Thanks to the Move Your Paws educational programme for nurseries and families, children transform into bears, chamois, kingfishers or lizards. Trough animal exercises they warm up their “paws”, “wings”, “hooves” and “tails”. The programme combines the joy of movement with a playful exploration of our natural world and especially of the treasures of Natura 2000.
The programme was developed by the DAPHNE Institute of Applied Ecology in collaboration with partners of the Príroda pre všetkých project.
Move Your Paws for Nurseries
Teachers deliver the programme themselves with the help of the materials and guidance provided by DAPHNE.
Through playful exercises, exploratory indoor and outdoor activities, habitat posters, species cards, worksheets, stories and nursery rhymes, they gradually not only deepen their knowledge of nature but also build an emotional connection with it.
Exercise inspired by the yellow-bellied toad
Exploring of nature
Playful activities
Materials help not only broaden children’s understanding of nature but also develop their mathematical abilities and graphomotor, speech & language and social skills.
Species card - European badger
Species card - European badger
Habitat poster of floodplain forest together with species cards displayed in one of the nurseries
Children with Move Your Paws worksheets
The programme is suitable for the age from 3 to 6 years, but many materials can be used also for 1st and 2nd grade in elementary school.
In the 2024/2025 school year, DAPHNE did pilot tests in 26 nurseries, across 36 classes, involving over 700 children. Thanks to feedback from teachers, the programme has been refined to meet the needs of different types of nurseries and children of various ages. In the 2025/2026 school year, the programme was run in 102 nursery schools. In the 2026/2027 school year, 109 nursery schools are taking part.
Cooperation with national parks and protected areas
DAPHNE networked the participating nurseries with conservationists and environmental education experts from national parks and protected areas. They provide excursions in nature or visit the nurseries.
Through these field trips or in-class programmes, they build on what the children have already learnt with their teachers through ‘Move Your Paws’ programme, adding value in the form of natural materials such as feathers, insect specimens or a dormouse’s nest, expert skills such as imitating bird calls and playfully guided visits of natural habitats.
Field trip to the river with experts from Malá Fatra National Park
Field trip to the peatland with the expert from Tatra National Park
An expert from Cerová vrchovina Protected Area showing a dormouse nest to children
Move Your Paws for parents and public
Some of the materials are available online through Move Your Paws and Príroda pre všetkých websites so that parents of young children and the wider public can use them. DAPHNE promotes these materials in the media and social media – for example, through collaboration with an influencer – as well as via information stands at public events and festivals. DAPHNE also prepared three pilot field trips to Natura 2000 sites for families.
Field trip for families to Šúr SCI in cooperation with Malé Karpaty Protected Area
Field trip to caves and Drienčanský kras SCI organized by Cerová vrchovina Protected Area
A replicable model
The Move Your Paws approach provides a transferable model that can be adapted to different geographical contexts and biodiversity themes. By combining movement, play and nature discovery, it offers a practical pathway for creating stronger emotional connections between children and the natural world – an essential foundation for future biodiversity conservation. If you would like to replicate this model in your country, community or protected natural site contact us at rozhyblabky@daphne.sk.
About DAPHNE
The Daphne Institute of Applied Ecology was founded in 1993 and focuses on applied research, nature conservation and environmental education. It has long been committed to the restoration of habitats that have been disturbed and are under threat.
For more than 25 years, DAPHNE has been running environmental education programmes and field trips – primarily in nurseries and primary schools – using experiential, exploratory and playful approaches. Around 30,000 to 40,000 children take part in these each year. The ‘Move Your Paws’ programme is therefore based on our many years of experience.
Illustrated by © Lucia Zednikovičová, 2024, 2025