Outdoor Learning Highlight: North Crawford Schools

Teachers and students around the country (and world!) are getting outdoors during school hours to do some of their work. And while we've known for years (long before this pandemic) that learning outdoors has many benefits, it is always so inspiring to see it first hand.

This week's outdoor learning highlight:  North Crawford Schools

Perhaps no one says it better than North Crawford Art Teacher, Brandie Myhre. "As a PreK-12 art teacher, I love taking all of my students, from varying ages and classes, outdoors to learn. It is amazing to watch nature provoke curiosity, and how observation becomes the forefront of learning. The world is limitless, and we are free to be gobbled up by nature. Taking a big, deep breath becomes easier, and life is less about the work that we have to do, and more about the work that we want to do. There is more joy, more laughter, and more time for unstructured play."

Here is one way Brandie is engaging her high school students outdoors.  Blind Photography! High school students taking photography class have been spending time outside in the school garden, using their senses to capture images. Inspired by the work of Pete Eckert, students closed their eyes and used touch, smell, and hearing to find objects to turn into compelling captures with their iPads. In this photo, a student is slowly moving around the garden, using his hands to guide him to an interesting subject. This photography class will continue to utilize the outdoor spaces for shooting macro and landscape photography in the coming months. 

North Crawford's Pre-K class consistently utilizes the outdoor space and sets up daily in the school garden to conduct class. In this photo, Pre-K students in art class are using crayons as a resist to make designs on a sheet of paper. The following week students will use watercolors to paint over the crayon, and attach streamers, and roll their paper to create a windsock! 

2nd Grade Plant ID 

Mrs. Kruizenga's 2nd grade class talked about chlorophyll in the leaves and why they change colors, after which the class spent time in the school forest using the Seek app to identify plant species.

2nd Grade Hill Rolling

And best of of all? After plant identification, students enjoy unstructured play! 

Students and teachers everywhere are experiencing the joys of learning outdoors.  

"Teaching outside allows kids to experience the natural world in an authentic way, to inquire about, explore and answer their own questions. They experience joy, comradery and a level of comfort not always found in a building. The outdoor classroom lends itself to children not having to depend on the teacher entirely to present a subject or topic, explain how to explore it and ask questions that may otherwise seem arbitrary and meaningless to a young mind. They are free to learn in their own way." Jamie Bearrows - North Crawford Interventionist - Reading Specialist 

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.