Your host for this event is:
Your presenters for the day are Christina Pickles and Jennifer Usher.
We all learn best through play. Come experience outdoor play within and beyond the fence with Jennifer and Christina.
Time and Date
Saturday September 27, 2025
9:00am - 4:00pm
Location
Medicine Hat, Alberta
Medicine Hat College, Big Eagle Room
Fee
$140.00 + GST
- 2 workshops - 2.5 hours with each presenter
- Want to register 3 or more educators? We can offer a 10% discount. Contact Christina for the code to use during registration.
- You are responsible for bringing your own lunch and snacks for the day.
Who should come?
Do you work with young children between 0-7 years old?
This day is for you.
Are you looking for inspiration and practical ideas to support you in getting children outdoors?
This day is for you.
Do you want to connect with other educators in your community?
This day is for you!
Are you looking for a hands-on, interactive and fun day?
This day is for you.
During this day, you will attend the following two workshops.
Designing Wonder Within the Fence: How Outdoor Environments Inspire Early Learning
This hands-on workshop will explore how thoughtfully designed outdoor early learning play spaces can ignite children's curiosity and invite rich, meaningful play. Together, participants will reflect on how intentional design choices and materials communicate possibilities for exploration and discovery, encouraging children to engage deeply with their environment. We will also look at a familiar feature: the fence. Often viewed simply as a boundary, the fence holds untapped potential as a dynamic element in early learning environments. We will discover innovative ways to transform the fence into a playful, inspiring part of your outdoor space that sparks imagination and supports child-led learning. By the end of this session, participants will gain a deeper understanding of how the affordances of an environment can empower both educators and children, enriching the early learning experience.
Jennifer Usher works as program coordinator and instructor for the Early Learning and Child Care program at Medicine Hat College.
Jennifer graduated from the University of Alberta with her Masters of Elementary Education with an early learning focus. For two years, she participated in a pan-Canadian Outdoor Pedagogy Early Childhood Education Faculty Research Project. Experiences in this project shifted her perspective greatly, allowing her to understand the positive impact the outdoors has on learners.
This past year, she helped to co-found Landscapes of Learning: An Outdoor Pedagogy Collective that includes members from across Canada. In May, she received a provincial Innovation in Teaching award for her work developing an outdoor pedagogy course for the college. Jennifer hopes to inspire early childhood educators to take children outside more often and to feel confident in their abilities to nurture children’s curiosity in engaging ways.
Beyond the Fence: Sparking Curiosity and Building Connection to Nature
Nature invites us to open our senses, be in the moment and take in the world. There is always something new to discover; clouds change, wind blows, and snow falls. Every day, children can make discoveries that spark their curiosity; all you have to do is open the door and follow the children’s lead! In this hands-on workshop, you will:
- Nurture your connection to nature
- Directly experience activities that support nature connection for children
- Consider how play builds children’s relationships with the natural world
- Reflect on your role as an educator in supporting children’s exploration outdoors
- Spark your curiosity about the plants, animals and elements around you
- Explore how to support the cycle of curiosity outdoors.
You will leave this workshop with new ideas to try with the children on Monday morning!
Christina Pickles is an outdoor play advocate and founder of Get Outside and Play, an organization that ensures more outdoor play in early learning and care settings, schools, and communities through events, presentations, workshops, and consulting.
She has been supporting outdoor experiences with people of all ages for 25 years and 10 years ago, pivoted her work to put play at the centre of everything she does. She believes play is the best way children (and adults) connect with the land, their communities, their bodies, and each other.
She lives along the Bow River in Calgary Alberta and can be found walking her dog Clover or chasing after her adventurous 10 year old.
Schedule for the day
You will attend two sessions, one in the morning and a second in the afternoon. One session will be delivered by Christina Pickles and the other by Jennifer Usher. We will start our day indoors at Medicine Hat College in the Big Eagle room. The workshops will be outside.
8:30am - 9am Arrival and check-in at Big Eagle Room
9am - 9:30am Opening Big Eagle Room
9:30am - 9:45am Move to first workshop Outdoors
9:45am - 12:15pm First session. Outdoors
12:15pm - 1:00pm Lunch Outdoors or Big Eagle Room
1:00pm - 3:30pm Second session Outdoors
3:30pm - 4:00pm Closing Big Eagle Room