Learning in the World of Wonder: Michel Anderson helps children connect and learn in the natural world
Michel Anderson leads a tour of the garden, play areas and forest at the Waldorf school in Baltimore. Children help grow plants used to dye clothes, and chickens which produce eggs given to students on their birthdays.This note above the terrariums prompts children to understand the water cycle and sunlight exposure on plants.Terrariums in a windowed staircase enable students to pass by and observe the water and growth process.Paintings of nature are displayed in hallways. Note the attention to detail and how the images are stylized.Children used sticks, found items and small sculptures to build a miniature village.Teachers photograph children made projects during the garden and outdoor tour at the Waldorf School in Baltimore.Michel Anderson talks about some of the explorations and learning projects he and the children undertake at the outdoor after school program. Students have built shelters from sticks, searched for a colors in nature and created their own names for trees and animals. Anderson said the students also learn the common names, but that naming things themselves empowers the students. These names can be wonderfully descriptive and imaginative. Who could forget the Coconut Weirdo Tree?Michel Anderson talks about the need to keep the innate love of nature that children have, alive. The hours that children spend in observing and adventuring in the forest and gardens helps create that strong connection to the natural world.Willy Herrerra looks at the child made structure in the forest at the Waldorf School.Hay bales, purchased for a few dollars, provided a movable, changeable play structure for children.Michel Anderson supplies each child with a birthday egg. It is a big hit with the children at Waldorf. “If I forget, they will remind me”, Anderson said.
Leave a Reply