Build an Adventure in Your Forest

This spring students at East Montpelier Elementary School launched the beginning of our most popular ECO lesson to date.  These kindergarten and first graders at EMES were really looking to put their big creative energy to use. We presented the students with a wide variety of tools and inclusions. If you had ropes, buckets, carabiners, and a pulley what could you do? These students jumped in with ideas and focus that turned into The ECO Carnival. Ropes were soon being weaved between trees and buckets hung from various heights. By paying a carnival designer an American Beech leaf,  you could choose from a selection of forest grown games.  Your prize for landing a snowball in a moving bucket? Two large White Pine branches decorated with green twine. A trophy of sorts!

In another, much quieter area of the forest, students pounded charcoal and elderberries in The Pencil Store. Other children silently carved red osier and striped maple branches into pencils with a tool of choice, the Lancashire Potato Peeler.  Paper and journals were brought out of backpacks and soon students were writing letters and secret messages with their new handcrafted pencils with elderberry ink. Deliveries were made by messengers throughout the forest.  Who wants to buy a pencil at The Pencil Store?
 

The Pencil Store is open!

Making charcoal ink

 

Composing a letter

 

 Thanks to the children at EMES we have been wrapping our year in area schools by offering the children “workshop time” in the forest during ECO. We can easily align all the learning that was happening with our new Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards. Force and motion being a very popular one!
Although, that’s not what the teachers were noticing first about their students highly focused participation during these workshop times. The option of choice, self discovery, innovation, trial and error, communication and cooperation with peers,…the list goes on.  Many amazing and creative ideas and projects have sprouted up from this time. A life size Bald Eagle nest, obstacle courses made from willow whips, a chairlift for mice, rope swings, kid sized zip lines and you can’t have a workshop without being properly fed. Dandelion Pancakes anyone?

Dandelion Blossoms for Cooking

Ken makes the best pancakes EVER!

 

Around the fire, we are cooking and relaxing.


 

Community Mapping in Montpelier

Did you know Montpelier, VT, has four churches within three blocks?  Or that there are three dentists in less than a half-mile?  The second graders at Union Elementary made these discoveries, plus many more, as they mapped their route from school to Hubbard Park.  Map-making is a vital tool in helping children to get to know their community and these 50 students put their classroom-based learning into use as they mapped their mile-long trip from U.E.S. to the city park. 

The objectives of this activity was for students to spend time getting to know more about their community and to support the learning happening in the classroom.  The second grade is currently amidst a mapping unit, so the students put their knowledge of orientation, scale, keys, and landmarks to use.  During their two and a half-hour ECO sessions, four second grade classes added landmarks and points of interest to a simple sketch map that their ECO teacher drew up before class.  In teams of two, children drew and wrote details on their map so that someone who had never walked the route before could find their way from the school to the park.  Teachers and parent volunteers guided the discovery, but it was largely student driven.

The snowy weather added for an extra challenge for keeping their map dry, but students were upbeat and curious about their surroundings.

Although these students live in the town and have walked this route many times, they were making discoveries about the town that they had never appreciated before and asking questions.  One student asked, "What's a chiropractor?"  Another student wanted to know what the Rotary club was and why they gave the library benches.  One class had just begun a poetry unit, and so they were asked to record poetic words about the weather, sights in town, and experiences up in the park. 

The teachers were very pleased with their students work.  This activity acted as an informal assessment of what the students had been learning about maps in the classroom.  "I can honestly say that I'm speechless about how well this activity corresponds with the classroom learning," remarked one teacher.  "It is great to see what the students have been learning put into practice." 

Insect Hotels, Potato Peelers, and Spy Cameras?

Collecting materials

Children are scampering about collecting materials along the edge of the field for an Insect Hotel. Arms and backpacks are overflowing with dried grasses, pieces of bark, handfuls of soil, sticks, leaves, and stones.
"I see something red for the hotel! It's a stick! Insects would like that in their hotel. Oh, it's a living a tree. Can we pick some Amy?"
The students have found a large stand of redosier dogwood. They are fascinated by the color and the flashing of red on a bleak November day. I explain it would be okay for us to take a small sample since there is so much. I cut a branch and divide it amongst them. They know this is special and they carefully slide their red stick into their pockets.
The collection and wandering continues for an hour. Many discoveries are made by these scavenging 1st and 2nd graders. A dead poplar tree being visited by woodpeckers, balsam pitch that makes your fingers stick together, and the "AH - Tree" that when it's buds are crushed smells spicy and good.

