Our Elements Outdoor Education Program (Grades 3-7)

Our outdoor education program connects children ages 8 to 12 with the natural world through experiential learning, sensory awareness, and meaningful relationships with the land. Each session follows a carefully structured rhythm that facilitates the transition from indoor classroom settings to outdoor learning. This structure builds focus, community, and deep engagement with the weekly themes. The curriculum rotates through fall's unique teaching opportunities: fire skills that build toward cooking over coals the students learn to tend themselves, seasonal leaf and acorn identification and crafting, reading the fall landscape for signs of wildlife preparing for winter, and harvest cooking with ingredients gathered from the season. Students gain a progressive understanding through experiential, discovery based activities and plenty of movement to stay engaged. Throughout the program, we adapt to fall weather conditions while maintaining our commitment to outdoor learning. This includes embracing muddy ground for tracking, practicing fire skills under tarps when it rains, and building in extra layers and movement breaks as temperatures cool. Through it all, children build confidence, resilience, and a relationship with the changing season around them. The program culminates in a harvest celebration, where students showcase their favorite skills, share a final cooked meal around the fire, and reflect together on ten weeks outdoors. Sessions are subject to change due to weather and group needs, but our preliminary schedule for fall is:

• Week 1: Welcome & Games

• Week 2: Fire Building Fundamentals

• Week 3: Wild Signs

• Week 4: Cooking Over Fire I

• Week 5: Fall Tree & Leaf ID + Leaf Craft

• Week 6: Acorns & Squirrels: Harvest Crafting

• Week 7: Fire Skills Progression & Natural Tinder

• Week 8: Cooking Over Fire II

• Week 9: Leaf & Acorn Nature Art

• Week 10: Harvest Celebration & Closing Fire