Pictured above: Preschool students playing outdoors on a rainy winter day at the tree fondly known as "Yoda's Hut."
Bird Land...
Yoda’s Hut...
The Gulch...
The Corner Spot...
These are a few of the places that have been named over the years by preschool students at Friends School of Portland. Children learn intimately about the nature they are surrounded by. Ashley Blake and Jonathan Ewell witness this foundational experience every day in preschool at FSP.
Ashley shared a few of her thoughts about how children’s experiences, at an early age, in the outdoors form the foundation of appreciation and deep love for the natural world.
“Preschoolers explore new spaces in the forest and find their own connections, in developmentally accessible ways, to the natural elements around them. They practice being observers and thinkers. Children play with each other and find shared joy with peers, construct meaning as they think and talk about what they see, build curiosity and dig deeper into finding out more, and learn to move carefully and thoughtfully as they do.
“These magical moments in the forest are rich, developmentally appropriate, and joyful. It is very often that children will recall moments, in the forest, that felt meaningful to them. The children will request that we visit their very special and favorite natural spaces. These places matter to them because they’ve had an opportunity to build up a love of them. These experiences are a valuable and necessary first stop on the path to lifelong environmental stewardship. I believe that these experiences become the fertile soil from which they can grow into more intentional action.
“At the heart of environmental stewardship is an appreciation and deep love of our natural world. As children stop to notice and wonder about our outdoor explorations, they are building that foundation. This is done with intentional slowness and through the lens of simplicity.”