Little Green Champions

We see Birmingham’s Little Green Champions as all children under five who are are having fun playing and learning in green spaces. They might be tiny but fierce eco warriors, spend time connected to nature, love to visit their local park or help to care for wildlife in their garden.

We know – kids need nature and nature needs kids

Research tells us the experiences of connecting with nature boost children’s physical, social and mental development and it’s lots of fun too.

“There’s a reason birdsong, rainfall and crashing waves are some of our favourite sounds. Nature makes us happy. We know that nature is good for our wellbeing and there’s plenty of evidence to back this up and it’s not just for adults; children benefit from exploring nature too.

The feeling of a snail’s smooth shell, the smell of damp seaweed and the sound of sticks splashing in a river – it’s moments like this that help children grow and connect with their natural world.” – National Trust

We all want children to be able to explore their senses in wild spaces, care for plants and creatures, and have the chance to reflect on their feelings in different landscapes. Nationally, to help families to do this, The National Trust created “50 Things” to encourage families to play in nature together and build an enduring connection with wildlife. In Birmingham we want to support families and early years practitioners to do this where ever they live by providing good quality green spaces and opportunities to get involved.

Growing Little Green Champions

The Naturally Birmingham Project worked closely with the National Trust to develop actions that help Birmingham’s residents to get involved with and benefit from green spaces including families with children under five. This work helped to create the City of Nature Plan The plan sets out our aims for children and young people. We want children to be able to explore nature in all the seasons, and build special memories to last.

But it’s not just children and adults that benefit from nature. When we build a connection with nature, we’re more likely to care for it in return. This means children who explore and enjoy nature are more likely to look after it, stand up for it and take action to protect it as they grow older.

“No one will protect what they don’t care about, and no one will care about what they have never experienced.”

Sir David Attenborough

There aren’t just 50 things that you could do, there are hundreds, possibly thousands of ways to connect to nature and get involved with green spaces, but we are suggesting that you try just 5 things before your children are 5 years old – but we want you to do these at least once in every season – every year!

To get started if you aren’t sure where your local park is you can find parks in Birmingham here: Find a park | Birmingham City Council just use your postcode to find green spaces by you.

5 Things – 4 Seasons – Every year

1. Get Moving
2. Grow Together
3. Connect
4. Learn More
5. Share
   
   

Get Moving

Moving outside in green space is vital to aid childhood development. Muscles become stronger and heart and lungs become more efficient. Encouraging movement helps improve children’s balance, spatial awareness, core strength and coordination at the same time children develop their learning and emotional development skills. Not mention just running, jumping and having a great time.

Exploring brings all kinds of new wonders turning a walk in the park in to a sensory activity without even trying. An additional experience which allows the sense of taste to be part of the walk is preparing a no waste tasting box full of autumn fruits to try as you walk around the park. Depending on your child’s needs you can add cut up apples, pears, plums, blackcurrants, blackberries (or try small pots of jam) to a reusable container and use a fork or spoon to try different fruits, or make sure hands are clean if you don’t mind using fingers. If you can’t pick your own fruit at home, when you are buying fruit try and choose fruit that has the least packaging – just do what you can, it isn’t always easy.

Download an activity sheet here:

Grow Together

You can grow together a home, it’s really easy to get started. Here Humera and her son Esa show us how to grow a pepper plant:

The story of the very hungry caterpillar is a really well known book, you help bring it to life by thinking about all the different foods the caterpillar eats. This provides an opportunity to learn about how different plants grow, where do they grow, who eats them, make a waste free picnic and try out tasting different vegetables and fruit, in your home, garden or even more fun while your out and about in parks and green spaces.

Download your activity sheet here:

Connect – with nature

Often children will visit green spaces, but not always connect with their natural surroundings. Research has shown those who connect with their nature are more likely to have a positive and caring attitude towards their environment.

Using arts and crafts to think about nature can help us explore nature more deeply and start to make a better connection with it. Modelling animals helps to think about what an animal looks like. It doesn’t matter what the model or drawing looks like to us, it’s just thinking and talking about it that’s important.

Here you can watch Holly show us how to make a mud animal from natural clay:

Download your activity sheet here:

Learn More

Green spaces can provide great learning opportunities for children whether that be about nature, the wider natural world, the weather, seasons …the list goes on and on. Encouraging children to take part in activities where they can learn about green spaces helps to build a connection with nature. Let them explore and see what they can find.

Download your activity sheet here:

Share – shout about it!

It’s time to celebrate and share all of the exciting and wonderful things you’ve done together! We always like to have a hot chocolate and marshmallows (don’t forget to fill your thermos) sing songs, makes some leaf bunting and share our stories.

Download your activity sheet here:

Sharing our stories is a really important action – we want you to share with us what you like and what you don’t like. What you want more of and what you want less of. You can use the contact form at the bottom of this page to contact us.

Here a mom of our Little Green Champion “H” shares his adventures taking part in Teeny Explorer sessions at the Lickey Hills : The Story of H

Early Years Practitioners

Here is a taster of our “Growing Together” web based training session delivered in partnership with Birmingham City Council’s Early Years Team.

This short video is just to give you a feel of what the training covers:

If you are interested in joining an online Growing Together session please let us know