Enjoy all our latest education news and stories
At Natural Pod™, our purpose is to ensure every learner and educator has a practical, healthy, sustainable environment in which to learn and be inspired, enabling them to reach their full potential. You can find all our news and stories here, where we share ideas and thinking that inspire our work to help inspire yours.
Project Profile: Prince George Native Friendship Centre Day Care
The goal at Little Friends Day Care at the Prince George Native Friendship Centre is to create and provide a culturally focused, safe, caring, learning environment for children by providing activities, which are suited towards each child’s level of growth...
Watch Now: Furniture That Transforms Learning
Airplane Project at Marshall University STEAM Center - Children at the MUEE STEAM Center @ Explorer Academy have been interested in researching, exploring and learning more about various types of airplanes and helicopters. Through their work they have...
Project Profile: Tiny Hoppers Early Learning Centre – Langley, BC
Tiny Hoppers Willoughby in Langley, BC, Canada opened the doors to their new facility on September 10th, 2018. They are the first Tiny Hoppers to open in British Columbia. They pride themselves on being an early learning centre that ensures quality child...
Project Profile: Collingwood Neighbourhood House Annex
Collingwood Neighbourhood House (CNH) has opened a new annex facility in Vancouver, BC bringing to their neighbourhood a variety of new programs include expanded capacity for preschool and childcare. The Annex was constructed to provide more...
Tips for Buying Learning Furniture
Creating an outstanding learning space where educators enjoy working and kids experience great learning outcomes has never been more important. Learning is changing and educators are exploring new ways of bringing 21st century experiences into their...
Marshall University Early Education STEAM Center
As the flagship classroom for the MU Early Education STEAM Center, this location on the campus of Marshall University opened its doors in the fall of 2010. The site is nationally accredited by NAEYC and is a collaborative pre-k classroom with Cabell County...
Watch Now: Creating Beautiful Education Spaces
Last week we invited you to participate in our online virtual tour of one of our most recent projects built out with Natural Pod better learning furniture at North Tampa Christian Academy, a private school in Wesley Chapel, Florida, serving pre-school...
Join Natural Pod at EDspaces
EDspaces is the conference advancing the conversation about the future of learning environments. It is where innovations are unveiled and collaborations form, bringing together education's creative change agents who plan, design and manage innovative...
Creating Beautiful Spaces for Future Change Agents
Join us for a free virtual tour of North Tampa Christian Academy on Wednesday, October 24, 2018 from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM (EST) - Register online now! - Find incredible learning space inspiration right from your where you are. Join us by...
Bench Seating – Before and After Transformation
It feels great to work for and with a company whose products you believe in, products that help create better, sustainable learning environments all over the world, and products which from time to time you get to enjoy with your family in your own home as...
Natural Playground Features For Physical Literacy
Our outdoor learning environment partners at Bienenstock Natural Playgrounds share their best features for physical literacy in outdoor learning and play spaces. With the average rate a child spends outdoors dropping every year due to sedentary lifestyles centered...
Schools Nurture Resilience of Children and Societies
International focus on resilience is surging as evidence mounts for a world endangered by climate change, armed conflict and terrorism, unprecedented flows of refugees, pandemics, educational and health disparities, and economic volatility. In addition,...
New Project Install Photos – Children’s All Day School In New York, NY
Founded in 1975, Children’s All Day School & Pre-Nursery occupies an historic four-story building on 60th Street and Lexington Ave in New York, NY. Their dedicated staff has built a state of the art school serving boys and girls, ages six months to...
Video: Learning Environment Transformation at Chapmanville Primary
Our work at Natural Pod is all about learning environment transformation. Transformation that supports children to more deeply engage in learning, connection and relationships with each other, their teachers and community. We’re so grateful when our...
Fostering Empathy and Compassion through Place-Based Education
The world is a big place, and for many of us it’s difficult to fathom how the Earth’s natural systems and cycles function on a global scale. What happens when environmental education becomes so broad it starts to become less relatable and comprehensible?...
Strategies For Managing Change in Learning Environments
In this day and age, we've come to accept that one of the only thing that seems to be constant is change; however, sometimes we don't spend enough time thinking about how to manage change. Here are some suggestions to keep in mind before undertaking any significant...
Play Stand with Arch: Creating Play And Learning Spaces – Part 3 of 3
The wooden arches in my classroom have made an amazing difference to the layout of the room. As an open area teacher, it can be very hard to find quiet spots for my students to sit and read, reflect, or share toys. It is a small space with sharp angles...
Redefining Education Together: Synergies of Environmental Education and Education for Sustainability
As the green schools movement develops and gains notice, defining what is considered the third pillar of a green school (U.S. DOE, 2017), environmental and sustainability literacy, has gained steam in conversations at school board meetings, state...
Project Photos: Creating Creative Learning Experiences with WonderWell
WonderWell is a first-class early learning school inspired by the Reggio Emilia philosophy of early childhood education and a Best of the Best Preschool in Austin Finalist. Natural Pod is excited to be a part of the successful creation of this unique...
