The first six weeks
As the Fall Term came to an end and the weather began to turn to Winter, it was important to reflect on our first experiences at the Ottawa Forest and Nature School (OFN) and how they related to student well-being and achievement. The students communicated how much they enjoy visiting the woods every Tuesday, as most of us expected they would. They discovered, hiked, explored, built, observed, and most of all played. We wondered how this positive play experience in nature relates to learning? How does it link back to the expectations of the Ontario Curriculum? What measurable skills are the students developing and what knowledge are they gaining?
Learning-Based Play
Learning-based play is a child-centred approach to acquiring knowledge through experiences, in this case, in a nature setting. Instead of setting a specific curriculum expectation (e.g., students will know how to add numbers to 20 by the end of grade one) and then finding an activity to meet that learning goal, we begin with the students’ play and noticing and then tie what interests them to the curriculum (e.g., a passion for learning the names of mushrooms has led to math sorting activities). We have been able to touch on ALL areas of the curriculum by following the children’s interests and linking them to grade one academic expectations.
Confidence
Last year, during the pilot project a few students who were not attending to lessons inside the classroom all of the sudden came alive when they went out into wood exhibiting that “naturalistic intelligence” Daniel Goleman refers to in his book Ecoliterate. This year, I observed the same phenomena. MA, who was shy and reluctant speaker in class, would notice the tiniest detail at the Rocky and Mossy Place (e.g., all the different colours of rocks, wintergreen, mosses, etc.). She lead her friends as they hunted for mushrooms on the forest floor. One of our students underperforms during written tasks in class. He happily lets others answer for him during lessons. But in the forest, another child emerges, one who spotted three different kinds of woodpeckers in one day or who builds amazingly complicated structures. Being in the forest has allowed these two students to gain confidence in themselves and take on leadership roles. This opportunity may not have presented itself in the regular classroom. The same could be said of ES who’s confidence is her physical abilities abounds at OFN; she takes on new challenges without hesitation.
Impact on Student Achievement
Experiences at the Ottawa Forest and Nature School, have a significant impact on student achievement in all areas of the Ontario Curriculum. The play that occurs at OFN is linked back in the classroom with the Big Ideas of the Ontario Curriculum. The most noticeable increase in student learning last year was in French language, and this year is no exception. Even though we had been taking the children outside at Meadowlands PS, it was not until we went to the Ottawa Forest and Nature School that we noticed a huge jump in student use of forest vocabulary. When students ask Mme Joanne or myself: “Qu’est-ce que c’est Madame?”, we answer in French, identifying the object by name. On Wednesdays, after each session, the grade one students share their noticing and we co-create anchor charts and vocabulary cards with new words and expressions related to the forest. With each visit, the students expand their vocabulary and gain confidence in their abilities to share their ideas in French. As experiences at OFN are woven into many areas of the curriculum, when we get back to class easily acquire new vocabulary related to all areas of the Ontario Curriculum (e.g., Science: understanding structures & mechanisms and living things, Math vocabulary related to positional language and measurement, etc.).
Thinking Outside the Classroom 