The children's play gardens (naturalized playgrounds) that our company designs for clients emphasize a rich natural environment as the play setting and nature as the play element. Our designs are based upon an extensive body of research and literature on:

 

Fern Tree 

Kapok Tree

Broad-leaf Fig tree

Rosemary

Tongkat Ali

Sireh

Lemon

Terap (breadfruit/sukun’s “cousin”)

Custard apple

Palms

Hairy Clidemia

Simpoh Air 

Wild Cinnamon tree
Sea Almond
Saga tree
Durian
Fig Tree (Ficus microcarpa. Ficus benjamina)

 

OTHERS

Snakeweed

Milkweed

Cattail/Papyrus

Banana

2 spp Breadfruit

Flying lizard

Magpie Robin

Fire ants

Millepede

Spiral snail

Plantain Squirrel

Changeable lizard

Wasps

Bees 

Butterlies

Cotton Stainer bug (Shield bug)

Stink Bug

Olive Backed Sunbird 

Cicada 

Kingfisher

Spiders

Black Naped Oriole
Koel

 

OTHERS

Peaceful Dove 
Spotted Dove 

White-bellied Fish Eagle

Snake – Oriental whip

Earthworm

Fire ants

Giant African Snail

Mosquito

Bagworms

Asian Toad

Swifts

Pink necked pigeon 

 

Dear Principal

 

Proposal to Include Nature in Our Curriculum

 

We have just attended a workshop on “Nature as Educator” and have discovered that there are many benefits of Nature Education in the child development.

 

The following are some of the benefits:

Physically, it increases children’s immunity.

Environmentally, it gives children a sense of hope and personal responsibility.

Overall, it increases their self-esteem, problem solving and motivation.

 

In addition, from experiences we have received very positive feedback from parents regarding our vegetable planting activity.  Our parent volunteers also express much interest in involving in our school activity concerning “Nature”.

 

As such, we would like to propose that more lessons on “Nature” are added to the curriculum such as nature walk, invite speaker from NPark to conduct activities with our children and ideally include child-parent project on “Nature”.

 

Your favourable reply would be much appreciated.

 

Yours sincerely

Teachers

We are planning a nature walk to XYZ Park next Friday (30 June). We noticed that Henry has been missing out on our weekly nature walks. As we will be looking out for bugs and spiders, which Henry seems to have a strong interest in, we hope you could let Henry join his friends next Friday.

We understand that Henry is very prone to mosquito bites, so we would suggest that he bring a cap, waterbottle, wear long pants and use insect repellent. You could pass us your preferred spray repellant so we could re-apply the repellent during the walk.

In case of grazes or bites, we always bring along our first aid box on our walks. Before the walks, we always review safety rules with the children. We will be following the ECDA-recommended teacher-child ratio for outdoor activities.

After the walk, Henry will then be able to share with his friends what he has seen and that will boost his self-confidence in class.

Attached is the map of the park for your reference.

Your Sincerely,

Teachers _______

 

Benefits of nature education for children and teachers

-          Academics / Studies 

-          Social Emotional Learning

-          Development of person

-          Experiential learning

-          Psychological health

-          Physical Health

-          Environmental awareness & stewardship for earth

 

Relevance of nature education to the various learning domains

-          discovery of the world

-          language and literacy

-          motor skills development

-          numeracy

-          arts and creative expression

-          social emotional

 

Share ideas on how to integrate nature education in the existing curriculum

-          Have weekly outdoor nature experiences around the neighbourhood

-          Termly outings to a nature reserve 

-          Having a current issues corner relating to nature

-          Participate in nature related community projects or events

-          Creating a mini school-garden

-          Using the outdoors for lessons (eg: MSD lessons, Numeracy lessons etc)

-          Allowing children to have a nature book for drawings during nature walks

 

Creating a nature education committee

-          Head efforts in harnessing expertise from parents, colleagues and relevant community members

-          Lead efforts in creating nature education events and activities