The following workshops and courses are offered by Forest School Canada/Child and Nature Alliance of Canada. Chloe and Wendy can facilitate these courses. Please click here for more information regarding these courses.
2-Day Workshops
Introduction to Forest and Nature School Workshop
This is an outdoor, experiential workshop for everyone interested in learning more about the theory and practice of Forest and Nature School (FNS). Participants will learn about play-based learning and how to support risky play (specifically, emergent curriculum and inquiry-driven learning), as well as the planning and delivery of FNS programs. Participants will leave the workshop with a broad understanding of FNS theory and practice and if they are educators, a sense of how they could interweave FNS into their current teaching practice.
Risky Play Workshop
This outdoor, experiential workshop explores the importance of risky play in childhood development, learning, and health. Participants will examine play types in both educational and recreational settings. They will explore how to support children engaging in risky play while still fulfilling their duty of caring for the child, for example, as an educator and/or care provider. Participants will also learn how to develop and conduct risk/benefit assessments, how to include children in the assessment and management of risk, and will examine how all of these risk assessments can be done within their own specific educational and/or recreational settings.
Forest and Nature School Practitioners’ Course
This course is an intensive, self-directed professional learning opportunity for educators and early-childhood educators who want to start taking children outdoors in their places of work. That said, the course is open to anyone. The course takes most educators 8-12 months to complete, and educators must commit to completing all course content in order to become a certified ‘Forest and Nature School Practitioner’ through Forest School Canada.
The course consists of a five-day intensive program (or modular 1-2 day approach) where all educators form a ‘community of practice’. These training days are physically and mentally engaging and are meant to be a transformative and immersive nature-based experience for those involved. Following or throughout these training days, educators launch into coursework, which includes developing a portfolio, various assignments and delivering(or observing) six practice Forest School sessions to a student group. This course will give participants the pedagogical and practical tools they need to safely and effectively establish and run their own quality Forest and Nature School programs.