A few years ago, I had a chance to work in Hokkaido, Japan for a few months and I chose to live with a couple who runs a summer school programme in forest school experience for elementary children. It was very interesting as we had to build facilities using natural resources from scratch prior to the children's arrival. We had to build a sign by stripping tree branches, build an enclosure, obstacle course and a toilet. Natural resources were abundant. The children can observe cicada up close and hold a rhino beetle. They were gathering wood and using real saw responsibly. We walked deep in the woods and my host was teaching them to recognise and pick edible plants. They encourage each other to balance on a log and to cross a stream. The children were well behaved and engaged presumably their tasks were authentic and important to them.
In contrast, my school has more concrete than nature and it is so clean that I can hardly find a dead leaf on the ground. When we are doing land art or observing leaves close up, I will bring my own plants to class. That said, with limited nature in the environment, we can take advantage of opportunities in the community as the school situated between a hospital and a shopping mall.
To get a glimpse of what nature school is, a film about a forest kindergarten in Zurich is at the end of this post.
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| Otoosan teaching the kids about edible wild plants |
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| Kids using the nokogiri. My heart stopped for a nanosecond. |
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| Kids were falling selected trees to build a tent |
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| Securing the ropes |
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| The kids were eating the sansai tempura faster than we can cook! |
