Category: Education
Why Photography Camp?
July 24, 2014 By Elisabeth Zafiris, Manager of Public Programs
When you think about sending your child to a nature-based summer camp, you probably picture them frolicking among trees, worms, and birds, but do you see photography as a way to build a relationship with the natural world?
At the Schuylkill Center, we do. Last week we offered a nature photography camp for our eight- and nine-year-olds, culminating in their very own gallery show.
Engaging with nature through art offers a unique way to connect with the natural world, using all five senses. It’s a direct, yet play-based, experience that encourages critical thinking…
Why does Nature Preschool love nature?
June 30, 2014
By Anna Lehr Mueser, Public Relations Manager
At the end of our first year of Nature Preschool, the teachers, Shannon, Rebecca, and Nicole asked the children to share why they loved nature. The result? This delightful video:
http://youtu.be/Ok7T9_GCFD0
Children Need Nature is a monthly blog column from our Nature Preschool program. Read more posts here.
Kindness Week at Nature Preschool
May 27, 2014By Shannon Dryden, Preschool Manager and Lead Teacher
When people think of school and what children learn, it’s important to remember it’s not just reading, writing and arithmetic. Particularly in preschool, building social skills is key. At the Schuylkill Center Nature Preschool, the children have demonstrated how much they have learned about kindness, cooperation, relationships, and compassion. Throughout the year, we have built a community of trust and love between children, adults, and nature. This week, we celebrated all the kind acts of our children with a kindness week. (more…)
Nature Preschool goes camping
May 22, 2014By Rebecca Dhondt, Preschool Teacher
Last week Nature Preschool went camping right in our Tall Trees Playscape. We talked about camping, read about camping, sang about camping and probably dreamed about camping on our rest mats. Activities included playing in tents, snuggling in sleeping bags, hiking, using mess kits, learning about building fires and ‘roasting’ marshmallows.
After reading a camping story, the Nature Preschoolers were excited about creating their own camping story. We took the opportunity to teach about the parts of a story: beginning, middle and end; problem and solution; and characters and setting. After brainstorming we created this…
Local Food Culture in Philadelphia: A look at a growing movement
April 30, 2014By Daphne Churchill, Intern and Educator
A bright sunny Saturday draws you out for a morning walk. You look up the street and see the white tents with tables of fresh products: red radishes, leafy green lettuce, freshly cut flower bouquets, free-range eggs, fresh goat cheeses, liquid amber honeys. The tables are bountiful and the tents abundant. Neighbors chat with one another as they nibble free samples and discuss their purchases. You overhear growers converse about sustainable practices and their business with the consumers as they debate and make their purchases. This typical scene of a farmer’s market has become…
Learning and Growing with Nature Preschool
April 18, 2014By Shannon Dryden, Nature Preschool Manager & Lead Teacher
As the preschool manager and teacher at the Schuylkill Center Nature Preschool, it is so exciting to see the benefits of children spending time outdoors unfolding right before my eyes. The children have gained endurance and stamina since the beginning of the year. We now venture to ponds and places that are farther away on our trails and the children enjoy these excursions. For example after describing Wind Dance Pond, the children immediately began asking “Can we go there?” Nature Preschool took on the challenge and showed a tremendous amount of…
Find Nature – Philadelphia: Guest Post from Lauren Ferri
March 24, 2014By Lauren Ferri, posted from Finding Nature Philadelphia
Growing up in the suburbs of New York, I had a huge yard with plenty of space to roam and explore. I remember playing outdoors for hours as a child, unearthing rocks and breaking them open hoping to find gems. I would dig through the dirt, pretending to be an archaeologist looking for lost cities and treasures. We had a garden where I would help my mother harvest lettuce, cucumbers, eggplants and tomatoes. Fortunately I didn't have to leave my property to experience the beauty and wonder of nature. These experiences left…
Wild Turkeys: The Truth Behind the Bird
November 26, 2013By Mike Weilbacher, Executive Director
On Thursday, Americans of all shapes, sizes and colors gather around tables overflowing with colorful cornucopias of food. And whether that table includes cranberry sauce or couscous, tortellini or tortillas, the centerpiece of the meal is likely that quintessential American bird, the turkey.
Consider that turkey, one of our biggest natural neighbors. Likely one of your holiday plates includes an image of the tom turkey, chest all puffed out, strutting its stuff. That's not how turkeys appear in November. Sleeker, thinner, turkeys are now forming winter single-sex flocks, a tom and its brothers joining a…
Restoring childhood play… and Philly’s first nature preschool
December 6, 2012Gail Farmer, Director of Education
I was born in 1975, part of Generation X, probably the last generation whose parents felt comfortable sending their kids out into the neighborhood after school. “Go outside and be back by dinner,” was a common directive from my mother. My street ran along the bottom of an undeveloped hill, and “The Hill” was where my sisters and I went when my mom sent us outdoors. My childhood was also filled with Girl Scouts, dance classes and community soccer, but my best memories and my most formative experiences come from the times my mother wanted…
Tallamy Tabbed to Give the Inaugural Dick James Lecture
March 1, 2012The Schuylkill Center's founding director
Founding director. Outstanding teacher. Sharp wit. Leader. Acclaimed meteorologist. Radio and TV personality. Give Dick his due: he was a force to be reckoned with for decades.
To honor his accomplishments and reconnect to his legacy, the Schuylkill Center happily announces the establishment of the annual Richard L. James lecture. This year’s inaugural edition will be held Thursday, March 8 at 7:30 p.m. at the Cathedral Village auditorium.
Dr. Doug Tallamy, professor of entomology and author of the remarkable “Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants,” provides a visually compelling slide…
