The Suffolk County Farm and Education Center’s mission is to provide hands-on research-based learning to all residents with themes in agriculture, animal sciences, history, STEM, healthy living, and life skills in a unique year-round learning environment and in community spaces. The Farm’s vision is to connect with our agricultural heritage and to pave the way for a bright, healthy, and sustainable future.

Today are venturing to the Little Farmers Preschool!

HERE'S WHAT TO EXPECT FROM THIS EPISODE:

1. Early Childhood Programs​ on the Suffolk County Farm and Education Center
2. Farm Activities
3. Weather on the Farm
4. Hands-on Learning Activities
5.  Learning as a Sensory Experience
6. Nature is the "Third Teacher" ~ Areas of the Farm
7. Emergent Curriculum on the Farm
8. Using Art to Guide Curriculum
9. Outdoor Classroom Tour & Talk pictures

MEET MAIA:

Maia G. Lewis is the Early Childhood Coordinator with Cornell Cooperative Extension at the Suffolk County Farm and Education Center. Her main focus is with the team that designs and implements Little Farmers Preschool, an outdoor play-based program for children 3 - 5 years old. Maia has her bachelor’s degree in early childhood education from Stonehill College and is currently pursuing her Master's degree in Curriculum and Instructional Design at Penn State. She has worked within CCE in numerous different roles over the past ten years; starting as a camp counselor during summer breaks in college. Maia is passionate about creating opportunities to preserve the simple joys of childhood, helping foster children’s relationships with the natural world, and preparing young learners for all aspects of life, not just for kindergarten.

CONTACT MAIA:

• EMAIL: [email protected]
• WEBSITE

Today we are looking at the research around why no one goes outside anymore. It's astonishing!

HERE'S WHAT TO EXPECT FROM THIS MINI-SODE:

• Why Don't Kids Go Outdoors? The Research
• What's happening to our children?
• How can we unpack the challenging issues?

CONNECT WITH VICTORIA:

• FREE Seedling Newsletter
• WEBSITE: www.outdoor-classrooms.com
• EMAIL: [email protected]
• Instagram: instagram.com/outdoor_classrooms/
• Facebook: Facebook.com/OutdoorClassrooms1

OUTDOOR CLASSROOM RESOURCES:

• The Outdoor Classrooms CIRCLE Membership
• The Outdoor Teaching Bootcamp
• Seeds of Inspiration for Outdoor Learning Card Deck

If you are a public school educator, you are in for a treat! In this episode, we have Peter Dargatz sharing the incredible evolution of his public school kindergarten transformed into a nature kindergarten.

HERE'S WHAT TO EXPECT FROM THIS EPISODE:

1. Education Evolution
2. A Radical Redesign
3. The Power and Possibility of Play
4. The Four P's
5. Onward and Upward

MEET PETER:

While his claim to fame might be as a retired racing sausage for the Milwaukee Brewers, Peter Dargatz is prouder for being a father of three nature-loving children, a national board-certified teacher, and the coordinator of a well-respected, public school nature kindergarten program at Woodside Elementary in Sussex, Wisconsin. Transitioning his classroom from the inside to the outside has allowed him to create and develop his “4P’s” philosophy, focusing on play-based, place-based, project-based, and personalized learning. This philosophy’s foundations are cemented in play, citizen science, service learning, and community collaborations.

Along with the nature kindergarten program. Peter is the coordinator for an all-school collaboration with the Retzer Nature Center and a district-wide family nature club. He is also the volunteer coordinator for the Ice Age Trail Alliance’s Tyke Hike program, aimed at getting families of young children out in nature using Wisconsin’s Ice Age National Scenic Trail. Additionally, he is a founding member of the Wisconsin Nature-Based Early Childhood Association (WINBECA), a board member of the Wisconsin Association for Environmental Education, a contributing author to Natural Start Alliance’s Nature-Based Preschool Professional Practice Guidebook, and a regular columnist for Play & Playground magazine. Peter’s first book, Teaching Off Trail, was released by Redleaf Press in November 2021.

CONTACT PETER:

• EMAIL: [email protected]
• WEBSITE: https://www.peterdargatz.com/

This entire month we are enjoying our Author Series. In this episode, we are talking with Rusty Keeler, author of his newest book, The Adventures of Risky Play: What is Your Yes?

HERE'S WHAT TO EXPECT FROM THIS EPISODE:

1. What is Risky Play?
2. What do Adventure Playgrounds look like?
3. What about the parents?
4. Risk vs. Hazard
5. Risk and Developmental Ages and Stages

MEET RUSTY

Rusty Keeler is an artist and play designer living among the hills and woods outside Ithaca, NY. Rusty worked as a playground equipment designer for BigToys in Olympia, WA, and Speelhout in The Netherlands before starting his own business in 1996, Planet Earth Playscapes, designing natural landscapes for play. He is also the author of Natural Playscapes: Creating Outdoor Play Environments for the Soul. (Exchange Press: 2008) When not knee-deep in mud building playscapes, he can be found knee-deep in mud playing. Visit his website at www.earthplay.net. You will also find out more about Rusty on his speaker website: rustykeeler.com:

CONNECT WITH VICTORIA:

• FREE Seedling Newsletter
• WEBSITE: www.outdoor-classrooms.com
• EMAIL: [email protected]
• Instagram: instagram.com/outdoor_classrooms/
• Facebook: Facebook.com/OutdoorClassrooms1

OUTDOOR CLASSROOM RESOURCES:

• The Outdoor Classrooms CIRCLE Membership
• The Outdoor Teaching Bootcamp
• Seeds of Inspiration for Outdoor Learning Card Deck

This entire month we are enjoying our Author Series. In this episode, we are talking with Rachel Tidd, author of Wild Learning: Practical Ideas for Bringing Teaching Outdoors

