Lens on Outdoor Learning

by Wendy Banning, Ginny Sullivan

Overview

The outdoors is full of rich learning experiences for preschool and pre-kindergarten children. Lens on Outdoor Learning is filled with stories and colorful photographs that illustrate how the outdoors supports children's early learning. Each story is connected to an early learning standard such as curiosity and initiative; engagement and persistence; imagination, invention, and creativity; reasoning and problem-solving; risk-taking, responsibility, and confidence; reflection, application, and interpretation; and flexibility and resilience. Much of the teaching in these experiences is indirect and involves provisioning, observing, and conversing with children as they spend quality time in nature. Children's dialogue and actions are included in each story to show just how engaged they became during these experiences. Lens on Outdoor Learning will inspire early childhood professionals to use this outdoor approach in their own setting.

Wendy Banning is coordinator of Irvin Learning Farm, an inquiry-based, hands-on outdoor learning space for children and adults in North Carolina. She is also an educational consultant, teacher, trainer, and photographer.

Ginny Sullivan is co-principal of Learning by the Yard, a partnership of landscape architects and educators that helps schools develop their grounds as habitat, focusing on native plants. Ginny consults, trains teachers, and involves schools and centers in the design of their outdoor spaces to help children learn about the natural world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781605541853
Publisher:	Redleaf Press
Publication date:	11/23/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	7 MB

About the Author

Wendy Banning is program director of Irvin Learning Farm, a hands-on outdoor learning program for children and adults sited on Triangle Land Conservancy’s Irvin Farm Preserve. She is an educational consultant, trainer, and photographer, as well as an experienced teacher. Wendy co-founded an independent school in Chatham County, North Carolina, where she directed, taught, and trained teachers for fourteen years and where children spent several hours outdoors every day. A member of the North Carolina Outdoor Learning Environments Alliance, she is committed to quality outdoor learning environments and experiences for children.

Ginny Sullivan is a designer, teacher-educator, and co-principal of Learning by the Yard (learningbytheyard.com). She has taught and trained teachers at university laboratory schools, run a cooperative preschool, and directed an elementary school focused on the arts. As a design consultant, she has developed outdoor learning environments and trained teachers for Smart Start, Head Start, child care centers, and both public and private K-12 schools. Ginny completed her undergraduate work at Stanford University, received an MEd from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and holds an MA in landscape design from the Conway School of Landscape Design. Ginny lives and works in western Masachusetts.