We haven't even started building yet! And what is an insect hotel anyways?

Insect Hotels are heavy

Many 1st and 2nd graders in Vermont study insects as part of their science curriculum. Within the medium of science students also wrote, sketched, read, and sang all about insects. Lets not forget about math as well! On this ECO day students from Moretown Elementary and East Montpelier Elementary Schools are building winter homes for their insect friends.
Where do insects live? What do insects need in order to survive?  Where do insects go in the winter? Do they hibernate or do they die? By creating a cylinder out of chicken wire students fill the hotel with their collected materials. Through the process of actively building many of these questions get answered and empathy for these small and amazing living creatures deepens.
Students were also guided in safely using potato peelers to whittle green elderberry branches. Safety is taught in small groups and the privilege of using such a new tool is taken seriously by the children. Children become immediately focused on whittling windows and spy cameras for their insects. Their is a comfortable hum of busyness while new motor skills are being practiced. It's peaceful and purposeful. Another hour passes of child led learning and inquiry.

Peeling safely

Soon the hotels are opened for business and a tour begins as each group describes their creations. Hotels with roofs, elevators, porches, 4 floors, dining rooms, windows, beds and indoor pools! Where would you like the stay tonight? How about an Insect Hotel!



A future architect

Open for business!

All Day Outside

Exploring a winter creek

It's another beautiful Monday in Vermont and 30 first grade students are getting ready for a day in Hubbard Park. Each backpack carries a lunch, a water bottle, and a hand crafted mini sled. Every hand, head, foot, and mind is properly prepared for the day ahead. And, yes,...it's February. The outside temperature has climbed to 28 degrees and students are carrying thermometers and a plethora of questions that were generated during morning meeting.

Thermometers in action

How cold is it outside? What is the temperature of the river? Can penguins survive in Hubbard Park? Penguins as we know, do not live in Vermont. But to these first graders at Union Elementary, it is a hot topic because they have been studying penguins through a new math curriculum. Along with penguin math, the students have also been discussing properties of matter and force and motion. What better learning scenario than a day outside in winter? They will encounter a river, a pond, and a mysterious creek moving under ice. A half inch of fresh snow and a layer of hard packed snow turned ice, adds another medium to study. Icicles, frozen puddles, and melting snow under a February sun. We have found the ultimate science laboratory outdoors in the capitol city!

Taking the temperature of the North Branch River

Custom made sled for Piggy

 The concepts of  force and motion is easy enough to experience first hand by sliding bodies down an incline. But, why not construct your own mini-sled with cardboard, plastic, paper, popsicle sticks, and duct tape? Now that's a motivational button for learning! Build your own sled for your favorite small animal or cartoon character. After a few test runs on a carefully groomed surface, children were reconstructing their sleds with more duct tape and objects found close by.
"Hey Amy! I'm gonna tape my water bottle to this sled! Then watch out for how fast it's gonna be!"
Now that's force and motion, first grade style.

Mini sled with jet propellers and a plow

   The day sailed on in a mixture of sun, laughter, snow, idea sharing, questions, tons of observations, and new conclusions. Slow learning is good learning, for it allows for assimilation. This ECO day was planned so that children could move in between "science stations" which offered different degrees of stimuli and multiple ways to be a participant. It may not look slow with all these excited bodies scurrying about, but really,.. it is. All these outdoor provisions that helped to create a day of learning ultimately guided every child to follow their own interests and needs through inquiry based learning. In the end, children experience independence, self organization, participation, and empowerment.

