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Welcome
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0-1: A Welcome Note from Victoria 30 minLecture1.1
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0-2: Good Things to Know 30 minLecture1.2
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0-3: Why Literacy Outdoors? 30 minLecture1.3
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0-4: Ideas to Kick Start Your Literacy Garden 30 minLecture1.4
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0-5: Supply List for Reading, Writing, Listening, and Talking Outdoors 30 minLecture1.5
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Module 1: Gardens that Feed
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1-1: Welcome to The Gardens that Feed 30 minLecture2.1
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1-2: Gather Seeds of Inspiration 30 minLecture2.2
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1-3: Plant Literacy Ideas 30 minLecture2.3
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1-4: Grow Literacy Activities 30 minLecture2.4
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1-5: Harvest Curriculum-on-the-Go Kits 30 minLecture2.5
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Module 2: Gardens as Outdoor Learning Stations that Inspire Themes
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2-1: Welcome to Gardens as Outdoor Learning Stations that Inspire Themes 30 minLecture3.1
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2-2: Gather Seeds of Inspiration 30 minLecture3.2
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2-3: Plant Literacy Ideas 30 minLecture3.3
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2-4: Grow Literacy Activities 30 minLecture3.4
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2-5: Harvest Literacy Curriculum Kits 30 minLecture3.5
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LIVE Workshop #1Lecture3.6
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Module 3: Gardens that Attract Wildlife
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3-1: Welcome The Gardens that Attract Wildlife 30 minLecture4.1
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3-2: Gather Seeds of Inspiration 30 minLecture4.2
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3-3: Plant Literacy Ideas 30 minLecture4.3
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3-4: Grow Literacy Activities 30 minLecture4.4
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3-5: Harvest Literacy Curriculum Kits 30 minLecture4.5
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Module 4: Gardens for Beauty and Art
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4-1: Welcome to The Gardens for Beauty and Art 30 minLecture5.1
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4-2: Gather Seeds of Inspiration 30 minLecture5.2
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4-3: Plant Ideas 30 minLecture5.3
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4-4: Grow Activities 30 minLecture5.4
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4-5: Harvest Curriculum Kits 30 minLecture5.5
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LIVE Workshop #2Lecture5.6
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59 Comments
As a requirement of reopening our child care we have to observe social distancing with the kids, and I am trying to find as many activities that I can to make their day as fun as possible and the idea of curriculum kits for each child will be a great addition to my toolbox.
Ready for the planting adventure with the planting kit in the backpack. You can prepare different seeds too.
Love the idea of a curriculum backpack on the go, it would be great to use when we go for nature walks and the children can draw what they see during our walk.
It will make your life a lot easier!
I really like the Curriculum on the Go Kit. I am not able to put mine together at this time because of what’s happen, but I have started to gather materials for its content. Can’t wait for the opportunity to try it out.
In the previous presentation you mentioned a PDF of the nature journal that we could access. I did not see it. Can you please help with this, I would love to download it. Thanks
This is a great time to gather.
Love this idea! I emailed you a pic of our outdoor curriculum kit using The Ugly vegetables by Grace Lin.
Thanks!
Hello, Due to Covid-19. I am unable to make a growth kit. However I do think it would be a great idea to set up a a curriculum on the go pack based on what they are learning. I think If I were to make one based on the book. I chose previously, Gregory the terrible eater, I would have paper, paint, word bank (fruit, vegetable, greens, healthy, nutritious, unhealthy, trash, junk, etc), I would have recycled items to carry, and different questions (such as: what is edible? What is healthy? what is considered a fruit? what is considered a vegetable? How is Gregory unhealthy?) etc. I would also carry the book, some magnify glasses to look at the fruit and vegetables inside, and some drawing utensils or clipboard. I think depending on what they are learning it is a good opportunity to always use their observation skills and develop their connections.
Fabulous. You can prepare these kits now too.
Sadly do to the current situation not currently working, but once im back it would be cool to apply ideas based on whatever the theme is and making connections to books that can be taken outdoors and based on those books would be awesome to create things for each one.
I like all the ideas on how to create a storage system in the back pack. I would add garden plant photos at different stages to encourage sequences of before after and later and now identity ideas. I would also add magnifying glasses with mini clip boards and pencils for drawing.
Great!
My curriculum on the go kit is based on Judith Caseley’s Grandpa’s Garden Lunch.
For reading-read seed packets and read the signs that are written on sticks to tell what you are
growing.
Read recipes for your lunch menu that you made for writing.
Share definitions of words in the book the children may not know.
Make a graph of the group’s favorite colors and gardens.
For writing- What is your favorite color?
write/color in garden journal about digging holes, planting seeds, picking out
flowers/vegetable plants at garden nursery
make signs for areas of the garden
write out lunch menus
make invitations for families to come for lunch at the harvest time.
