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Welcome Center
A Welcome Message For You
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0-1: Welcome! Please Introduce Yourself 30 minLecture1.1
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0-2: A Note from Victoria 30 minLecture1.2
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0-3: Share a goal or intention for this class 30 minLecture1.3
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Module One: Strengthen Your Professional Identity as a Natural Teacher
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1-1: Create Goals and Intentions 30 minLecture2.1
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1-2: Five Steps to Prepare your Foundation for the Best Year Yet 30 minLecture2.2
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1-3: Get Curious with Montessori, Waldorf & Reggio 30 minLecture2.3
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1-4: Use Nature as a Guide: Wonder Based Teaching 30 minLecture2.4
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Module Two: Create Your Map of Intention
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2-1: Five Stages to Intentional Teaching Outdoors 30 minLecture3.1
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2-2: Five Tracks for Your Road Trip to Become a Natural Teacher 30 minLecture3.2
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2-3: Learn from our National Parks: America’s Largest Outdoor Classroom 30 minLecture3.3
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2-4: Harvest Your Manifesto & Create a Vision Board 30 minLecture3.4
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2-5: Workshop #1: RecordingLecture3.5
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Module Three: Nurture A Garden Practice: The Transformation
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3-1: Growth through Gardening with Bobbie Mabe 30 minLecture4.1
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3-2: Ten Life Lessons for Outdoor Classrooms 30 minLecture4.2
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3-3: Become an Advocate of Nature-Based Teaching 30 minLecture4.3
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3-4: I Wonder Why: Claire Warden Keynote at Wow Conference 30 minLecture4.4
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Module 4: Behind the Scenes
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4-1: Live Workshop #2: Closing Circle 30 minLecture5.1
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4-2: Behind the Scenes with Jessica Kagle from Kestrel Educational Adventures 30 minLecture5.2
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4-3: Behind the Scenes with Lara Lepionka from Backyard Growers 30 minLecture5.3
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4-4: Put it all Together: What next? 30 minLecture5.4
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4-5: Workshop #2: RecordingLecture5.5
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69 Comments
Since starting this course I am feeling more and more inspired to create a love and respect for gardening in our school, myself and a co-worker are both doing this course, we are already thinking about the foundations of our project and how we are going to incorporate our children as the main care takers/nuturers in our garden. In the past we have made numerous unsuccessful attempts at our community garden with seeds and established seedlings and felt that we were not getting anywhere.
WONDERFUL!!! Start small is key! Creating a support system is also key! You have found that here. Well done!
Over the years we have had a garden box at our local community garden plot and have had our ups and downs creating a successful edible garden. We have always supported our local garden centres and purchased starter plants. After so many years of experience we have learned a lot about gardening dos and don’ts. This year we have purchased our seeds and have begun conversations around gardening. My next step is to make an invitation to play using our seeds and exposing children to all aspects of the gardening process; with the help of a few books and pictures. We will be starting our seeds inside this year and at about the first of May. We have been encouraged by the AWARE Gardening team that the best planting time is on May long weekend. Our seeds take about three weeks to grow. The children are starting to talk more and more about planting our garden and share their gardening experiences that they contribute to at home.
We are going to be doing a combination of a garden box and a container garden. The container garden will be in our play yard and our community garden box is a quick 10 minute walk from our centre. We plan on maintaining both with a daily, weekly and monthly schedule.
We are very excited to start eating food right from our garden.
I have finally come up with my mantra – One step at a time.
YES!!!!! One step at a time! Wonderful!!
When thinking about the steps we learned about here, I am thinking back to previous gardening I have done with children and trying to think about what worked, and what didn’t. For now, I think that large planters (as Sally suggested) with fast growing plants (perhaps supplemented with already grown plants?) might be the best option for the coming school year. Planting seeds in bags in the windows so the kids can see them sprout before planting them, and making the connection to the plants we see growing in our planters.
Sturdy yet small (small enough for toddlers) gardening tools are difficult to find, most tools created for kids are cheap and practically useless. Trowels and hand forks are the most useful for this age, and the kids know that they are ‘real’ tools and that adds to the appeal. In the past, the children have helped us begin the garden, and teachers would use the larger shovels (with child help) to break into the earth, and the kids would then dissect the overturned clumps of earth to see what they could find.
