About this Nature-Based Training

Join us in Philadelphia for an engaging day of nature-based teacher training at The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education. This training will awaken your senses, kindle curiosity, and spark more ideas for outdoor learning with young children. 

This retreat brings together experts in the field of nature-based early learning to share ideas and practices, with a variety of workshops to choose from. ANBE will provide a professional development certificate at the conclusion of the event (pending 6 clock hours of approval). Please dress for the weather, as most of this training takes place outdoors, rain or shine. Coffee/tea with lite breakfast and lunch included on Saturday, but remember your canteen for drinks throughout the day. 

Note: We strive for zero waste during our training events; please bring your canteen for drinks.

Who Should Attend?

This training is ideal for educators, caregivers, and others working with young children ages 2 to 8. Our participants work in all kinds of settings, from nature-based schools and forest kindergartens to public schools, traditional preschools, HeadStart programs, childcare centers, daycare, and more. 

Workshop Descriptions

This retreat is packed with topics you will love! You can look forward to engaging, immersive sessions on the topics you need to learn, play, and explore with children outside. This retreat will include the following workshops:

Documentation and Building on Children's Interests

with Rachel Schwartzman

We all take a million photographs of children engaged in their work, yet those photos rarely get shared in meaningful ways. Through a dedicated practice of reflection meetings with students, teachers can grow an emergent curriculum based on the children's own interests and discoveries. By sharing images of the children's actual experiences reflected back to them, teachers are able to deepen the children's connection to the curriculum and to each other. In this workshop we will learn tools to simplify this practice for teachers, and explore the range of curricular connections our photographs afford.

Plants: The Elders and Their Gifts 

with Jamie Coyle

This immersive experience into the world of the rooted ones will open our eyes to all the the plant people share with us human folk. In nature and in our modern lives, plants are the floor boards that hold us and our wild neighbors up in so many ways. In this workshop, we will learn and marvel at all the many ways the plant people always have and always will take care of us.

Storytelling

with Melissa Sheppard

Storytelling is a beautiful way to connect with children and fosters imagination and comprehension. Those who love to read do so because they can get lost in a good book, they are transported, images appear in their mind. Storytelling is the foundation. Using natural materials, felted animals, story stones or simply our voices we'll practice some ways to bring stories to life.

Math in Nature

with Andrea Manka

We will discuss how to utilize your natural surroundings to teach student-centered mathematics. Our conversation will help you determine the materials you need, and do not need, to teach math outdoors. We will discuss scaffolding lessons in nature. Finding a way to not just teach math outdoors, but to reveal the math in nature.

**Presenter bios can be found on the registration page

LODGING OPTIONS

The following hotel is a short 15-20 minute drive away:

Hampton Inn at Plymouth Meeting

Recommended AirBnB Neighborhoods:

Chestnut Hill, Manayunk, and Roxborough 

Have questions? Email us at programs@anbe.org. Please note that all participants are required to complete this waiver during registration. Our refund policies are found here as well.