Go to content
Søg
About NAVADA

Participating institutions

Here you can read about the ten daycare institutions participating in the NAVADA project.

Copenhagen

  • Mikkelborg

    Mikkelborg is an excursion institution, which takes outdoor life as a starting point for all its activities. Since the institution is relatively small, most of the pedagogical staff have been able to participate in NAVADA, creating common professional grounds when developing the nature profile of the institution. The educators at Mikkelborg have been especially invested in the professional aspects of Wild Pedagogies and worked on letting go of guided educational activities and instead allow children and adults to explore together and seize the moments that occur in the encounter with nature.

  • Stockholmsgave

    The Stockholmsgave kindergarten has approached nature scientifically. The educators have wanted to give all children a sense of being scientists with hypotheses about nature, which they could test. In the play and learning environments, they have worked on photosynthesis and followed the path of water through plants in the beds of the garden; and they have chased the microscopic water bear, which is impossible to see with the naked eye. They have built a lab, where they have used magnifiers to examine plants and animals found in nature, and the lab has been given a location within the house where all the children of the institution can access it.

  • 100 Meter skoven

    100 Meterskoven (Ashdown Forest) is an excursion kindergarten and daycare, which has focused on nature and outdoor life for many years. 100 Meterskoven is especially concerned about science as a pedagogical approach by supporting the curiosity of children and providing them with time and space to form their own experiences. In the daycare group, this may take place around meals, where the small children are given space to experiment with the texture of food. In the kindergarten’s excursions to the woods, the educators have tried having a permanent base, where recurring visits have created space for reflection on the constant changes in nature. The educators have recorded the experiences and considerations of the children in a “child log” after each visit, and the log has been re-read together with the children, allowing them to build upon their insights and experiences.

  • Dronning Louise

    When time and space is created to follow the interests of children, their democratic understanding widens. This is one of the things that the educators at the integrated institution Dronning Louise learned by participating in NAVADA. The children improve their ability to help and wait for each other when given a say in what they want to investigate and experiment with. The educators at Dronning Louise have embraced the science-educational approach of being curious together with children, and over the course of the project, they have worked on building upon things that are relevant to children in the moment, rather than sticking to planned activities.

  • Nansensgade

    At Børnehuset Nansensgade, participating in NAVADA has supported the nature profile of the institution and elevated nature as a curricular theme. In the daycare, the educators have designed a room containing construction toys, such as marble runs, blocks, and magnets, visited by the children twice a week. The educators have worked on letting the children independently come up with ways to play with the materials instead of assigning specific activities. The idea was to create a room for immersion in experiments about mass, motion, and gravity, stimulating the mathematical attention of the children.

  • Lundsgade

    At Lundsgade, participating in NAVADA has yielded support for the general pedagogical practice of the institution. The process of designing play and learning environments has increased the focus on what is at play when an answer is not the main point, but rather investigating, experimenting, and hypothesizing—also when children take the initiative. It has become clear that the factors making the task successful is immersion, time, and the ability to view and seize the world from the perspective of the child. During the span of the project, the educators have focused, e.g., on mathematical attention when the children encounter geometric shapes, gravity, numbers, and motion. The children have gained a vocabulary for their own perception and actions, and the educators have worked on encapsulating the children’s experiences wherever they appeared.

  • Den Grønne Kastanje

    At the integrated institution Den Grønne Kastanje (The Green Chestnut), the educators have worked on the nascent mathematical attention of small children. Through various experiments involving sorting games and experiments on sequences and location, the educators have gained insight into how best to support the mathematical attention of the children. They have learned that it is key to seize the attention in every moment it arises, instead of planning for a specific sort of learning outcome.

Bornholm

  • Søstjernen

    At Søstjernen (The Starfish), the children have come to decide where to go on excursions. Participating in NAVADA has made the educators aware that the curiosity and immersion of children flourish when they have a say in where to go on field trips and what to examine more closely on a given day. Previously, the staff made monthly plans with fixed destinations for trips, but now, the tempo has come down and the children’s immersion in nature takes priority over activities defined by adults. Adults and children feel more free to engage in the situations that occur in the encounter with nature, and this nature-pedagogical approach has spread to the entire institution.

  • Natur- og Skovbørnehuset

    At Natur- og Skovbørnehuset, the children have experienced being active co-creators of knowledge about nature. The educators have included the children in the process of gathering and examining animals without giving them answers in advance. Using a “decision cloth” with pictures of animals, the children have identified animals on their own by looking at details, such as the number of legs, they have subsequently gathered more knowledge about the animals in books and made papier-mâché models. To provide children with the experience of immersion in, and the creation of knowledge of, the world they inhabit has required the educators to take a step back and follow the interests and initiatives of the children themselves. Up until the summer of 2024, Natur- og Skovbørnehuset have found that small changes in pedagogical practice can lead to great changes in terms of the children feeling that they create knowledge and connect with nature.

  • Gudhjem Børnehus

    At Gudhjem Børnehuset, the educators of the daycare group have experimented using the playground as an outdoor space for nature experiences. For example, they have created a mud kitchen, where the children have cooked with pine cones, sand, and water. The educators have emphasized fostering intimacy in the children’s experiences and allowing plenty of time for small events, such as following a snail crossing a rock. The focus has been on processes rather than completing particular activities.