The Nature League seeks to immerse children in a natural environment that inspires creativity and endless exploration. Our curriculum is rooted in a play-based approach to learning that combines developmentally appropriate place-based science and art with child-led inquiry.
mission statement
Natalie Anaya
Natalie Anaya is a PreK teacher with a background in Environmental Education and a love for SF parks! She holds a BA in Environmental Humanities from Whitman College and has been an early childhood educator for 8 years.
Stephanie Rau
Stephanie Rau is a PreK teacher and mother with a BA in Art History/Painting and MA in Art Education. She has worked in education for 7 years.
Nature League: Summer 2022 Camp Schedule
We follow a project-based, emergent curriculum driven by each group of camper’s individual and collective interests. The following themes are a loose guideline for our weeks, and we are eager to see what child-led inquiries emerge each session!
Summer 2022 Registration Now Open!
Session 1: June 13th- 24th, 9am-3pm (Rising 1st & 2nd Graders) $1196
Week 1: June 13th-17th: Ancient Relics and Magical Potions
This week combines a little bit of fantasy with natural history and botany as we unlock portals and legends of the park’s past, concoct botanical potions and construct our own wooden wall hangings to preserve the treasures and curiosities we’ll collect along the way!
Week 2: June 20th-24th: Eco Engineers
We’ll never truly know what SF weather has in store for us at Nature League until we get to the meadow. Whether we’re served bright sunshine, Karl the Fog, or gusts of morning wind, we’ll use the power of the elements for tinkering purposes! We’ll explore and design ways of harnessing wind, water and solar energy in our outdoor tinker lab and see how artists use the elements to create masterpieces!
Session 2: June 27th - July 1st, 9am-3pm (Rising 1st-3rd Graders) $598
(One Week Only): Let the Games Begin!
Golden Gate Park is the playing field for all kinds of game-lovers and hobbyists, from anglers to horse-shoe champions, lawn bowlers to disc golfers. This week, we’ll gather inspiration from these recreational spaces and transform the meadow into our own arena for Nature League-designed games! Botanical board games, bird-themed card games, lawn games and anything in between are all *fair game* as we set out to invent, test and partake in the first annual Nature League Game Tournament!
Session 3: July 11th- 22nd, 9am-3pm (Rising 2nd & 3rd Graders) $1196
Week 1: July 11th-15th GGP Activists Part 1
Calling all citizen scientists, wildlife conservationists and climate activists! What causes are closest to your heart when you are outside with Nature League? We’ll turn our ideas into action and join wider community efforts to make lasting change in this beautiful place we call home! Last Year, our Nature Leaguers took action to protect native butterfly species in the park, set up their own vermicomposting system and planted native plants at a community garden. We can’t wait to see where our Nature Leaguers’ passions take us this year!
Week 2: July 18th-22nd GGP Activists Part 2
That’s right! Another week of GGP activism, because one week is not nearly enough time to carry out our Nature Leaguers’ plans for creating change! This week we’ll explore how art can be a catalyst for change and use up-cycled materials to craft small but mighty ways of practicing sustainability in our parks and beyond.
Session 4: July 25th- August 5th, 9am-3pm (Rising 2nd & 3rd Graders) $1196
Week 1: July 25th-29th Cache Me If You Can!
The Nature League is no stranger to the wonderful world of geocaching (if you’re new to geocaching, check it out here!) In years past, we’ve logged many visits to geocaches in the park and even made our own Nature League cache! This year, we are taking things up a notch with multi-caches, eco-conscious “location-less” caches, satellite and natural navigation, and some extreme geocache engineering of our own! We’re talking pulley systems, multi-step riddles, coded messages and trackables. And of course, we’ll make time for some standard geocaching, too!
Week 2: August 1st-5th: Plein Air Printmaking
Get inspired by the outdoors like the impressionist painters of the past—but with a contemporary twist! Campers will learn how to stretch their own canvases, make DIY palettes, and use nature as their muse! Will your budding artist be more of a Monet or Banksy?
Summer Camp Cancellation/Refund Policy:
Your payment will reserve your spot. All registered families are eligible for a refund up until four weeks before the start of your registered week, at which point camp fee becomes nonrefundable. All eligible refunds are subject to an administration fee of 10%.
