It’s back-to-school time—this means you may be thinking about setting up your classroom or school office for a new year. In this post, learn why bringing nature into your space can have positive effects on well-being and learning. Plus, grab easy-to-get-started ideas!
Benefits of Nature
When I’m on the road teaching, I often ask educators for suggestions about where I can access nature while in their area. No matter how tired I am after a day of peopling, this introvert is filled by walking in the trees, enjoying an arboretum, or generally seeing beauty in the outside world. Big water, of course, is also a favorite! Turns out that nature isn’t just good for me. It’s helpful for lots of us as humans. In fact, it can be an anchor when the current of life is too much—as it is for so many folks right now. That’s the first reason to consider bringing nature into your classroom!
Accessing nature at school can also have a positive effect on well-being, regulation, focus, attention, and other upstairs brain functions that go with cognition. These improvements can contribute to benefits in mental health, behavior, engagement, and academic performance (Children & Nature Network, 2016).
There’s an even more detailed list of nature’s benefits for health and learning below.
Finding beauty in a broken world is creating beauty in the world we find.
So Nature's Regulating... Now What?
- Nature is good for our physical health. Research on forest bathing, for example, shows that immersing oneself among the trees with a walk (and more!) in the woods can boost immunity (Hackenmiller, 2019). Specifically, just two hours a week of being in nature has been associated with a strong sense of well-being (Robbins, 2020).
- Nature has impacts on emotional well-being by decreasing feelings of anxiousness, improving stress recovery, and generally increasing happiness. These benefits aren’t only attributed to moving our bodies, either. More than one study has compared the benefits of walking in an urban area with walking in a natural environment—moving in nature wins! (Suttie, 2016)
- Being outside or even viewing nature scenes inside can improve focus and attention as well as working memory (Alexander & Paravano, 2023; Bratman, Daily, Levy, & Gross, 2015). Nature serves as a sort of reset for an upstairs brain that’s on information overload, increasing problem solving capacity and creativity!
- Connections with the natural world for even one minute can help you feel like you are part of something bigger than yourself and lead to awe—which is linked with kindness and generosity (Piff, Dietz, Feinberg, Stancato, & Keltner, 2015). When I’m stuck on a writing project, for example, going for a walk outside almost always shifts something in me, whether it clears my mind, releases worry, or reminds me that my work problem is a small one in the grand scheme of things. And, for lots of us, a trip that includes amazing views can be good for the soul.
Watch my August 2025 YouTube Show titled So Nature is Regulating… Now What? to find easy ideas for encouraging you and your learners to connect with nature at school. I’m joined by Anna Paravano, a trauma-informed educator and interior designer as well as Hanna Thuesen, an Iowa art teacher. Love this conversation so much!
Our kids need more time outside. They need opportunities to actually be in nature in all seasons. We can only love nature when we know what it's about.
Ways to Bring Nature Into Your Classroom
As discussed in the show, there are lots of ways to encourage connection with the natural world at school for yourself and your students. Here are ten (mostly) easy ways to get started.
- Get outside more often—even if it’s a quick walk ‘n talk with a partner to discuss answers to questions on a paper with a clipboard!
- Invite students to find and bring in something from nature that goes with who they are. This is a great back-to-school activity. Lately, I’d pick out a purple coneflower from an Iowa prairie to describe myself because I feel creative and colorful.
- Make a nature time capsule for your group. Hanna Thuesen suggests adding the natural items that your group collects to a clear jar that can be displayed all year. When someone new joins your class, be sure to invite them to add something.
- Add safe plants to your space. You know your learners’ needs best, and your own caretaking capacity too. 😉 If you can, try a plant or two (or more if you’d like) in your space. Work together with your learners to take care of them. Three of my favs are highlighted in the next section.
- Emphasize nature imagery in your classroom. Think projecting a nature scene or video on your whiteboard, especially during transitions or after a part of the day that tends to bring big energy (e.g., recess, physical education, or a pep rally).
- Add coffee table books or magazines to your school space that include photographs from nature. One of my favs is Philip Ball’s (2016) Patterns in Nature. From spiral buckling patterns in cacti to repeating markings on a peacock’s tail, nature is full of fractals (think naturally repeating patterns). These are beautiful, and exploring them can be regulating. Put a book like this in your classroom library or anywhere folks wait for a meeting (like the school office area). It’s bound to be picked up and enjoyed!
