility.
Because the materials are open-ended and not prescriptive, children must negotiate, communicate, and adapt. These are core social skills that develop organically when the environment allows for it.
Our commitment to the land at Clover
At our school, we maintain a strict commitment to using no herbicides, pesticides, or synthetic chemicals on our grounds. This is not only an environmental choice, but a health and safety commitment for families, faculty, and the broader ecosystem we are part of.
We prioritize practices that support healthy soil, vigorous plant growth, and balanced outdoor environments without relying on chemical intervention or control. Instead, the outdoor spaces are maintained through ongoing care, planning, and observation of the land.
This approach reflects our belief that children should grow and learn in environments that are as natural and uncompromised as possible.
The child’s relationship with the living world
Perhaps the most important outcome of this kind of environment is relational.
Children do not simply learn about plants or insects; they develop relationships with them. They recognize familiar leaves. They notice when something changes. They remember where a flower used to be. They anticipate seasonal shifts.
On any given day outdoors, they may also discover signs of animal life. Bunnies moving through the edges of the playground, or the joyful discovery of a warren hidden in an unexpected place. Birds building nests in early spring, carefully carrying materials, and later returning to tend to their eggs and young. In these moments, children learn something subtle and essential: how to be gentle, how to observe without interfering, and how to respect the space another living being calls home.
This relational awareness becomes the foundation for later ecological understanding. More importantly, it shapes how children see themselves in the world: as connected, responsible, and capable of care.
Closing reflection
When thoughtfully designed, a city based school can offer children a rich and continuous relationship with the natural world.
At Clover Montessori School, this belief is reflected in the everyday life of our outdoor environments. Gardens are tended by children. Soil is worked daily. Pollinator habitats have been created in spaces that were once gravel and weeds. Grass, plants, and natural materials are part of children’s movement, play, and responsibility.
And in those daily moments, digging, watering, observing, waiting, children are not only learning about the world.
They are learning how to belong in it.
