Forest Kids

Forest Kids
Outward Bound Canada are reaching out to schools with kids
who don’t have access to cottages or summer camps and helping
connect them with nearby nature through regular hikes and playbased
activities.
It’s an example of “forest school ideals” in an urban environment,
says Evergreen program director Cam Collyer.
But finding a location is only a starting point. Equally important
is the role of teachers and early childhood educators.
Enid Elliot chuckles as she recalls one of the first local newspaper
stories about Sangster Elementary’s Nature Kindergarten. The
illustration featured a desk plopped in the middle of a forest.
“That’s not what we’re trying to do,” she says, shaking her corkscrew
curls.
Forest kindergarten isn’t about moving classroom dynamics
outside. It’s a different way of teaching and learning, a process
driven by the children. “It’s your confidence to be a learner alongside
the children, it’s about sharing the power,” says Britain’s Jon
Cree, a certified forest school leader who has taught more teachers
than he can remember.
Instructors don’t have to know every species of tree and flower
or be environmental experts. But they do have to be willing to give
up dictating the lessons and instead support children’s queries and
act as guides.
Nature Kindergarten teacher Lisa Lockerbie goes where the
children take her. She was trained to keep her eye on “prescribed
learning outcomes”— in other words, results. But in the forest,
once her students are caught up in a topic, whether it’s snails or
clouds, she can harness their enthusiasm and incorporate literacy,
math, science and problem solving.
“If you know the curriculum well, then you spot the opportunities,”
she says. “It’s been a change for me. But it’s way easier than I
thought it would be. The kids are further ahead because it’s all so
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