- Try my community-building activity titled Choose a Plant that centers picking out a plant that goes with how you’re doing; find it on the Equity Unbound website at OneHE. It’s a powerful way to share feelings and needs by simply choosing an image and communicating about it if learners want to. Plus, you can modify the activity to fit your group. I also created Ms. Jen’s Plant Check-In Page for Littles, which is a free download!
- Encourage nature journaling. There really are no rules. Just take a blank book (or make your own). Then jot down observations, words, and images as part of your quest. If you’re looking for ideas, Keri Smith’s (2008) How to Be an Explorer of the World is great! You could read one page a week to give your learners an idea to try and then journal about it. One page suggests finding a favorite street—even mapping it out. Discoveries from the quest can be shared in a classroom meeting too.
- Look up from screens and look out to the horizon. Even go to the window to do so. This is a good brain break for you and learners of any age! Suggest a little cloud gazing if you’d like.
- Consider offering to care for someone’s pond plants (and even fish) in the colder months. In my classroom, we took care of a local landscaper’s makeshift classroom pond and all their plants that went with it. The professionals did the set-up, and we benefited from working together to keep it going all year. If this seems daunting, you could always consider a goldfish in a fishbowl instead!
What else would you add to this list?
Get outside more often—even if it’s a quick walk ‘n talk with a partner to discuss answers to questions on a paper with a clipboard!
Plants to Consider for Your Classroom
If you don’t see yourself as a green thumb but want to get started with plants, here are my top three easy go-tos for school spaces: spider plants, snake plants, and pothos!
"Humans are basically houseplants with more complicated emotions."
Learn More
Including nature is just one suggestion toward creating a regulating physical environment at school. Read my quick guide co-authored with Anna Paravano (2023) titled Creating a Regulating Classroom Environment to find oodles of doable changes that can promote regulation for you and your learners!
Here’s what one middle school teacher said about the guide, “I didn’t know that relatively small changes in how I use color in my classroom could prevent both underwhelm and overwhelm for everyone—so thankful for this information because it’s one thing I can influence in our school community.”
"I didn't know that relatively small changes in how I use color in my classroom could prevent both underwhelm and overwhelm for everyone—so thankful for this information because it's one thing I can influence in our school community."
Your Next Steps...
1. First, watch August 2025’s Now What? Show With Ms. Jen on YouTube to learn more from Ms. Jen, Anna Paravano, and Hanna Thuesen!
2. Next, subscribe and watch my next new YouTube Show—happening some months on day 10 @ 5:30 pm Central Time. You can catch each one on replay too.
3. Finally, share something you learned from me in this post with another educator. Then encourage them to follow me on social media so we’re working together to improve trauma-sensitive practice.
Have a great year!
References
Alexander, J. & Paravano, A. (2023). Creating a regulating classroom environment: A Guide for trauma-sensitive educators. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co.
Ball, P. (2016). Patterns in nature: Why the natural world looks the way it does. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
Children & Nature Network (2016). Green schoolyards can provide mental health benefits. chrome://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://eadn-wc04-796033.nxedge.io/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/CNN_2016GSY_MentalHlth_23-3-24.pdf
Children & Nature Network (2016). Nature can improve academic outcomes graphic. chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://eadn-wc04-796033.nxedge.io/wp-content/uploads/CNN20_BNAcademicOutcomes_23-3-25.pdf
Gregory N. Bratman, Gretchen C. Daily, Benjamin J. Levy, James J. Gross. (2015). The benefits of nature experience: Improved affect and cognition. Landscape and Urban Planning (138), 41-50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2015.02.005
Hackenmiller, S. B., (2019). The outdoor adventurer’s guide to foret bathing: Using Shinrin-Yoku to hike, bike, paddle, and climb your way to health and happiness. Lanham, MD: Falcon Guides.
Piff, P. K., Dietze, P., Feinberg, M., Stancato, D. M., & Keltner, D. (2015). Awe, the small self, and prosocial behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 108(6), 883-899. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000018
Robbins (2020). Ecopsychology: How immersion in nature benefits your health. Yale Environment 360. https://e360.yale.edu/features/ecopsychology-how-immersion-in-nature-benefits-your-health?fbclid=IwAR35c5L4W_bZW1zUsmFyy8iMtEBxJ4G6URgmwjgj5Gj7v3M0_H2oMOHO4MY
Smith, K. (2008). How to be an explorer of the world: Portable life museum. Penguin Books.
Suttie, J. (2016). How nature can make you kinder, happier, and more creative. Great Good Magazine. https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_nature_makes_you_kinder_happier_more_creative