Play Stand with Arch: Conversations Invite Learning – Part 2 of 3
I have had two play stands with arches in my Kindergarten classroom for the past year and I continue to be impressed with their versatility. I placed them in what used to be my “house corner”. Prior to the play arches, this area of my classroom had a...
Hard at Work Creating Great Learning Experiences for September
Summer breaks are so important to rest and recharge. Many of our education community take time in the summer for family, friends, learning and exploring. At the same time, there are many of us hard at work preparing for new learning environments to support...
Using Forests Responsibly – Our Furniture is FSC® Certified
At Natural Pod, we make long-lasting, sustainably made furniture designed to foster creativity and innovation in learning environments for all ages. We help create 21st Century Learning and play environments for educators and students and we do all of that...
Weaving Environmental Literacy into the Fabric of Curriculum
Envision a sustainable future marked by ecological integrity, shared prosperity, and social equity where individual and group choices are rooted in environmental and social responsibility (NAAEE, n.d.-a). Imagine a future where current...
Bienenstock Playgrounds Build Outdoor Connection to Nature
While our work at Natural Pod is focused on creating collaborative, sustainably made, nature connected learning indoor environments, we always remember that outdoor nature connection is a vital part of creating great learning outcomes. When we...
Stool Giveaway Contest Winner
Thank you to all of you who recently entered our Natural Pod newsletter subscription contest. Subscribing to our newsletter gave you a chance to be entered to win a pair of our beautiful, new, sustainably made Natural Pod Stools. They are the classroom...
Play Stand with Arch: Playing with Play Stands – Part 1 of 3
The Natural Pod play stand with arches have been the perfect compliment to my Grade 1 classroom. Over the past few years I have been changing my classroom to reflect a more natural, calming environment. I replaced all existing plastics with wood, wicker...
Breaking Through Barriers: Using the Sustainability Education Framework
Educators face a daunting task—preparing the next generation with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to work toward a more sustainable way of life. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a collection of seventeen global goals set...
Creating Learning Environments Inspired by Nature
Bringing the Outdoors in with Biophilic Design - Mounting research suggests that spending time in the outdoors provides a wide range of benefits. For children in particular, access to nature is associated with improvements to mental health...
Voice and Choice Helps Move Students to the Center of the Classroom
When you hear the phrase “student-centered classroom,” what immediately comes to mind? Do you envision a classroom erupting into chaos, students doing what they want without a clear curricular goal to guide them? A true student-centered...
Buying Green: A Former Procurement Agent Shares Lessons Learned
Public procurement is a complicated process. Adding an increased focus on environmentally friendly products only increases the complexity. This is something I know firsthand as Director of Custodial Services for Davis School District, located in Farmington, Utah....
Harnessing Technology to Increase Environmental Engagement
These days, those of us who care about the well-being of children can be deeply concerned about the effects of technology. It can seem like tech does not have a place in environmental education when students are already struggling with screen...
5 Ways Classroom Design Can Improve What We Learn And Who Learns It
At Natural Pod, we know the design and furnishing of learning spaces influences education outcomes. Recently, Fast Company published a great article outlining some of their own findings on this important topic. Students spend an average of 11,700 hours of...
2018 U.S. National Teacher Appreciation Week
Teachers give us so much. A boost of confidence when we really need one. Extra help when we’re having trouble. A welcoming presence when everything else seems out of control. And though we know we can’t ever thank them enough, we can take a moment during...
Procurement Strategies for Better Learning Environments
Over the years, the sustainable procurement movement has helped us reduce our use of virgin material, shrink our carbon impact, and procure more goods and services from local organizations. One thing the movement hasn’t done enough of is remind...
Join Us at the 2018 BC Primary Teachers’ Association Educational Marketplace
Are you in the lower BC mainland area and working in the education field? Join us and numerous other vendors at the 2018 BC Primary Teachers’ Association Educational Marketplace. This is an outstanding opportunity to meet with and see many different kinds...
Tackling the Makerspace Trend in Your Classroom
The maker movement has taken on a life of its own over the last few years. K-12 schools are starting to jump on the bandwagon too, creating makerspaces of their own. What is a makerspace? Picture shop or industrial arts class only made over for 21st...
Natural Pod and Green Schools National Network Attends Global Green’s 2018 Pre-Oscar Gala To Deepen Education Awareness
A movement cannot rely on just one person or organization to grow and create change in the world. It requires many helping hands, working together, lifting each other up. At the Green Schools National Network (GSNN), nurturing long-lasting, meaningful...
Create Trauma Sensitive Learning Environments
Being a young person today is not easy. Many are under stress to perform well in school, get into a good college, or excel on the playing field. But what about students who are stressed because they need to earn money to put food on the table for their...
Help Students Find Their Voice In Their Learning
Today’s students are pretty tech savvy. From iPhones to tablets, most children attending school today have grown up with technology as part of their everyday lives. These “digital natives” know how to use these devices to communicate too – from texting to...




































