“We need the tonic of wildness . . .We can never have enough of nature.”  Henry David Thoreau

I’ve been waiting for a chance to share this article published in The New York Times on the last day of 2015.  Entitled “Preschool Without Walls,” it’s about students at Seattle’s Fiddleheads Forest School, where — regardless of weather — children spend four hours a day in “cedar grove ‘classrooms’ nestled among the towering trees.”

The article describes the children’s love of learning in nature at Fiddleheads, founded in 2012 by a certified preschool teacher and a naturalist/science educator.  It also details how the outdoor classrooms are part of a larger educational trend that goes beyond previous programs that are also described in the article.

While you may not be able to conduct your classrooms out of doors, you’ll find resources from a PBS LearningMedia search of Plum Landing — an environmental science project from WGBH Boston that helps kids develop a love for and connection to the amazing planet we call home.  You’ll find more at the Plum Landing website, including an educator link with many resources.

You can be inspired by the NY Times article here.