That's 10 am to 2:45pm. No need to go back into the school building today.
We closed our day by having a  sharing circle on the snow covered lawn of Kellogg Hubbard Library.
" What were you most thankful for today?" the teachers asked. Here is what the children shared:

"I am thankful for,....my mini sled because it went fast, the birds singing, being outside, the frozen water that I broke, the fire because it got me warm, my mom, my dad, my teacher, penguins, my friends, nature, the earth and,...I'm just thankful for the whole day!"

All day. Outside. Something to be truly thankful for.

The community is our classroom

If a Child Picks Up a Stick in the Forest,....

 What happens if a child picks up a stick in the forest? It's not a question of if, because they do and they will! When a child does pick one up, what does that stick become? Working with school teachers, this is one of the first concerns of being outside with a classroom of curious children. Do we let them play with sticks? And what does it look, feel, and sound like if 20 children are wielding sticks in the forest? Laying down a rule of "no picking up sticks" is like taking your students to the top of a fresh snowy hill with sleds scattered about and telling them they can't go sledding. What would the point be?
Here is where we break down the barrier of "no sticks" and begin to observe and experience the benefits of allowing children to physically, socially, and emotionally construct their world through stick play.

First, what if we asked the children what they thought? So, we did. In morning meeting we asked students "How would you use sticks in the forest?" The children's reaction was immediate. Hands were raised and bodies were wriggling with ideas and prior knowledge.
We can: build a fort, build a fairy house, build a house to sleep in, make a really big pile, build a fire, make a trap, build a wall to protect us, make a store and sell things,......
Wow. That's a lot of ideas! Notice the use of the word build. Children building things with objects found in their immediate environment is as natural as them learning to walk. Providing space and time to build outdoors expands the experience into a new realm. With more space, it allows for more movement, which creates more language use, and in the end, deeper cognitive development.

The next question we pose to the class is, "How will we do all that building and be safe near our friends?" I ask the children to raise a hand if they have ever been hurt by a stick before. All the children's hands go up. They have all had direct experience with this! The children share with a neighbor and the stories begin to pour out. (Children LOVE and need to share their personal stories. Especially when it connects to the topic at hand. Giving them a chance to share with other classmates strengthens the classroom learning culture and is powerfully inclusive) After a couple minutes of sharing we begin to make our Safe with Sticks list. In all 10 classrooms, the children agreed that sticks are not weapons and we don't hit with sticks. I never had to prompt these two ideas and it was always the first or second rule created by the children! Inevitably, a child grabs the perfectly styled stick and points it at a friend. "Bang! I got you!"
With a simple reminder we're redirected and back to our work.
" Hey friends, remember, we are in a Peace Zone. Let's keep working on that awesome shelter you started building last week!" It has become such regular part of the routine that I know hear children reminding each other of our rules. They are now in charge of their learning and their creations.
I hear children using phrases such as "bubble space" and "safety circle" when moving a stick bigger than themselves. I am also witnessing balance, coordination, development of gross motor skills, and cooperation as three children move a very large branch to add to a debris hut.
Our Safe with Sticks rules are made and students are imagining what they can do with sticks. Now the possibilities grow as the children navigate the landscape of the forest with building plans in mind. With a supportive adult to child ratio and room to roam, here are some examples of what has happened!

Class Stick Sculpture

How does it look?

Building a firewood shed!

Using a saw to cut the perfect length!

The outcomes of all this stick building? Here are just a few,.....developing spatial awareness, decision making, strengthening social and physical skills, building positive interaction and communication skills, learning problem solving strategies, appreciating what your body can do, and for some children it gives them an opportunity to develop control over their behavior and improve concentration by moving, manipulating, and orchestrating objects they have found in nature.
What if a child picks up a stick in the forest?
I guess I would be more concerned if they didn't.

A debris shelter in Hubbard Park built by 1st graders

Frank the River Otter and 12 Kindergartners

Frank in  the classroom 

Who's your favorite river otter? FRANK!
Why do all these Vermont kindergartners love this member of the weasel family so much? Is it his extreme cute face and soft thick brown fur? How about those webbed toes and beady black eyes. And yes, he does have ears! "But,... they're so small! Can Frank hear okay?" the children wonder.
The ooo's and aww's fill the classroom when Frank makes an appearance. No student ever wants to see him go. They have even written him Valentines and "we miss you" notes.
So lets go back to the question, why do small children almost immediately experience empathy with Lontra canadensis? Children love animals, especially ones that have similar characteristics to their own. Children are natural caretakers of living things when adults model this behavior. I also believe it has to do strongly with children's innate connection to play and the river otters as well.