HERE'S WHAT TO EXPECT FROM THIS EPISODE:

1. Rachels Story
2. Forest Pre-Schools
3. Attention, Motivation, & Going Outside
4. Zones of Accessibility
5. Inspiring Simplicity

MEET RACHEL:

Rachel Tidd is the author of Wild Learning: Practical Ideas for Bringing Teaching Outdoors (Jossey-Bass/Wiley 2023) and the Wild Math® and Reading Curriculums®. She is passionate about integrating the outdoors and natural materials in core academic areas such as reading and math. Prior to founding Wild Learning®, Rachel gained extensive teaching experience as an elementary and special education teacher and through homeschooling her two children. She is a doctoral student in Educational Sustainability at the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point and holds a Master’s degree in Elementary and Special Education from Bank Street College of Education. You can find her at discoverwildlearning.com and on Instagram and Facebook @discoverwildlearning.

CONNECT WITH VICTORIA:

• FREE Seedling Newsletter
• WEBSITE: www.outdoor-classrooms.com
• EMAIL: [email protected]
• Instagram: instagram.com/outdoor_classrooms/
• Facebook: Facebook.com/OutdoorClassrooms1

OUTDOOR CLASSROOM RESOURCES:

• The Outdoor Classrooms CIRCLE Membership
• The Outdoor Teaching Bootcamp
• Seeds of Inspiration for Outdoor Learning Card Deck

This month we are enjoying our first Author Series. When I asked Lauren MacLean, author of Me and My Sit Spot, about what inspires her, she said, "I LOVE to read!" Throughout this podcast episode (27) she highlighted several books.

This answer inspired me to go to my bookshelf and pull out 10 books that I want to read and re-read this summer.

1.   Green Teaching: Nature Pedagogies for Climate Change & Sustainability by Clare Warden

2.   Balanced and Barefoot by Angela Hanscom

3.   Children’s Special Places by David Sobel

4.   Nurture Shock by PO Bronson & Ashley Merryman

5.   Vitamin N by Richard Louv

6.   Free to Learn by Peter Gray

7.   Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv

8.   Asphalt to Ecosystems by Sharon Danks

9.   The Walking Curriculum

10.The Open Air Life by Linda McGurk

I have been having a blast with the Outdoor Classrooms Podcast and completely inspired by all the guests that have joined me. Thank you!

Please let me know which authors you would like to hear from and I will reach out and have them on the Podcast on your behalf.

This entire month we are enjoying our Author Series. In this episode, we are talking with Lauren MacLean, author of Me and My Sit Spot.

HERE'S WHAT TO EXPECT FROM THIS EPISODE:

A wonderful conversation about infusing nature into the curriculum and the amazing story behind authoring Me and My Sit Spot. Resources Lauren included are:

1. Megan Zeni
2. Coyote Guide to Connecting with Nature
3. The Big Book of Nature
4. The Walking Curriculum
5. What Does It Mean To Be Brave
6. The Local Bookshelf

MEET LAUREN:

Lauren MacLean is the author of the Amazon Bestseller children's picture book, Me and My Sit Spot, and the host of the Teach Outdoor Podcast. She is a co-founder of the Local Bookshelf, a full-time elementary school teacher, and a part-time outdoor educational consultant and presenter. As a child she struggled to sit still still and learn outdoors was where she felt free to learn. As a child she struggle to sit still and learn outdoors was where she felt free to learn, move and explore while being authentically true to herself. Now. a mom of two young toddlers. Lauren has a passion for exploring nature and modeling how to learn from and with the land.

CONNECT WITH LAUREN:

• Website
• Linked-in
• Instagram
• Email: [email protected]

CONNECT WITH VICTORIA:

• FREE Seedling Newsletter
• WEBSITE: www.outdoor-classrooms.com
• EMAIL: [email protected]
• Instagram: instagram.com/outdoor_classrooms/
• Facebook: Facebook.com/OutdoorClassrooms1

OUTDOOR CLASSROOM RESOURCES:

• The Outdoor Classrooms CIRCLE Membership
• The Outdoor Teaching Bootcamp
• Seeds of Inspiration for Outdoor Learning Card Deck

After interviewing Linda McGurk, author of There's No Such Thing as Bad Weather, I was inspired to design my workcation around creating habits to embrace nature every day.

HERE'S WHAT TO EXPECT FROM THIS EPISODE:

In this mini-episode, we are looking at...

• Inspiration from a 2-week study that included 5 people who were monitored when working from their usual home office for one week and then at an accommodation close to nature — just outside Stockholm — for another week
• Nine Ways to Embrace Nature every day

This month we are digging into our Author Series with Linda McGurk and her book, There's No Such Thing As Bad Weather."

MEET LINDA:

I’m a writer and author who grew up in Sweden, approximately on the same latitude as the Gulf of Alaska but I’ve spent 15 years of my adult life in the US. Since my first daughter was born in 2008, I’ve also spent a large chunk of my time advocating for outdoor play and connecting children with nature.

Most people probably know me as the author of There’s No Such Thing as Bad Weather and The Open-Air Life or as the founder of the blog Rain or Shine Mamma. Both the blog and the books are passion projects born out of my desire to get more kids (and adults!) outside and have engaged hundreds of thousands of parents, educators, and outdoor enthusiasts all over the world.  

Before we dive into our Author Series this month, today we are priming our outdoor teaching practice with a discussion about fostering a growth mindset.

HERE'S WHAT TO EXPECT FROM THIS EPISODE:

In this mini-episode, we are looking at...

• What is an outdoor classroom growth mindset?
• Fixed Mindset vs. Growth Mindset
• Five Tips for Creating a Growth Mindset Teaching Culture