Invitation to Learn Through Nature
The importance of an outdoor classroom
“Believe me, you will find more lessons in the woods than in books. Trees and stones will teach you what you cannot learn from masters.”
-St. Bernard of Clairvaux
Loose Parts
Our classroom is the outdoors. Our curriculum is inspired by the trees, leaves, dirt, moss, and your child’s imagination. Each day, there are materials and objects laid out as an invitation to learn, explore, expand their thinking, problem solve, and work collaboratively with their peers. The materials are very purposeful and planned out in relation to the children’s interests and our learning topics and themes. This type of “loose parts play” offers the children another opportunity to use their creative thinking skills to build, create, engineer, and each day they can be used differently! It is up to the child and the challenges given by the teacher to help expand the child’s thinking and problem-solving skills.
Nature is Engaging
Not only is the curriculum inspiring and imaginative, but it is engaging their brains ALL day in many different ways. As they navigate through our outdoor classroom, the sounds, sights, smells, and the many different textures are constantly changing, and this is telling the brain to fire and create new pathways. When the child’s brain is constantly creating new pathways, they are learning and able to retain more of the information they are given with less exposure. With the influx of new pathways, it better equips children to handle more complex challenges and drastically improves their academics.
Not only are there many benefits of the outdoor classroom because of the connections and perceptions changing and creating new pathways; but, it is SO beneficial for their health. They are breathing in fresh air-therefore getting in more oxygen-therefore allowing more blood flow to their body and their brain-therefore allowing them to think clearer, improve cognitive functioning, enhance their balance, boost their immune system, and they will just FEEL BETTER. Yes, this even has a major benefit to your child’s mental health. Being connected to the Earth and nature has evidence in increasing the production of the “happy hormone” (serotonin). This will decrease stress and depression and also allow more room for improvements in academics, but most importantly, their quality of life.
Health Benefits
Authentic and Real World Learning
As a previous public school teacher, one of the things that was always so challenging, was teaching about a topic and not being able to teach it “first hand”. For example, teaching pollination in 2nd grade. We read amazing books that were great for their grade level, we watched short little animated videos that did an excellent job of explaining it in “kid-language”, we even tried a mock pollination with Cheetos and cute little bee and flower cut-outs to mimic the process (kudos to my amazing 2nd grade team sharing this great idea with me). BUT, did we actually have the time to go outside and just observe the pollinators? Did we get a chance to see what happens when a zucchini plant gets pollinated and is starting to grow a vegetable…and then how to harvest it…just to do it again next year and see the full life-cycle? Nope. It was so disheartening not being able to teach more things with authentic learning instead of behind the text or a video. Additionally, it is not just learning about the pollinators first hand, but the MAJOR impact that the pollinators have on our garden, our city, and even our world. There are so many things that children need to be able to experience with authentic learning so they can see things full circle. They become so much more knowledgeable in the real world and will have more opportunity to become a more well-rounded learner.
