Garrison School Environmental Education
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  • HOME
  • ABOUT
  • MISSION
    • COMMITTEE CHARGE
    • CREATING STEWARDS OF THE NATURAL WORLD
    • ESSENTIAL DEFINITIONS
    • NATURE'S BENEFITS FOR CHILDREN
  • PROGRAMS
    • FOREST FRIDAYS
    • HUDSON VALLEY SEED
    • NATIVE GARDEN
    • SCHOOL FOREST DAY
    • YOUTH CLIMATE SUMMIT
  • SCHOOL FOREST
    • HISTORY
    • VISITOR GUIDELINES
    • HHLT PROPOSAL
  • STUDENT RESOURCES
  • TEACHER RESOURCES
    • BOOKS & FIELD GUIDES
    • EXPLORE NATURAL SCIENCE >
      • ANIMALS
      • CITIZEN SCIENCE
      • CLIMATE CHANGE
      • GEOGRAPHY & MAPPING
      • GEOLOGY
      • INVASIVE SPECIES
      • MIGRATION
      • PLANTS
      • STREAMS, SWAMPS & VERNAL POOLS
      • TREES & FORESTS
      • WATER
      • WEATHER
    • GRANTS
    • HEALTH & SAFETY
    • HOW TO TEACH OUTDOORS
    • HUDSON HIGHLANDS TOPICS >
      • HUDSON HIGHLANDS FOLKLORE
      • HUDSON RIVER
      • LOCAL CONSERVATION HISTORY
      • REVOLUTIONARY WAR HISTORY
    • LESSON PLANS >
      • GRADES K-2
      • GRADES 3-5
      • GRADES 6-8
      • GRADES K-8
    • ORGANIZATIONS
  • SOURCES
  • JOIN US
  • CONTACT
  • NEWS
  • MAP
  Garrison School Environmental Education

HOW TO TEACH OUTDOORS

to look closely

2/25/2016

 
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In Laurie Rubin's book To Look Closely: Science and Literacy in the Natural World, Rubin reflects on what she learned by taking her second grade students outdoors for weekly stream study excursions. Rubin taught first and second grade in Ithaca, New York for 23 years. In To Look Closely, Rubin chronicles a year of experiences at the stream. She shares strategies for teaching outdoors, and discusses how to integrate the skills students acquire through nature study into every subject.
"Today my belief in an integrated learning experience for my students remains resolute. I am confident that such an experience can be developed within the context of the ever-shifting state and federal learning standards. I am convinced that nature study is the child-centered program that can integrate critical thinking skills in science, mathematics, and language arts." - Laurie rubin


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nature as a classroom guide

2/7/2016

 
The David Suzuki Foundation of Vancouver, British Columbia published the Nature as a Classroom guide for teachers in April 2015. The Foundation developed the guide after holding a series of teacher workshops, in which teachers discussed strategies for teaching outdoors and brainstormed ways to reduce barriers to taking students outside.
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observe, describe, wonder

2/7/2016

 
Journey North, a global study of wildlife migration and seasonal change, is a free internet-based program presented by Annenberg Learner, a division of the Annenberg Foundation. Journey North engages students and citizen scientists around the globe in tracking wildlife migration and seasonal change. Journey North offers the teacher guide Observe, Describe, Wonder: Building Inquiry Into Instruction. This resource helps teachers to:
  1. Create a climate for inquiry
  2. Support productive discussions
  3. Encourage students to ask "how do we know what we know?"
  4. Support students in generating questions
  5. Plan science investigations with students
  6. Support students in gathering data
  7. Help students make sense of data
  8. Help students review science research critically
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foss science notebooks

2/7/2016

 
The Lawrence Hall of Science at the University of California, Berkeley developed the Full Option Science System (FOSS) curriculum. The FOSS program offers science notebook resources for teachers designed for grades K-2, grades 3-6, and middle school.
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sharing nature®

2/7/2016

 
Teachers will enjoy using Joseph Cornell's ​Sharing Nature: Nature Awareness Activities for All Ages as a guide to teaching about nature outdoors. The book is engagingly written, beautifully-designed, and small enough to fit into a backpack.
"TO CREATE A SOCIETY THAT TRULY LOVES AND REVERES THE NATURAL WORLD, WE MUST OFFER ITS CITIZENS LIFE-CHANGING EXPERIENCES IN NATURE." — JOSEPH BHARAT CORNELL
Cornell advocates the "Flow Learning™ sequence." He discusses Flow Learning in the video above. Stage one involves activities that awaken enthusiasm, with the goal of fostering playfulness and alertness. Stage two involves activities that focus attention. Receptivity is the goal of these activities. Stage three offers direct experience to participants, with activities that promote communing with nature. And, in stage four, participants share inspiration by engaging in activities that promote idealism. Cornell provides the age level for each of his activities. The “Sound Map” activity, for instance, helps to focus the attention of children (and adults) ages 5 and older. 
The Sharing Nature website offers a free sample of the book for download. Teachers and parents may borrow the book from the Mid-Hudson Library System.
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Sharing Nature® Worldwide. "Flow Learning." Online video clip. Sharing Nature® Worldwide. Sharing Nature® Worldwide, 2015. Web. 22 Feb. 2016. Used with permission of Sharing Nature® Worldwide.

    TEACHING OUTDOORS

    This collection of resources provides inspiration and strategies for teachers to support outdoor learning opportunities.

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    February 2016

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Garrison Union Free School, 1100 Route 9D, Garrison, NY 10524
Phone: 845-424-3689  |  Fax: 845-424-4733