It is a brisk winter morning and a 12 kindergartners are eager for their ECO (Educating Children Outdoors) day. The school children burst out the back door and scamper up a snow covered hill. It doesn't take long for one adventurous being to figure out if you lay down on you belly, head pointed down hill, give a little push with your arms, you'll be sliding with increasing speed to a certain destination.
 As a teacher and a naturalist, I capitalize on the moment for extended learning during play.

12 young river otters

"Hey! You all remind me of my favorite Vermont weasel!"
'"What's a weasel?" a child shouts as they slide away from me. I reach in my back pack and ready at hand is a mammal guide and a photo of a river otter. Children gather round in between sliding to glance at pictures and make comments. Here we are creating a culture of questioning and learning through exploratory play.
It doesn't take long for the children to create a river at the bottom of their slide, scraps of cloth turn into fish. A den is being dug in the hillside with fast hands turned paws. With a little help from the "adult otters", we learn that by clasping your feet together behind you, your legs turn into a powerful otter tail perfect for steering and propelling forward. I mention to my friends that a coyote may be interested in their small fish cache.

"A coyote? Where?" the children become increasingly concerned, their eyes darting across the landscape. Some stand up on two webbed feet and sniff the air. These kindergartners immediately come up with a system to watch over cached fish and a warning system for an incoming coyote. Hmmmm,... all of sudden these children are the wisest humans I know. They work together as a family to protect what they have. These children are totally engaged. Mind, body, and heart.

The scenario of river otter play continues and I make the very adult comment that we should move on to the  next part of our morning. A small river otter turns to me and barks, " No way! We're gonna slide all day! Plus, we're such good hunters, we already got all of our fish for snack!"
Slide on river otters! Slide on!

A 6 year old masters the river otter slide

Inspired research and writing

ECO - Educating Children Outdoors

The ECO program at North Branch Nature Center is a new project that helps reconnect children with the natural world and foster stewardship in their communities.  Through collaboration with public schools, preschools, and daycare facilities, ECO helps to open the doors to the joy of learning outside in all kinds of weather. By using city parks, public lands, and other local green spaces ECO engages children in the natural inquiry based learning of their surrounding environment. Through this type of active learning, children gain a healthy respect for nature and for one another. ECO provides an opportunity for teachers and students to apply integrated academic curricula beyond the classroom to the outdoors for exploration, experimentation, creativity, and personal growth.

 Now in its second year, ECO is working with 10 area school teachers on a weekly and biweekly basis to get their students outside and immersed in the natural world. ECO is not a field trip or a one hour visit to a forest. The students participating in ECO spend 2 ½ to 4 hours exploring a forest, playing games, learning woodcraft skills, journaling, and sharing in a community circle. These experiences happen continously throughout the school year. Rain, shine, and snow are welcomed weather features on any ECO day at public school. Schools have gathered all the needed equipment for their students to be dry and warm for engaged learning outdoors. There’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing!

Not surprising, these days are some children’s favorite day of the week. Singing a song about rain, using ropes to climb a hill, making debris huts, following squirrel tracks in the snow, and boiling water in a Kelly Kettle for tea are all some things a child may experience on an ECO day. Inevitably, with more time spent outside moving and engaging in the natural world, each child develops a sense of themselves and their place in the world. By helping to foster a relationship with nature at an early age, children are given the chance to have a multi-sensory experience that will help them to retain knowledge in a more effective and meaningful way. This old Chinese proverb gives clarity to the purpose of ECO and the ongoing journey of life long learning for all human beings:

Tell me, I forget.

Show me, I remember.

Involve me, I understand. 

If you are interested in learning more about ECO and how to get involved, please contact amy@northbranchnaturecenter.org