Teach Outdoors

Megan Zeni is a Master Gardener, PhD student and school garden expert who works for the Richmond School District.  In today's episode, she shares with us some of her best secrets and tips on how to set up core routines with her learners at the beginning of the year (such as the Waiting Tree, to help with exit and entry transitions!). 

Megan is a strong advocate for outdoor learning because it supports learners having a positive growth mindset, develops patience and promotes equity.  It allows learners, who may struggle to represent their learning in a “traditional” way , to move freely and make decisions that are best suited for them, which in turn, provides them with more autonomy over their learning, 

One of my favourite insights that Megan shares with us is how she explicitly introduces activities that can turn into station work. This gradual release of responsibility highlights how important classroom management strategies are, both indoors and outdoors! 

Megan also gives us some suggestions on how to use outdoor learning spaces for when fall transitions into winter.  Have you ever thought of having a 'Bug Hotel'?! Or a Mud Kitchen – link here. https://meganzeni.com/build-a-mud-kitchen/

Novelty Nature Notes:

I shared about inchworms because I’m just getting covered in them when I go walking in the forest lately.  They also go by other names, such as measuring worm, oak looper, leaf roller, and spring cankerworms.  I was reading that they are only here for about 4-5 weeks before they burrow into the ground and then we’ll see them again in the fall as geometer moths.

Megan shared about growing corn with her learners.  They plant POPCORN! Have you ever noticed that each silk thread is attached to a kernel of corn - if there are kernels missing, then the silk wasn't pollinated by a bee! 

The start of the year is the perfect time to have this collaborative discussion. How to create outdoor learning bins? How do they support both structured lessons and emergent learning at the same time? What could we include in the bins? 
Sinead Joy and Erin Reid are with us today to talk about their experiences in creating and using outdoor learning bins with a mathematical focus. Their school, with the help of funding from Coquitlam District's Numeracy Initiative Project, created 6 outdoor learning bins.
1) Measurement: cloth measuring tapes
2) Number Senses: addition and subtraction focus. Tarps with dots and number values. (e.g., students could throw a bean bag or pinecone and add or subtract that number from their original number).
3) Patterns: included Andy Goldsworthy books and other pictures of nature patterns
4) Financial Literacy: a bin for pricing out the cost for a school garden and also included seed catalogues
5) Visual/Spatial Reasoning and Coding: compass and arrows
6) Number Sense/ Number Lines: twine, clothes pegs and various numbers.

Also included in their teacher wagon: binoculars, clipboards, waterproof pens, large plastic Venn diagram hoops for sorting activities. 

Today we have two guests with us today to talk about how this past school year went, what did they learn, and what are the goals that we are looking forward to tackling next year. 

Carly Eirikson is a VP at Ecole Herbert Spencer Elementary, In New Westminster, she has her Masters of Education in Special Education and spent 4 years of her career as an educational consultant for POPARD supporting students with autism all over British Columbia.  

Twitter: @ceirikson

Instagram: all_of_us_outside

What worked well?

Seeing students’ creativity go in unique directions when learning outdoors.  Carly also incorporated technology skills when learning in nature.   

What are your goals next year?

Focus on the connection to self, others and place. 

Story Workshop in connection with the ADST curriculum, especially the design aspect (e.g., Nature Design)

What resources will you use to support those goals?

Outdoor Learning Store (link here) has so many resources! 
Place-Based Education: Connecting Classrooms and Communities by David Sobel.  
Natural Curiosity by Doug Anderson.  
Engaging Imagination in Ecological Education by Gillian Judson. 
Adrienne Gear’s Building a Sense of Connection to self, others, community, place through indigenous stories. 

April Pikkarainen is a VP at Gilmore elementary in Richmond, she has a Masters of Education in Self-Regulated Learning.  Her passion is in early learning and nature immersion.

Twitter: @april_pikk

Instagram: aprilpikkarainen

What worked well?
 
Helping kids understand what they need in order to move their learning forward.  April uses the framework: what is my job, what are the steps to get my job done, what do I need to do next? She also noticed a deeper connection between learners and the land after visiting the same places repeatedly over the course of the year.  

