Twenty-two young learners in the Cariboo-Chilcotin school district are blazing the trail as the first class to attend the new nature kindergarten program at Marie Sharpe Elementary school, launched this September.

Each morning the nature kindergarteners take the school bus to Scout Island on the Secwepemc territory, where they spend most of their day outdoors exploring trails, forests and the beach. They go on a daily walkabout, discovering plants and creatures along the way. The adventurers often climb two big willow trees and play in the mud kitchen – an outdoor space with pots and buckets for mixing up mud pies.

As the weather gets chilly, the class can head indoors to the learning space at the Scout Island Nature Centre, a not-for-profit nature-education facility. However, the students aren’t shying away from the cold weather. Instead, they bundle up and go outside in short periods to play and learn about the snow and ice.

While nature kindergarten teacher Sylvia Swift carefully plans lessons and experiences around the outdoor learning environment, the program is also conducive to flexible and personalized learning. Swift explains, “there is a great sense of freedom when you have no walls and twenty-two children.” For example, children can choose to learn literacy by playing with rocks painted with the alphabet, matching names to pictures or drawing what they saw on their walkabout.

The nature kindergarteners are buddied up with Grade 6 students, who come visit them at Scout Island to take part in outdoor learning. The kindergarteners also visit Marie Sharpe Elementary once a week to participate in school activities with their buddies and use school resources, allowing them to stay connected to the Marie Sharpe community.  

Students achieve all the same learning outcomes as other kindergarteners, with a strong focus on Aboriginal perspectives, environmental stewardship and learning by doing – three important pieces of B.C.’s new curriculum.

Cariboo-Chilcotin isn’t the first district to open a nature kindergarten. Sooke school district launched a successful program at Sangster Elementary in 2012, Greater Victoria school district opened a Coastal Kindergarten in 2014 and Abbotsford school district opened two nature kindergarten programs in 2015.

At Swift’s nature kindergarten at Marie Sharpe Elementary, students are getting in touch with the natural world and embracing outdoor play. With such a strong foundation, these kindergarteners are sure to grow up to be well-rounded learners, on top of being responsible stewards of their environment.

Read more B.C. student success stories.