Knee High Nature
KNEE HIGH NATURE: professional development workshops for early childhood educators
Knee High Nature helps improve learning opportunities for very young children by providing science-focused professional development for early childhood educators and child care providers. In each of four different seasonal workshops offered by Four Winds Nature Institute's professional staff, participants are presented with natural science curriculum appropriate for children ages 3-6.
Knee High Nature is a nature study curriculum designed to increase children's awareness of, curiosity about, and appreciation of the natural world through investigation, creative and interactive play, and direct outdoor experiences. The units draw from children's own experiences outdoors with plenty of hands-on opportunities that encourage children to raise questions, explore objects and materials, spend time outside, make careful observations, share and discuss ideas.
Each professional development workshop includes:
- Two Seasonally Related Topics
- Natural Science Background Information
- Modeling and Active Participation In Hands-On Age-Appropriate Activities with attention to Early Learning Standards and Core Competencies
- Printed Guidelines and Teaching Materials
Knee High Nature workshops are offered in communities across Vermont and New Hampshire.
Fall's workshop themes include Sensational Spiders and the Miracle of Metamorphosis. We'll investigate the amazing life of spiders through song, interactive play, and outdoor observation of spiders and webs. Later, we'll experience the life stages of insects through role-playing and outdoor investigation, and we'll compare how different animals grow and change throughout their lives.
Click here for a registration form for the September 6 workshop in Lebanon, NH.
Click here for a registration form for the September 27 workshop in Pittsford, VT.
Click here for a registration form for the October 4 workshop in Springfield, VT.
The two themes for our Winter workshop are Animals in Winter and Track Detectives. We'll examine the various strategies animals use to survive winter through discovery games, questioning, imaginative play and a puppet show. Then we'll use tracks, patterns and traces as clues to discover animal habits and activity in winter through movement, games and track stories.
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