Working with toddlers, I have come to realize that most of them enjoy the start of the garden process immensely, the digging and turning over of dirt to see what they can find. Perhaps when school opens up again, we could focus on that in the area we had planned to make a garden in, without the planting aspect. We could turn the soil, explore the plants that we see there already, then in the late fall, we could put the garden to ‘bed’ for the winter (black magic), and have it be ready for the following spring.
I think making a plan, having a partner(s) at your workplace to help keep you motivated (while sharing the work) would be one of the most helpful things we could do. And having a small gardening experience rather than a full blown garden might help some ease into it and realize that it’s not as hard as it might seem.
Great reflections. Keep up the great work.
Our situation in regards to the pandemic right now creates some unknowns but I am excited about starting a small garden, even if it is on the later side. I like all the details you have included in your video. I especially like the mention of “challenges” that are “there to teach you”! I’m sure that there will be many. I also like Sally’s idea of each child having their own plot. They can each decide what they want to grow within a theme. It is amazing how important children feel when they are given a chance to be responsible. Growing and tending a garden will do just that.
Love that you are reading and getting ideas from others too.
I would like to start with children sitting outside and creating/drawing a blueprint of their visions for their container gardens. I love the black magic idea, it is simple yeat the children can learn a lot about the decomposers in our world, and how every creature makes a contribution to our natural world. This would give us an opportunity to explore one or more themes for the garden.
Explore natural deterrents for the creatures who would like to share our edible garden, ie explore plants (not toxic to children that can be planted to encourage animals and insects to forage elsewhere)
I love making garden signs with children. I worked at a center where each child had 2 ft by 2ft garden plot. Each child painted a long wooden stake that told the story of what was planted in their gardens. One of the best surprises during harvest was when children pulled up the root vegetables, especially the potatoes! Discovering the root vegetables was somewhat magical, all of the growth aside from the greens was out of sight. I think planting root vegetables in a clear container in the ground might be an interesting experiment, pulling out the container to observe and document the growth. Perhaps in a second planting after the initial magic of discovery.
Awesome!!!
I would like to start with children sitting outside and creating/drawing a blueprint of their visions for their container gardens. i love the black magic idea, it is simple yeat the children can learn a lot about the decomposers in our world, and how every creature makes a contribution to our natural world. This would give us an opportunity to explore one or more themes for the garden.
Explore natural deterrents for the creatures who would like to share our edible garden, ie explore plants (not toxic to children that can be planted to encourage anilals and insects to forage elsewhere)
I love making garden signs with children. I worked at a center where each child had 2 ft by 2ft garden plot. Each child painted a long wooden stake that told the story of what was planted in their gardens. One of the best surprises during harvest was when children pulled up the root vegetables, especially the potatoes! Discovering the root vegetables was somewhat magical, all of the growth aside from the greens was out of sight. I think planting root vegetables in a clear container in the ground might be an interesting experiment, pulling out the container to observe and document the growth. Perhaps in a second planting after the initial magic of discovery.
This is awesome! I love that each child had their own plot!!
I’m so excited to get back to work and see what we can create for our gardening space. I’m looking forward to learning how to incorporate more theme gardens. Last summer we read Jack and the Bean Stalk and planted our own beans. This year we decided to plant beans again because it was such a success in the class and with the kids. I’m also looking forward to having more plants to incorporate the five senses.
YEA! See if the kids can grow their own beans now in a plastic bag. They will love it.
I am inspired by the idea of prepping and cultivating the soil as a figurative and literal way of planning the garden. The people who use the courtyard where the garden will be are the children in my class, my co-teacher, another toddler classroom, and two afternoon classrooms. I would like to have conversations with those other teachers about adding more plants to that space. Having a community connected around cultivating plants in that space will make it more sustainable in the long term, especially since I usually don’t teach in the summer program.
Good thinking!
I think I’d like to start a touch feel taste garden with different herbs. With the amount of shade I have I think we could still try this and move the containers throughout the day so they can catch the sun.
This will also have the littles understand and observe the movement of the sun/earth.
We can use them for learning our 5 senses.
I think I’d also like to make a lettuce garden we can make salads with.
YUM!!!
Love this thinking! Keep up the great work!
I have infants up to pre-k. I know this is going to be a learning experience for all of us. I look forward to bringing more nature into our lives.
🙂 Just taking infants outdoors is a huge experience for them! Start small.