What are your goals next year?

Nurturing and deepening the learners’ connection to land and re-creating our narrative with our relationship to the land.  

Professional goal is to focus on having a lens of diversity, equity and inclusion through outdoor learning. 

What resources will you use to support those goals?

Using Coyote’s Guide to Connecting with Nature by Jon Young

Lost Art of Reading Nature’s Signs by Tristan Gooley 

One Story One Song by Richard Wagamese

The Goodness of Rain by Ann Pelo

Today’s episode is about how to utilize the outdoor learning spaces on your schoolgrounds in relation to our BC curriculum.  We will also discuss how school districts can support and encourage the adoption of outdoor learning routines.  To help guide our conversation we have two educators from East Kensington Outdoor Learning School or EKOlogy which is a K-5 school in the Surrey District. 
Twitter: @EKOLogy_sd36

They give some great tips on how to utilize your spaces and who you need to have "onboard" to help out.   

Alison Leslie is the Vice-Principal and K/1/2 teacher working at East Kensington Elementary Outdoor learning program in SD36.  Twitter: @Alimleslie

Cheryl is a passionate advocate for environmental stewardship in education. She has been lead teacher at East Kensington since the inception of the EKOLogy program four years ago, teaching kindergarten, grade 1 &  2. Cheryl is currently the Vice President of SEED36 (Surrey Ecological Educators of District 36) Twitter: @cherleclerc

Novelty Nature Notes:

Cheryl shared about orca whales near Saturna Island – first whale captured and brought into inner harbours so it could be studied.  The Killer Whale that Changed the World book.  

Allison shared about banana slugs and how their natural mucus has anaesthetic in it – can make your tongue go numb. Yikes! 

I shared about black bears and how they breed every other year, they can have up to 6 cubs who can stay with their moms til about 18 months old.  Their tracks have the deepest impression on the outside. This makes sense when you watch them waddle – they really sway from side to side.  Whereas most animals and humans – our weight usually falls to the inside of our bodies, rotating in.  

Kate Dawson and Emily Vera are the founders of Terra Nova Nature School. 

Twitter: @tnnatureschool 

Terra Nova Website: https://terranovanatureschool.com/programs/preschool/

In this episode, Kate and Emily talk about the intricacies of place-based work and how that plays into their curriculum planning in their outdoor school.  They also talk about the delicate balance between planning your lessons and emergent learning and provide a few lovely examples to highlight their work in this area.  I was also keen to ask them about the materials they bring with them on their explorations, and they provide many examples of using open-ended materials to promote and support emergent learning.  The heart of their message was asking: “How do we explore mysteries with children? What is the core that is captivating our learners?”

Our guest tonight is Katherine Porter (@Katporter04) who is a K/1 teacher in the Richmond School District. She is a Reggio-inspired teacher who is passionate about play-based learning. Katherine also loves spending time exploring and learning outdoors. This love for nature has inspired her to take her teaching outside whenever possible. Katherine is excited to continue learning alongside her students, and explore what new possibilities lie waiting for outdoor learning. 

Kat is organizing her week around the 5 senses.  For example, on Day 1 they were inspired by hearing -  "Let’s listen to the sounds of nature."  

As you listen to Kat talking about her plans for the week and then debriefing after the week was complete, you get a sense of how comfortable she is with taking the lead from her learners and not being too strict with following her lesson plans.  A great example of emergent learning! 

Novelty Nature Note:

Kat shared how she has used dandelions to make tea and shortbreads!

With the heat wave we’ve been experiencing in BC, I’ve been reading a lot about how to keep your lawns healthy.  Keeping your grass height around 3” will encourage water retention as well as support a deeper root system.  

Our guest today is Jenna Rudolph who is the founder of Soaring Eagle Nature School.  www.soaringeaglenatureschool.org 

Today’s episode is sponsored by Wilderness Awareness School.  They are committed to helping children and adults establish healthy relationships with nature, community, and self. They offer a variety of programs in the foothills of the Cascades, outside of Seattle.

Their 9-month immersion program is a transformative experience for adults, covering everything from self-discovery to survival skills. You can also learn to become a Coyote Mentor, their signature art of mentoring children in nature with their 9-month Nature Instructor Training. 

