Although Ray Kinsella (played by Kevin Costner) in the movie “Field of Dreams” is told that if he builds a baseball field, the players will come, they do not show up right away and he worries that they will never come.
As a director, I was faced with a similar challenge. I wanted our program to be more intentional for connecting our children with the outdoors. With input from the teaching staff, parents, and support from Nature Explore, we reformatted our “playground” to become a certified Nature Outdoor Classroom (proudly the first school in Massachusetts).
I created what I thought would be effective scaffolding for getting the teaching staff to “show up” and expand their use of our outdoor space. I had the teachers visit programs that were nature schools or outdoor learning oriented. I provided onsite professional development on creating outdoor experiences in different seasons and different kinds of weather. I set aside time for us to create bins of materials for each interest area and for yearly refurbishing. Each class team was asked to be responsible for monitoring the upkeep of materials for one or two areas of our outdoor space.
Whether you are well into the process of expanding your children’s time outdoors or just getting started here are a few takeaways from my journey thus far that I hope will be helpful:
- Guide teachers to recapture a childhood memory of having fun being outdoors. It will help them appreciate and understand the needs of the children to have more undirected time outside.
- There is no bad weather just bad clothing. Be prepared for cold and/or hot weather, not just for the children, but the teaches as well. Make sure you have extra oversized umbrellas, ski pants, boots, hats, and gloves. For the heat you should have extra cool clothes, hats, sunscreen and plenty of water bottles.
- Provide parents a suggested outdoor clothing guide such as this one from Second Nature Design.
- Encourage partnering within teaching teams. Some may prefer warm weather, others may like the snow, and others may not mind wet weather. They can coordinate who will be the point person outside, and who will be doing more of the indoor setup and potty runs.
- When it’s time to hire new staff, I found it helpful to include questions for candidates on their comfort level outdoors. Here are some suggestions from Natural Start Alliance.
- Mantra to use with staff:
- Whatever is done inside can be done outdoors
- Not into nature? No problem. Use the lens of the activity/hobby you most enjoy doing as your conduit for connecting children with nature (art, music, science, math, reading books)-just do it outdoors.
- It’s ok not to like touching worms and bugs. It’s not ok to say “ick” when a child enthusiastically brings one over to show you.
- Children need to get outside every day. When really cold or really hot, that may mean 15-20 minutes
There are many resources and information available for more tips and ideas. They include:
- Natural Start Alliance’s email newsletter
- Facebook pages such as Jewish Natural Outdoor Playgrounds, Nature Preschool ideas, and Curriculum, Nature’s Classroom, Explore the Amazing Nature, Exploring Nature with Children, Provocations
- Attend a nature conference
It is very exciting to realize that nature and forest schools are gaining momentum as a movement across the U.S. and the world. It is not just a “fad”
So when I built it, did they come? Yes, after five years of baby step successes, but oh the joy when it happened! And as any good program, we continued to network, learn, refine and reflect.
Johanna Perlin
Judaic Curriculum Specialist Trust Early Education Center
Temple Ohabei Shalom, Sharon, Mass.
Co-partner of Second Nature Design Consulting
rcketjanet@aol.com
January 2019