This module is really helpful as I plan my proposal for establishing a garden at my school. I think container gardens would be a good start, with meticulous documentation during the first year, to show how it enriches the curriculum, with hopefully getting approval for an actual raised bed garden in the future. Gardening bring me so much pleasure, I have been wanting to share that with my littles!
So excited about your ideas and can’t wait to see how they all get implemented!
I am excited to start mapping a nature based curriculum! I have always wanted to do it, and I implement certain aspects but not consistently or as intentional, but I never took the time to think about it thoroughly or as focused. I think that it helps to start looking at it seasonally (as where I live we experience the 4 seasons), for me it will be a learning experience along with the children and I think that will help enforce a curiosity for learning at any age!
Nice reflections.
My classroom is a 3 year old classroom and I feel that we can sit and talk all day long but they would never truly understand what we are talking about without a visual and without being able to do it themselves…I think due to the age group that I have I think visual (picture cards) and hands on work will help them learn and retain the most. I still think talking about it and looking at books about it is also good but I think to be able to get them to retain anything they will need the visual/hands on. I also believe in teamwork…I share a room with 2 other preschool teachers but we have half walls separating our classrooms I have the 3’s and they have the 4’s I think it would be a very cool idea to see if I can get them on board with this as well and we can do a team effort to keep our garden going! This will help teach the kids about team work and they will also be able to see their teachers leading the way!
Love the energy!! Great ideas!
In this COVID time, I should start planting things myself and gain practice that way. How would you suggest I do this in an infant room. I work at a learning lab so this is perfect.
I would plant beans in a plastic back with cotton balls. Just keep it super simple. Also, think about bringing in herbs plants where children can smell them.
The way I learn is by hands on/doing the activity. I can sit down in a class and listen to the teacher talk about the topic for 2 hours. Sure, there will be things I take away from the lecture. But when I go home and have to do an assignment or project on the topic my brain starts working real good. All of a sudden I’m thinking about this or that and what else can I write or do. So I try to teach the same way. Of course I’m going to talk to the children about the topic. But after talking for a little bit I then get an activity or project that involves the children to be hands on to really grasp althea topic and learn it. The same goes for outdoor learning about gardens. I can sit and tell the children all about planting, the different flowers, the kinds of bugs that will come, how to take care of the flowers. But it’s not until I let the children go into the garden and figure it for themselves will they learn. Little Billy might come across a bee and remember “oh Ms. Linda there’s a bee here on this flower. He must be getting the nectar.” I’m all about being in the moment with the children so you’ll see me sitting with them in the dirt planting with them!
ABSOLUTELY! The more hands-on the better! The outdoor classroom and backyard teaching garden provide the perfect landscape for this.
I’ve never ah much of a green thumb but after this class Im excited to start a garden with my kids
Terrific!!!
Hands is for kids is so wonderful. I sometimes get nervous planting with children because I know it is something you need to be persistent with so you can see positive results.
I feel like the garden sign question is such a cool idea, not only does it allow children to have fun but also think and figure out what is planted.
While gardening, getting dirty is the fun part. Children enjoy getting dirty and exploring but it is important for all teachers to be on board and be comfortable with students getting dirty and enjoying the process of gardening. It is also important for parents to on board and supportive of the idea that their children enjoy their outdoor time and gardening.
Great reflections!
The video gave me many different things to consider and the different aspects to consider when starting a garden such as the soil and considering besides the kids who else will also be interacting with the garden. not only that but i never stopped to think about when would be the best time for the various plants and how they all have cycles. “An adventure is simply a well planned trip gone awry,” is a rather clever quote that might help me evolve the way I think about using nature within the classroom
Great reflections!!!
Having contact with nature, planting vegetables or flower , touching the soil and knowing there are a lot mineral and substance to help plants To grow And see the different season (winter. Spring ,summer etc) it’s amazing. It’s really important that children have that experience.
Good job!
It is nice to go deeper and try to see what I want to accomplish. I really want to involve the kids and give them the experience of get messy, touch the snow, see the plants grow. I think that involve parents is important because kids and parents are community. And start small and go one step at the time will lead us to be an a point where we can celebrate.
Yes!!!
