Courtesy of Chicago Wilderness
Children and youth spend 6 to 7 hours every weekday at school, which is 35 to 40 hours a week and approximately 1,400 to 1,600 hours per year. While there are plenty of important subjects and lessons to tackle during this time, there are ways to integrate nature into the school day, week, and year.
One of Chicago Wilderness’ initiatives is Leave No Child Inside (LNCI), which promotes the idea that time spent outdoors fosters healthy development and encourages children to become future stewards of the environment. Recent research also suggests that nature can restore attention levels in fatigued children and students. Many teachers and schools throughout the Chicagoland area are taking this message to heart and integrating nature into their lessons, both indoors and outdoors.
One example is Mighty Acorns, a program that works directly with teachers to introduce students to nature and conservation stewardship. Using activities based on education, restoration and exploration, students have an opportunity to create lasting connections to their local environment. Angel Avalos is a 4th grade teacher who has been a part of the Mighty Acorns program for four years. In his guest blog post, Angel emphasizes that connecting classroom lessons to hands-on outdoor experiences gets students excited about science and the natural areas that are nearby their schools and homes. Angel has observed that students are responding with a greater sense of curiosity now that he is using a hands-on methodology. The success of Mighty Acorns is quite apparent in student responses to a recent field trip:
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“I learned that invasive species are bullies and we should cut them down.”
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“This was so fun. I can compare what I learned from last year and this year.”
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“I learned how different things can affect the environment. I felt like I made a huge difference in the environment today. Even a little change can make a big difference in the world!”
Amanda Sanderson, Primary Directress at Alcuin Montessori School, is also dedicated to connecting children to nature. In her role, she encourages teachers to bring students outside to learn about the local environment through simple lessons. Students start by observing the outdoors and then move on to classification of living vs. non-living and plants vs. animals, and finally learn how to identify local plant and animal species. In follow up to the outdoor learning, teachers can incorporate this new knowledge into math, reading and writing activities depending on the age and ability of the students. Below are a few of Amanda’s favorite activities to do just that.
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Observe trees throughout the seasons and make books tracking how a specific tree changes
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Collect and investigate leaf litter to sort based on living/non-living and plant/animal and write descriptions of each species
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Study parts of a flower outdoors and bring some inside to dissect and learn more about specific parts
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Read books about owls and do an owl pellet dissection
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Design and set up a garden plot that the students can use as a “classroom” to learn about and share the living and non-living elements, plants, and animals
It is inspiring to learn about teachers promoting nature in the classroom. These changes are building students’ connections to learn about and explore nature. Whether you are a teacher or parent, there are several simple ways to start encouraging children and youth to treat the outdoors as the the most exciting classroom.
