Outdoor Learning Highlight: Pleasant Ridge Waldorf School

Photo by Drew Shonka

With school now in session and a couple of weeks under students' and teachers' belts, we thought it would be exciting to highlight some of the great outdoor learning we know schools in our community are embracing.  

Our first stop:  Pleasant Ridge Waldorf School!

This fall students at Pleasant Ridge Waldorf School (PRWS) meet with their classmates and teachers in fully outdoor open-air classrooms based at the school's Growing for Good  greenhouse facility (formerly the Flower Basket), on their playground, in their outdoor kindergartens or their one-acre woodlot, all right in the city of Viroqua.  

When schools closed last spring in response to the coronavirus pandemic parents and faculty at PRWS formed a back-to-school task force that worked all summer to find safe and effective ways to bring students and teachers back to the classroom.

Robin Kottke, PRWS Development Director says, "Our primary goals this year include in-person learning and doing our part to keep our school and broader communities safe and well. Meeting outdoors is a great way to do both!  The opportunity to add open-air classrooms and integrate outdoor education more fully into our curriculum has no doubt been a silver lining of these challenging times.  We hope to sustain our outdoor learning commitment well beyond these pandemic times."

Photo by Drew Shonka

Learning outdoors can take many shapes, from a free-reading hour sitting in the grass to doing third grade science in the local park, to spending entire days learning outdoors, we know that one thing is always true: the impact on children's health and well being, academic performance and development are overwhelmingly positive. Now, in the midst of a worldwide pandemic, parents and educators are calling for schools to take class outdoors. And PRWS is doing just that!

Photo by Drew Shonka

Carrie Treviranus, PRWS Grade 5 Teacher, reflects on the first two weeks, "What I like about outdoor learning is the way we enter into our activity, deeply and fully, because that is what we have prepared for and gathered for. There is actually less distraction. We do less darting about here and there, doing a little bit of this and a little bit of that. We open our books, unroll our pencil rolls, and settle in for a steady go of it. This is what we have nourished ourselves for, carefully dressed and packed our bags, and arrived at these remote spaces to do. It’s game on, and this is our work: to be present. Nature invites us to be awake."

Photo by Drew Shonka

 

If you are an educator or community member who would like more information about how to connect your school with KVR's education outreach program, please send an email to kickapoo.reserve@gmail.com. We can customize support to meet your needs during this challenging time.