Listening- take a field trip to a garden nursery and listen to the guide
listen to other ideas from the talking area. add your own ideas.
Talking- what kind of gardens do you know about?
Do you help out in your garden? What do you do.
Why should you “pat the earth smooth?”
What seasons are represented in the book?
What does it mean to have a “garden for lunch?”
What are invitations? What is a lunch menu?
Vocabulary Words-earth, smooth, watering can, herbs, nursery, marigold, dozen, seedlings,
border, spring of mint, invite
For the kit- watering can, pots for herbs, seed catalogs, hats, gloves, shovel, herbs, seeds,
sticks for herb and plant names, vase, plastic flowers (for off season), plates,
bowls, silverware, cloth napkins, aprons, pitcher, large bowl, salad tongs,
3 inch square papers for favorite color graph, sheet for graph with graph made
with paint to make columns, journals, paper, pencils, crayons, markers, garden basket,
scissors, plastic fruits and vegetables for playing with inside home area, signs
for leaves, roots, fruit
An additional book to use would be Tops and Bottoms by Janet Stevens
Great detail! This will help out so much when you’re ready to put the kit together.
Hi, again Victoria,
The video said you had PDF’s for us. Where are they at?
Hi. When you have completed the class. You will write a summary of your experience, and then I will send you a participation certification.
I have a lot of this type of kit already in rubbermade containers. But I am going to adapt some of them into going outdoors, especially eric carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar. I also want to do one for Fly, Monarch, Fly by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace. Will get back to you on what I put in them. I am so excited about this!
We will call this our garden curriculum.We do a class plan where we will plant a different vegetable in our back yard. Different from our last one.We will plan walk by walk all we would do for getting our garden plan activity done.
I did adapt this material to fit the needs of my children is by having fun and learning hands on activities that can be messy, fun, and creative at the same time.
Will help the teachers collect items for their backpacks and help brainstorm ideas of what they might need
For my curriculum on the go kit which I am going to add a picture in on the last module I have the book: “Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf” by Lois Ehlert and paint pallets with paint brushes, and science viewers to look at different pictures of plants, and animals. The way I adapted these materials to fit the needs of my children is that I made sure to adapt age appropriate materials for preschool age. I made sure to adapt arts, science and reading into my materials for my curriculum kit.
Love the clarity in this! Great job.
So I am actually a teacher’s aid so I am not in a specific classroom. I tend to float from classroom to classroom so I don’t have a set curriculum. I do however participate in whatever the curriculum is for that class during the timeframe I am in it. Some of these curriculums are catered to other people’s needs. Say we have a vehicle unit and we notice the kids are really focused on the trains, we may then have a train unit within the following weeks.
A curriculum on the go kit will be great for us to use when we have outdoor time. We already have a few great gathering places that are permanent in our outdoor space. It will be fun to think of the different things we can incorporate into our on the go kits and get creative with that. When we set up on the go kits we will be sure to post it on the face book page.
I think we will be able to create this backpack for my club idea at the after school program based on the curriculum we create for it. Having a table cloth as a seating area, having chalk boards or white boards for writing, the book of interest, the plant or materials talked about in the book and any other materials needed at the time of the lesson that can be prepared before hand for the activity.
Thankfully we are still in the fall months were it has not gotten too cold to go outside, however we have had a long string of rainny days. However, for our classroom’s curriculum on the go kit we were thinking of packing individual bags for each student to collect “natures leftovers” i.e rocks, leaves, sticks, dirt, ect.. and once each bag is full they could bring it back to the backpack for us to unpack once we go back inside. Additionally, we could bring out small clip boards with various crayons for the children to draw their favorite piece of nature on our playground. I like the idea of how adaptable these kits can be depending on what your goal for your class is at the time.
I currently don’t have access to a picture of my bag. Would it be possible to post it later on the facebook group? Either way, I would be interested in my program granting more supplies then what we currently have.
Yes…you can post on Facebook!
I am looking forward to changing our curriculum on the go kit for the upcoming winter season. What will the children want to do with the snow? Paint it, measure how much it snowed, watch it melt, bring it indoors etc. I am excited to see what’s to come!
Check out the Exploring Nature in Winter Master Class. https://www.outdoor-classrooms.com/course/exploring-nature-in-winter-e-workshop/
Great ideas for my infant room
I am a support educator who floats from classroom to classroom to help with the kids. The educators I work with each have backpacks in their classroom with supplies for the children to use in outdoor learning. I may bring a few things with me to contribute to their supplies and discuss what supplies they already have so I know what I am working with when it is time for outdoor play.
The harvest curriculum outdoor kits are a great idea. With this idea we could use so many variations. Each child could choose a book and with help from peers/they think is needed. This would create more interesting activities for the kids.
