Muddy Boots Nature Montessori
OUR NATURE OUTDOOR MONTESSORI EXPLORED
Muddy Boots Nature Montessori offers a blend of outdoor and indoor Montessori nature teachings which provides an opportunity for all children to experience the holistic connectedness, collaboration, adventure, and imagination that goes with learning through a nature environment. We believe that the richness of learning this, cannot be learned as deeply by listening to a teacher, watching a video or reading a book but by actually having the sensory interaction.
Dr. Maria Montessori philosophies together with the widely acclaimed forest school concept under pins our learning in Muddy Boots Nature Montessori and is integrated into our daily learning curriculum.
Our children have unlimited access to our outdoor environments and we encourage the enjoyment of these in all kinds of weather. We go on nature trails, expeditions, woodland walks, we build huts, collect nature materials for art and enjoy everyday the wonder of our natural world.
It is through these multi sensorial experiences that we hope to increase your child's love for learning and lay the foundations for becoming effective communicators and learners (NCCA 2009)
BENEFITS OF OUR NATURE OUTDOOR MONTESSORI EXPLORED
One of the key benefits of learning through an outdoor nature environment is the child's physical development by way of gross and fine motor skills. Outside, children have the room to run, jump, roll, climb and stretch as they wish, developing their gross motor skills and large muscle groups all of which are essential for developing skills like balance, depth, perception and co-ordination.
Additionally the world outside presents plenty of opportunities for fine motor development. The simple act of picking a dandelion requires complex fine motor skills. More structured Montessori activities for fine motor development include putting on their shoes and coat, planting seeds, collecting pebbles, tracing letters in the sand, sorting leaves of varying colours, jigsaws and peg work to name but a few.
There are also many cognitive benefits of outdoor nature learning. Intuitively, we all know that outdoors feeds the mind as much as the body and can provide a brain boost for children enabling them to focus more and learn more enjoyably. In terms of emotional health, outdoor learning presents a myriad of opportunities for children to build resilience and self confidence as they navigate the world around them.
Outdoor nature learning presents rich opportunities for children to build social skills through unstructured interactions with peers. In a Montessori nature environment these opportunities are more authentic as they provide children with the chance to learn valuable life skills like teamwork, negotiation, problem solving, verbal and non verbal communications and much more.
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OUR OUTDOOR ENVIRONMENT
We feel very lucky that our school is situated within a tranquil green setting, where we look upon rolling green fields, mature woodland trees, beautiful native gardens and happy farm animals. It is not unusual for the children to spot deer grazing beside the woodlands and native birds feeding from our bird feeders. The peaceful lull of the farming countryside forms the basis of our school classrooms where the chattering and laughter of the children perfectly compliment the garden birds and the buzzing bees.
The surrounding farmland is used by the children to learn about nature and animals, while also learning about how we care for nature around us. The classrooms raised organic garden and vegetable beds provide magical opportunities for children to discover the wonders of planting and the natural world of our small garden animals. These child size mini garden beds are where the children plant a variety of seasonal flowers and vegetables to be used in the classroom.
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