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Curriculum

We trust that the individual child can best determine their educational needs in the moment. By respecting the individual learner, and responding to their inquiry with leading questions, a child can build on the knowledge they already have. By providing a safe, joyful and playful experience, our learners learn that the forest is a welcoming place. By living daily, seasonally, and yearly in the forest, our learners learn that it is a place they belong to. By using their natural curiosity, having their questions carefully considered, our learners learn to be lifelong learners. By running, jumping, climbing, wrecking, building, splashing, balancing, digging, and swinging, our learners learn to enjoy their physical fitness. By modeling peacemaking and respect, our learners learn to be peacemakers and respectful. By practicing gratitude, we all become grateful for the gifts of our natural world and the love all around us.

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We believe that making these connections is the first step toward learning about the natural world and becoming a steward of the environment. As all of this is happening, children will be using all of their senses while strengthening their physical bodies.

 

Children will be engaged in:

  • Authentic learning while engaged in place-based activities

  • Life skills such as self-care, self-advocacy, practical skills (cooking, gathering) and social skills (conflict resolution, emotional regulation)

  • Becoming good risk assessors by balancing, tree climbing, and other physical play

  • Using natural materials for art and construction

  • Emergent (child-led) curriculum

 

Children will learn to:

  • Notice if something is hurting a friend’s feelings or body

  • Respect others’ space and listen to their words

  • Think ahead (such as when planning to climb)

  • Assess their own abilities

  • Begin to take part in responsibility for their own safety

  • Express feelings with words, in a safe and effective way

 

Children will be engaged in:

  • Authentic learning while engaged in place-based activities

  • Life skills such as self-care, self-advocacy, practical skills (cooking, gathering) and social skills (conflict resolution, emotional regulation)

  • Becoming good risk assessors by balancing, tree climbing, and other physical play

  • Using natural materials for art and construction

  • Emergent (child-led) curriculum

We recognize that the Forest Learning Collective thrives on the ancestral land of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. This land was and continues to be of great importance to the Haudenosaunee people. Consistent with our values of community and inclusion, we have a responsibility to acknowledge, honor and make visible the collective's relationship to Native peoples.

© 2025 by Forest Learning Collective. 

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