Great idea! Back packs aside from first aid kits with books and tools children are interested in to bring outdoors.
As an idea, children could help create the kits to create their own. The children could go over each item with the educator, knowing exactly which object is used for a specific activity.
working on my kit … it will have the carrot seed book, carrot seeds, clipboards with paper and pencils/ crayons, magnifying glasses, watering can, and camera
Love the concept of creating an Outdoors backpack or tote bags.
I would like to change out the to go kit every week so that it goes with that weeks theme.
I look forward to implementing a outdoor curriculum kit, as transitions can be a bit difficult in the after school setting. These steps were both informative and helpful.
I’m now sure how I could apply this to every season. I would like to try though if you have any suggestion I would like to hear it. I would like to have a bag of seeds to try and plant in different grounds and seasons.
Tough with cold weather and winter on the way Will try to plant indoors and see what happens
Check out the Exploring Nature in Winter Master Class for your providers. https://www.outdoor-classrooms.com/course/exploring-nature-in-winter-e-workshop/
I can offer a discount for groups of 3 or more. A great way to go into winter!
At our center, we have first aid backpacks that we take everywhere. Maybe we could put some outdoor curriculum items in our first aid backpacks!
I like the idea about a backpack that will go with me outside so my toddlers can pick up what interests them and then later it can be displayed on my nature table and we can put some in discovery boxes so they can manipulate and discover different textures
I have made a backpack for outside learning with many supplies such as chalkboards books and bubbles and i try to change out supplies often to keep their interest.
We have tried it and the one kit I made has a few books on fall, magnifying glass, and plastic bags so, they can collect things for our loose parts and sticks bags.
I have been very busy with reports and conferences and discouraged by winter and sad about the TV news and sad about a recent family death,
BUT,
I am enjoying this E-course so much, and feeling hopeful and inspired to get to work on this great project that will develop my goal to bring learning outside. SPRING is coming! I have 3 to 6 year olds, and think I will do one for Sunflower House by Eve Bunting. Sunflower cloth, parts of sunflower puzzle, sunflower butter and seed snacks, tools, seeds for planting, add some non fiction life cycle of sunflower books…And one for Pumpkin, Pumpkin by Jeanne Titherington or the book Pumpkin Circle.
I am so sorry for your loss. I too am sad about TV news and the state of our world. I am thrilled you are enjoying this e-Course and finding joy in it. It is these little memories and experiences we can bring to children that make this a better world altogether. Spring is just around the corner. The birds are telling me every day. A Cardinal was looking into my window just the other day. The sunflower house sounds wonderful. Will you actually make a sunflower house in your outdoor classroom?
Yes, I want to finally plant a Sunflower House this year. I would love to hear if you put together this backpack. I think I should do that same!
Wonderful! I too, have always wanted to plant a Sunflower House. My outdoor learning lab is very shady…but I might have to take a look again to see where I might be able to create one too. Let me know how you make out. We can compare notes. 🙂
This will take me awhile but I will post it….I am thinking of having backpacks that people with young kids can take and use at the farm while they are there, and then put back before they leave…
Absolutely BRILLIANT! I may not be as hard as you think. Put a few key items in there. One thing I would have is a journal where each participant who uses the backpack can reflect on their experience. Then each person(family) after can see what the other wrote….it can become a community backpack experience. Love it!
Today is a Friday, a very wintry Friday (just survived the 2nd nor’easter in 10 days — and our center has been closed for 2 days because we lost power! This has NEVER happened before!). Everything here is under a foot or more of snow. I will get started on a Curriculum-on-the-Go backpack; I already have a backpack on hand that I can utilize. I think the first related activity that I should like to engage my little learners in is collecting materials for making signs. The woodworking bench in my classroom gets daily use, and this could be a nice project for them to work on.
Are you in MA? I am in Beverly, MA and know the storm you are talking about. I am so sorry you lost power. That is hard. There are so many activities to do during these colder months…sign making is the perfect place to start. Thrilled to know you have a woodworking bench. What a bonus for you! Please take pictures of your process. You will be happy you did.
Yes, Victoria, I’m in Lowell, just up the road! This is not my first experience with you — I attended your “Teaching in the Dirt” workshop not all that long ago! (I’m trying to remember if Essex County AEYC sponsored you; I’m on the Board.) And I also attended a workshop you presented somewhere else before that. It might have also been “Teaching in the Dirt.” We’re old friends!! lol
🙂 We are old friends!!!
Waiting for my book First Peas to the Table. Might do a curriculum on the go for The Hat and ThevMitten by Jan Barrett to get started and winterized signs on cardboard wrapped in plastic while we await spring here in Minnesota .
Love that you are planting seeds of inspiration. Yea!