Nurturing our relationship with the outside world

Some of my colleagues and I are are wrapping up at the Summer Symposium at the Opal School in Portland, OR.   We listened to inspiring teachers share their ideas with us. We also toured the classrooms where student work and example provocations were set out.  I captured some of those images to share with you.   I am so thrilled to share ideas with like-minded fellow educators.  This has been the most important moment of my teaching career thus far.
  
The overarching theme we were investigating was "Nurturing our relationship with the outside world."
Our speaker was Louise Boyd Cadwell, who happens to be our school consultant on the Reggio approach.  It was an interesting change to see her here in Portland instead of at school in Buffalo. 

This is what she had to say:  
1) We are wired in our DNA to connect to the natural world.  
2) We need to make sense out of the natural world with whatever materials are available to us.

These initial thoughts got me thinking.  Some kids have forgotten how to play outside.  They think they will have more fun playing video games. 

I vowed then and there to take my students outside every day, rain or shine for some unstructured time to explore.

Then we visited  the Opal classrooms.  This was one of my favorite parts because it really gave me a lot of ideas and inspiration. One thing that struck me as I was passing through the classrooms, was the beautiful provocations that were set up. What is a provocation?
A provocation is an like invitation to explore. A question and an arrangement of natural materials. An organized collection and an ever-evolving buffet of sensory objects.

For example, Can you make an arrangement (with the natural materials set out) and make a brand new thing that you didn't expect?
Could you create the feeling of being outdoors with the clay and sticks?
Your writing center itself can be a provocation!

Set the stage before an investigation, and ask the students questions.  "What will we see?" "What will we find?" "Can you tell a story with the materials?"

It has been said that everything we make, is in some way, a self -portrait. We learn a lot about children in this way.  Some may say even more than from Standardized tests.  But that is a touchy subject for another day... 


So what kind of knowledge are the children creating?  If you give them the opportunity to work outside, or at least bring natural objects inside, like leaves, sticks or flowers, they are starting from an instinctive place. Nature is a place of comfort for us.  Students can then use this instinctive knowledge of nature as the  platform upon which to test out their thoughts and ideas.  For me, this is the reason why the Reggio approach can work with any students from at-risk to gifted.  We all have nature in common.

Pick dandelions outside and verbally investigate them, graphically investigate them on the light table with yellow tissue paper.
Capture ideas with a writers notebook. Write not for a prompt but for an audience.  
Go out into the world.  The farmer's market?
These are just some ideas you could try with your children.

So what are your children's strengths? What languages do they speak? 
And finally, What can I hold on to from this post?