Increased public awareness about decreases in children's outdoor play time has created support for unstructured outdoor play opportunities for all kids. Research has linked childhood play opportunities with lifelong positive attitudes towards nature and potentially, positive environmental behavior choices as adults. Current efforts have focused on redesigning play spaces and increasing parent awareness to expand children's interactions with natural spaces during informal, non-school times. Formal environmental education programs already include some elements that proponents of unstructured play argue for, but it is unclear how effectively free-play has been integrated into these programs. In cases where unstructured play opportunities have been incorporated, their success may not have been evaluated. My research focused on uncovering current limitations for unstructured play implementation in formal environmental education settings, identifying opportunities for inclusion into existing EE curriculum, and proposing best practices for successful unstructured nature play implementation and evaluation in formal EE settings.