Wilderness Awareness School also runs workshops and intensives, youth programs, and the Kamana Independent Naturalist Study Program. Learn more today at wildernessawareness.org.

We begin our conversation by talking about birds and bird language.  Jenna recommends choosing 5 local birds and learn their songs, habitats, and what they like to eat. It’s a good idea to select ground feeders so that you’re more likely to see them. 

We tackle many questions together:

Birds: How can we observe and use bird behaviour to tell us what’s happening in our environment? What do bird songs tell us? What about their alarm call? Do birds of different species communicate with one another? What is the relationship between food sources and locations of specific bird species throughout the year? What are the 5 types of bird language?

Did you know we can hear better when our ears are off-center? Tilt your head and you can hear better. A lesson we can learn from our local American Robins.  

Local BC Birds: American Robin, Pacific Wren, Spotted Towhee, Dark Eyed Junco, Song Sparrow. They stay here on the coast all year round.  

Plants: How can we get our learners more excited to learn about our local plants? What patterns do you see?  Which plants produce fruit? Jenna shares an example of using a string of questions to use alongside her learners to help them observe different parts of plants to help identify it.  

Local BC Plants: Dandelion, Plantain, Salmonberry, Blackberry

Novelty Nature Note:

Jenna shared her favourite forest tea recipe to make with her learners:western hemlock needles, douglas fir needles, licorice fern (sweetness!) and salal leaves. Boil and sit for 5 minutes. 

I shared about thimbleberries. When you pick the red fruit, it leaves behind a core which looks like a thimble. Hence the name J

Kelly Shuto is a K/1 teacher in the Surrey district as well as a k-2 math mentor. She has contributed to our BC curriculum resource site by sharing her in-depth documentation and examples of how the core competencies live in our classrooms. She is also a children’s book author! Her first book, one of my toddler’s favourites, is titled What Does it Mean to be Brave.  You will often find her presenting workshops on how to use the core competencies to create a deeper sense of self in the primary grades.   

Twitter: @keshuto

Instagram: kellyshutobooks and kellyshuto

This episode is sponsored by Wilderness Awareness School.  They are  committed to helping children and adults establish healthy relationships with nature, community, and self. They offer a variety of programs in the foothills of the Cascades, outside of Seattle.

Their 9-month immersion program is a transformative experience for adults, covering everything from self-discovery to survival skills. You can also learn to become a Coyote Mentor, their signature art of mentoring children in nature with their 9-month Nature Instructor Training.

Wilderness Awareness School also runs workshops and intensives, youth programs, and the Kamana Independent Naturalist Study Program. Learn more today at wildernessawareness.org.

Our British Columbia curriculum has a unique aspect to it.  The core competencies are something we do not “assess” but we help guide students to develop them throughout the year.  These include persona/social competencies, thinking competencies, and communication competencies.  The Core Competencies don’t live on a piece of paper.  They live within us.  Kelly illustrates how we can use the outdoors as a place to help develop and support our core competencies.  

Kelly also talks about a fascinating inquiry that her learners investigated this year - “How does the forest act like a family?” How are the trees and roots similar to our support systems that we have in our own families and communities?

Kelly is masterful when it comes to documenting student learning so our discussion naturally progressed to talking about how she captures magical moments when she’s outdoors with her learners.  

Resources: 

Can You Hear the Trees Talking by Peter Wohlleben

Suggested apps to use when documenting learning:

Clips

PicCollage

Shadow Puppets

Novelty Nature Note:

Kelly shared: How do trees fight? If 2 trees of the same species are beside each other, then the roots will join together and exclude the roots of other tree species growing around them.  

Lauren shared: More than half the tree roots grow within the top 6 inches of the soil.  That’s one of the reasons why tree roots grow out laterally so far.  

Today’s episode is to help shed light on a very important topic here in Canada.  I do want to front load all of the listeners that there is some graphic and disturbing content in the intro of this podcast.  

Our country has a tragically sad history when it comes to the treatment of Indigenous people. Recently, the remains of 215 children were discovered at the Kamloops Indian Residential school.  Our guest today, Nadine McSpadden, has a personal connection with this school and graciously agreed to speak with us to help open up these difficult conversations. 

