Category: Education
Children Need Nature: Teaching Peace
December 21, 2016By Rebecca Dhondt, Sassafras Classroom Lead Teacher
Children Need Nature is a monthly blog column from our Nature Preschool program. Read more posts here.
This time of year tends to be full of excitement and energy. With so much baking, decorating, and visiting going on there are many stories that Nature Preschoolers are eager to share. Children naturally begin to compare notes, trying to understand what is happening in their own homes and wondering about the ways others might celebrate teachers in the Sassafras room heard exclamations such as: “I have a Christmas tree too!”, “What is an Elf on the Shelf?”…
Children Need Nature: Getting Ready for Kindergarten
October 28, 2016By Shannon Wise, Nature Preschool Manager
Children Need Nature is a monthly blog column from our Nature Preschool program. Read more posts here.
If you walk along the trails with a Nature Preschool class, you might think you are just out for a breath of fresh air, to run and let go of some extra energy. Yes – it is that and so much more. You might notice children gathering leaves, counting as they go. Their teacher furthers the experience as she takes out four-colored pieces of construction paper to allow the children to sort by shades of fall. Soon, the children…
Introducing Carole Williams-Green
October 18, 2016By Mike Weilbacher, Executive Director
On November 17, the Schuylkill Center presents the 11th annual Henry Meigs Environmental Leadership Award, given to leaders who reflect the spirit and vision of Schuylkill Center founder Henry Meigs.
This year, we honor Carole Williams-Green, the dynamic founder of the Cobbs Creek Community Environmental Education Center in West Philadelphia. A former public school teacher and administrator, she has led a successful multi-decade effort to rehabilitate the historic but abandoned Fairmount Park Police stables in Fairmount Park’s Cobbs Creek section, creating a center to bring environmental education to under-served neighborhoods like her own West Philadelphia. …
Children Need Nature: What is a Nature Preschooler?
September 30, 2016By Nicole Brin, Sycamore Classroom Lead Teacher
Children Need Nature is a monthly blog column from our Nature Preschool program. Read more posts here.
A Nature Preschooler is a 3-, 4-, or 5-year-old child who is part of a program which uses the natural world as the primary context for learning. They develop the intellectual, social, emotional, and physical skills needed for Kindergarten while immersed in daily outdoor experiences.
But a Nature Preschooler is more than that...
A Nature Preschooler is curious. Learning the value in discovering answers for themselves. Studying the movement of a snail up close, wondering why some leaves turn…
The Importance of Learning in Nature
August 19, 2016By Guest contributor Debra Deacon, M.Ed., Lead Teacher at Kinder Academy
Children and nature go hand in hand, or at least it should. Research has shown how important it is to introduce children to nature especially in the early years. Children today, especially our inner city children have a very limited opportunity to connect with nature. How can we teach our children the importance of our environment if they have a disconnect with nature?
This became our goal when we introduced the children in the Butterfly classroom at Kinder Academy to the Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education’s Nature Preschool. Nature…
Education, climate change, and the “fierce urgency of now”
July 7, 2016By Mike Weilbacher, Executive Director
When a child graduates high school, the environmental education movement strives to make sure that student is environmentally literate—she understands how the world works, maybe even takes actions to improve environmental systems.
As the climate quickly changes, those graduates need to know about global warming. Martin Luther King, Jr., in a completely different context, referred to “the fierce urgency of now,” and environmental educators feel that urgency, as weather is warming, seasons are shifting, oceans are rising, glaciers are shrinking, the icecaps are melting, wildfires are raging, and species are disappearing at rates faster than…
Children Need Nature: Cultivating Connections at Nature Preschool
March 30, 2016By Shannon Wise, Nature Preschool Manager
Children Need Nature is a monthly blog column from our Nature Preschool program. Read more posts here.
At Nature Preschool, the foundation of community is vital to building a positive learning experience for the children. We value the relationships among families, children, and school. We invite our families and friends (from Schuylkill Center, Kinder Academy, and neighboring schools) throughout the year to share their talents, read stories, or participate in art activities to strengthen the bond and build comfort and trust among all of us. This spring, our preschoolers enjoyed many visits to meet new brothers…
SCH Academy Kindergarten partners with the Schuylkill Center
March 4, 2016By guest contributor Caitlin Sweeney, Kindergarten Teacher, Springside Chestnut Hill Academy
Springside Chestnut Hill Academy offers a variety of unique programs and student opportunities through The Sands Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership (CEL). CEL teaches entrepreneurial skills to prepare students for the ever-changing world ahead of them. Entrepreneurial skills are developed by channeling a child’s natural desire to learn by doing. Children are asked to look both locally and globally to solve problems by applying design thinking, collaboration, and financial literacy skills, as well as new media technologies.
Kindergarten’s CEL project this year was paired with our annual Animals in Winter unit. For this unit, each…
Children Need Nature: Nature Preschool Bread and Soup Night
March 3, 2016By Shannon Wise, Nature Preschool Manager
The winter is a time when many families cozy up indoors and enjoy quality time with one another. At the Nature Preschool, of course, we still venture out onto the with the children each day, asking questions and exploring the winter environment. This winter, the children from the Sweet Gums, Sycamores, and Sassafras rooms all wondered, “What do animals do to adapt?” This has been a common topic of interest at this time of the year and we were especially excited to build off of this for our main winter family event, Bread and…
Do I have your attention?
February 19, 2016By Gail Farmer, Director of Education
My son is in first grade and he is struggling. Struggling to sit still, struggling to be quiet, and struggling to give his teacher the long periods of undivided attention the schools are asking of our young children. His teacher has employed several positive strategies to try and help him meet the school district’s needs: he has a “wiggly seat” on his chair that helps him to stay in his seat, she has star charts for attending to the teacher, and most recently, a star chart to reward being “calm and quiet.” While I…