I wrote some of what I want to say about my ‘map of intention’ in my last comment on Module 2-1, the five stages of intent. So to build upon that, I really loved the idea of planting a whole pumpkin, or any other whole vegetable that has gone past it’s ripeness for eating, into the garden and then marking it with a sign asking “What do you think will happen?” Maybe adding a real photo that I took of the vegetable while looking at it with the children at a circle time, discussing digging a whole and placing the vegetable inside and covering it up with dirt. I could laminate the photo of the vegetable and place it on the sign. I am definitely going to try this!
I also loved the idea of using newspapers and compost in the late fall to make the soil rich. Great idea!
Like I said in my last comment, I am thinking about the campus community and how they can help with my plan of a texture garden on the toddler playground and how I will have the children and the families help to plan for the insect house design. I can definitely ask the families and campus departments for donations of gardening tools.
Another idea that I remember seeing was to use hooks on a pole or maybe on a wooden fence to hang pails with activities inside each one. The children cold then help themselves to a pail to use the outdoor activity that they would find inside the pail. I cold label the pails with a photo of the activity and a word label as well. The activities can be rotated based on the weather and seasons outside. Gardening tools could be included in this.
We can celebrate our garden when the different aspects/stages are completed, by having an unavailing party and serving warm tea in plastic tea cups or apple cider and inviting the parents or the preschool classrooms to celebrate.
The progress of our texture/sensory garden can be shared in our school newsletter and also displayed in photos on campus in the academic departments that help us To create it.
I have so many ideas going through my head. So writing them all out in a plan/map has been very useful.
I love the pail idea!! I may have to add this to my Backyard Teaching Garden!
Hi Vicky!
Have you ever read the book Pumpkin Jack by Will Hubbell? This is a great book about the life cycle of a pumpkin. Check it out!
Thanks! I will check it out.
One thing that really stood out to me was in the gathering tools track 2 and it was the idea of Children and the Community as tools. We are so blessed at my school to have a wonderful community with our staff, families, and the larger community of the church that we are housed in and are our owners. The church staff love the children and our IT Manager is a garden whiz! I know he will be excited to come and work with the children on the garden. I am a member of the church and have a friend who does the landscaping for the building. I’ve already talked with her about helping us out. The children see her working out front and we stop and talk to her and she’s so happy to teach them and show them fun things. And I learned that one of our dads loves to garden. I believe we definitely have some wonderful tools lined up for our return! For me, I’m happy to have this time to Prepare and Cultivate myself as a natural teacher—generating preliminary plans for our space. One of my intentions is to sit outside in the space tomorrow for a bit and just look at sun/shade (if possible), note the soil, and DREAM!
I LOVE THIS!!! You have found the silver lining in this time. I too, am finding myself enjoying the pause and bringing to life the visions that have been in my head for so long. It’s a fantastic feeling.
I love gardening, and I was going to buy the materials to create our classroom garden in our classroom greenhouse and have the children start preparing the soil and plant the seeds that they wanted. After that, we would go to the center garden and make that for the center gardening and ready for the seeds or plants that we would be planting with the children. We usually have vegetables and some fruits like strawberries.
I love that you have a greenhouse at your school!
I cannot wait for this pandemic to be over so that I can take all of this with me to my students!
My map of intentions begins with exposing children to basic skills of researching what we are going to plant before just throwing seeds out into the ground anywhere. I had to do a lot of research before starting my garden at home. Children can learn to look at the back of seed packets to find out what the plants need and if we can provide the plants with their needs. After this we can begin using these five tracks to create an outdoor classroom. We can spend time discussing each track and recording in a journal what we are doing every step of the way. I will definitely be having the children actively engage as much as possible in doing the work, I want them to feel a sense of ownership over it so they can watch their work grow, that is where the true excitement comes in.
Yes…I can’t wait for the world to be put back together so we can all be back to school. I’m thrilled that you are excited and have created such wonderful plants. Keep up the great work.
Each session makes me wonder and think a lot!! I enjoy reading other educators comments. I learn from them also I think. I liked the idea of putting compost on top of the newspaper. I usually buy a soil to mix with the remained soil. But it’s more visually fun to watch for kids to learn about making a good soil. I may ask children’s parents to involve this garden project. So, they can see what’s going on with their children’s school. Also, some are may be gardener or handy. I can read a book about worm, flowers, vegetables and gardening before I start a project. I always want to do some art projects/sensory projects using vegetables with infants. So, I can plant some vegetables for the art projects.
Great idea at work here! I love that you are getting inspired! Yea!
