healthykids
nature for food, medicine and shelter. Through repetition over the course of the year, even the most stubborn couch potatoes become little Henry David Thoreaus. A favorite activity this fall was
Hitting the Trail with St. Peter’s Episcopal School
by Leonora Williamson
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach.” ~ Henry David Thoreau
K
ids today are spending less time than ever outdoors. Between shorter recesses, extracurricular
activities that require hours in the car, and the glittery allure of media, our children have less time than any gen- eration in history to climb trees, build outdoor forts or just lie in the grass and make characters out of the clouds. Many parents are full of nostalgia for “the way things were when we were little.”
Recognizing this, St. Peter’s Episco-
pal School has returned its students to the great outdoors. Through its unique Trailwise program, students in grades two through five spend a full day each month at the Chattanooga Arboretum and Nature Center (formerly Reflection Riding).
22 Chattanooga Under the leadership of Mark War-
ren, an author, naturalist and National Wildlife Federation awardee, the kids observe their surroundings and learn in an environment much less structured than their classrooms. They examine trees, analyzing the differences between species. They learn about wilderness safety and survival—about relying on
building squirrel houses. As the students searched the woods for squirrel nests, they learned about squirrels’ eating, living and mating habits. Suddenly, what the students previously might have considered just another pile of twigs jumped out to them as a crea- ture’s home. The students then collected materials to build their own squir- rel houses. For weeks afterwards, the hallways of St. Peter’s echoed with facts about squirrels, proving that nothing triggers learning like hands-on experi- ence.
Last spring, “Mr. Mark” taught the
children to build shelters. Using only twigs, branches and leaves, the children built structures adequate to provide human shelter from the elements for several days. Most exciting of all was when those students returned the fol- lowing month to find their shelters still intact. The “cool” factor of seeing the fruits of their labor withstand the test of time far surpassed the quick buzz of a video game. The students’ outdoor experiences
at Trailwise are reinforced in school life with daily walks. Every day, each class walks around campus for at least 20 minutes in addition to enjoying 30 to 45 minutes of recess and a full physical education and athletics program. If you stroll down the preschool hallway at St. Peter’s, you’ll see the nature collages the school’s youngest students make with the twigs, leaves and berries they find on their walks. If you drive onto campus, you might need to slow down
“I like Trailwise because we get to learn about nature, like
how to build a squirrel’s nest.” St. Peter’s second-grader
Photo © Bruce MacQueen/photoxpress
TNNaturalAwakenings.com
Photo © Marzanna Syncerz/photoxpress
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