Please consider making a donation to the Indian Residential School Survivor Society: 

https://www.irsss.ca

Nadine McSpadden: 

-       Secwepemc Nation, Shuswap Indian Band

-       Helping Teacher for Aboriginal Learning, Surrey School District

-       My dream is that every teacher participates in reconciliation.  I love how the Early Childhood Framework defines reconciliation and this is how I interpret their definition.  We heal relationships by valuing Indigenous Peoples.  We show value by forging personal connections, by showcasing authentic resources in all areas of the curriculum and by making a commitment to participate in community events where we build background knowledge about the people of who’s traditional territories we reside.  By creating these relationships, we can redefine how schools are perceived by those who have been hurt.  School can become a place where Indigenous knowledge is celebrated and where diversity of language and culture is recognized.  

-       Twitter: @NadineMcSpadden

Nadine begins by guiding us through how to make land acknowledgments more personal and authentic.  She speaks to “How are we unique? And how are we similar to other cultures?” 

 “How can we make our schools a safe place to be?” Let’s begin by looking at the resources in our schools – are they inclusive, authentic and respectful?  

Who has the right to share stories? Teachers have the responsibility to do their due diligence; there are some things that aren’t meant to be shared. 

Resources: 

Saanich moon kit: https://sites.google.com/sd63.bc.ca/sd63indigenoused/resource-kits/the-saanich-year-resource-kit

Surrey School District’s Aboriginal resources for teachers: https://aboriginalresourcesforteachers.weebly.com

A website Nadine created for outdoor learning:  https://aboriginalresourcesforteachers.weebly.com/outdoor-learning.html   

Many Voices One mind https://www.manyvoicesonemind.ca/

Samples of Language Books 

-       Stand Like Cedar – Nicola Campbell 

-       Metis Series – Fiddle Dancer (dual language book), The Christmas Mittens, Metis New Year and many more)

Websites that support First Nation Language/story

-       Firstvoices.org (each language page has stories, songs and vocabulary to learn)

-       CBC Kids (great videos on What is a Pow Wow, What is Regalia and many more)

Strong Nations: https://www.strongnations.com

-       Order the Pacific Northwest Plant cards here  

FNESC (First Nation Education Steering Committee): http://www.fnesc.ca

Chris Green, our guest today, is the Director of The Guelph Outdoor School in Ontario, Canada. 

Website: https://www.theguelphoutdoorschool.com/about

Facebook: The Guelph Outdoor School

Instagram: @TheGuelphOutdoorSchool 

We begin by talking about how to make land acknowledgements more personal and authentic.  Chris suggests that we can do this by thinking about our relationship to the land. 

Guelph Outdoor School was inspired by the book Coyote’s Guide to Connecting with Nature, by Jon Young.  Why? Because it’s an attributes based curriculum that prepares learners with practical skills (like cardinal directions) but also ‘soft skills’ (like learning about cooperation).  

Chris also talks about how we live in an era that is ‘information rich but connection poor.’ He believes that outdoor school not only helps disrupt this trend but it also helps to rebuild our connection and relationships with our land and community.  

Chris describes how to use the Art of Questioning with your learners.  He paints a picture of finding a balance with the different levels of questions that you ask.  

Level 1: confidence building, observable, simple.  E.g., “What colour is the mallards head over there?” 

Level 2: digging a bit deeper, have to explore a little bit more to gather more information, expanded observation, inquisitive focus. E.g., “What direction is the worm track going? Are you sure? How do you know?” 

Level 3: extension questions that sometimes can’t be answered. E.g., “How does this worm see where it’s going?”

There’s nothing wrong, however, with giving answers and information.  In fact, there’s a common saying: “never throw seeds at unprepped soil…but if the soil is prepped, then give the seeds.” 

Chris ends our time by talking about the importance of planning for down time – he calls it “making time for timelessness!” 

Novelty Nature Note: 
*you can determine the age of a sand dollar by counting the rings on it, like you do with a tree.
*a woodpecker can coil it's tongue around it's brain!