Informational meeting
There will be a parent info session Tuesday, July 26 at 6 p.m. at Red Bank Elementary to answer questions anyone has about the forest kindergarten.
The great outdoors won't just be seen through a window by Red Bank Elementary kindergarten students in the upcoming semester. Instead, each student will be granted the opportunity to learn in a more free-form, outdoor space through the school's new forest kindergarten program.
The program, championed by kindergarten teacher Samantha Eaton and Principal Haley Brown, will have students going outside for roughly two to three hours each day. It won't be recess, though. Once outside, the teacher will guide the students in a less direct way, giving them more freedom in what they want to learn and how they learn it.
The teacher might suggest the children go and find pairs of things in nature if that's what they've been studying in math, or find objects they can sort, Brown explained.
"We see kids all the time playing using the things they're learning in class," she said. "When kids are allowed to be free and direct their own discovery in that way, we see a lot of practice happen naturally."
Literacy is another skill the forest kindergarten will bolster, Brown said. By discovering and playing as they learn, the students will be more inspired to write and learn about the things that excite them.
"We expect enthusiasm and engagement to increase when it comes time to reflect on what they've learned," said Brown.
While there won't be a hard curriculum to adhere to, teachers are receiving special training over the summer to help them prepare for guiding the kids more once they're outdoors.
In addition, Red Bank Elementary has been in communication with Gilbert Elementary and the Wauhatchie School, both of which have their own forest kindergarten programs. Eaton spent time at both schools in the spring, and the partnerships she made will help support Red Bank's program.
"The parents have been really excited thus far," Brown said of the new Red Bank program. "I think there's a real desire for a kindergarten approach that seems more appropriate for 5-year-olds. I think it sets up a niche that has really been missing."
Brown said while there aren't any plans at RBE to increase other grades' outdoor time, the school will research how scalable the forest kindergarten is for the rest of the students. A greater emphasis on outdoor education, she said, would help create a more balanced curriculum overall.