I like the idea of growing vegetables for use in art projects with the younger ones! Thank you for that.
Most welcome!
This section “Digging Deeper” has me thinking truly on how to dig deeper within myself to becoming a Natural Teacher. I can use each track to help me get there. It is broken up into 5 groups Preparing, Gathering tools, Planting, Growing and Transforming. Through each one I can get perspective on how to become a natural teacher and a better way I can implement it into my classroom in and out. With each group being broke down into tracks I feel like I can actually do this. I can start small, doesnt have to be an enormous space.
YES!!! Fantastic! Love these reflections.
My map of intentions is that children can intervene in their own learning taking meaningful, fun and practical actions so that they can maintain this learning and build new ones.
The space I have for the Bio-Garden project is actually a part of the playground. I want to use boxes of vegetables that supermarkets throw away and plant the radish seeds in those containers. Observation visits are daily. They can be programmed according to the curriculum as well as spontaneous in the playground break (Gross Motor). I loved the idea of using newspaper to keep the land in the winter. I will put it into practice.
Today I had a teachers’ meeting (zoom) and shared about the class. Many of them want to participate in the Bio-garden project, I hope that when we return I can send them photos of our progress.
I am so interested in your Bio Garden as well. Can you share more information here? It’s a great project.
Maybe, Can I share to your email and if you think that its OK, you can share it. My plan is a little longer. Thanks
Don’t worry about the length. It might be nice for all to see in an in-depth plan. What do you think?
My map of intention; first of all is to get the toddler teachers on the same page and to understand and believe that it’s great to let kids get dirty, etc. Parents consistently say that we don’t get outside enough but maybe that’s not what they are really complaining about at all. The older toddlers and PS children currently get outside about 2 hours a day. What I think though is that parents want their children to be doing more intentional learning outside and using our outside surroundings/environment to learn and not a time for the teachers to “get a break”. I would then like to come up with ways that this can be a spiraling continuum from the toddlers to the preschoolers so that it continues from 2 years through the 5 year old stage. I’d like for our center to come up with a plan together for the outside environment/learning classroom. People often think that it is someone else’s job so they don’t take the initiative. I’m excited to work to get my staff excited!
This is fantastic. I love that you are excited to get your staff inspired! Get the kids out as much as possible and create outdoor learning stations to make it new and fun for playful learning.
My Map of Intention is exciting and scary to think about. I am a new teacher in the school. I feel like I look at things very different from my other preschool teachers because of my knowledge in early intervention and working with the special education population. I think that is what drew me to the course. I know how valuable hands on activities are for children( typical and atypical). I saw a chance to open a new avenue in teaching children bout their community. As my principal said when I was sharing in a Zoom meeting with my colleagues about this course “You are an out of the box thinker, and we need that” That statement gave me confidence that this Natural Teaching is possible. The fact that I am an out of the box thinker will help be more flexible When I do hit those obstacles along the way.
My intention is to get the children outdoors and learn about the outdoor world. I would be content with starting with a few plants in pots and learning what makes them grow. My school does have a garden but it has not been kept up. Each class had a section that they could plant. I think this would be a perfect opportunity to brainstorm on how to rejuvenate it and get the classes involved again.
I know in talking to teachers a few struggles that came up with the garden. Funding was an issue when having the garden before. I think this could be resolved very easily. The parent council has been very generous with different programs. I feel if we educate them on the value of growing a garden with their child, they would be will to give the money.
Also, restating that no teacher/parent needs to have a green thumb. This is a learning experience for everyone. I think we can grow and learn together as a class and in a broader sense, as a community.
MUSIC TO MY EARS! Fabulous job! I’m looking forward to watching your journey. There are so many opportunities out there. Get in that abandoned outdoor classroom and revive it. It will change and transform your entire teaching journey!! I am here to support you every step of the way.
Transforming was the track that resonates strongly with me at this point. At the beginning of March, the idea of taking children out into the woods in back of my house was hardly worth noting. Now, at the end of the month, I “just did it!” We have had five successful forest adventures and plan to have one each day varying in length. The challenges have been numerous, but they haven’t stopped us!
This year I am thinking container gardens this year as we put our nature classroom design in place and find raise.
YES!!! I just purchased plastic “whiskey barrels” for the Experience Week I am teaching this week. I chose these because they are lighter and easy to move. May be a great option for you this year.