This text is part of the Teachers’ Week special booklet
Whether it’s snowing or raining, good or bad weather, in the 4 and 5-year-old kindergarten classes at Marie-de-l’Incarnation college in Trois-Rivières, we go out (almost) two hours a day.
“It all started when all the schools had the opportunity to open 4-year-old kindergartens,” says Marylène Pinard, 4-year-old preschool teacher and instigator of the project. The Marie-de-l’Incarnation college then sought to stand out. The idea of offering classes integrating “nature pedagogy” then made its way. “We wanted to get away from everything electronic, and screens, do our teaching differently, and make up for the nature deficit of young people,” she explains.
The response to the initiative (both from the administration and from teachers and parents) was enthusiastic. It must be said that this project, as innovative as it is, honors the roots of this college founded by the Ursulines — just think of the Trifluvienne Estelle Lacoursière, nicknamed the “Green Sister”, an Ursuline who was a key figure in botany, in science popularization and in the fight for the preservation of the environment. “We wanted to build a bridge linking us to our heritage. We want to pursue the mission of the Ursulines, which is attention to the person, respect — respect for others, but also for the environment,” says Annie Cossette, 5-year-old preschool teacher.
Thought out even before the pandemic, these classes for 4-year-old kindergarten began in the fall of 2020, to extend this year to 5-year-old kindergarten. Nature pedagogy should be implemented in first cycle classes next year, and gradually thereafter for all students from primary to secondary school.
In contact with the environment
More than simply taking a normal lesson outside, nature pedagogy aims to use what is found outside for learning. “We are going to immerse ourselves directly in what we find in the environment”, explains Mr.me Cossette. The idea is not to add a different pedagogy to the others either, but to fit them together. We continue to follow the program of the Ministry of Education, but with creativity.
Skills are developed through action, through various themes. “In preschool, we have great flexibility in terms of the themes to be addressed, through which we work on the targeted skills,” adds Ms.me Cossette. The theme of winter, for example, makes it possible to practice writing by tracing letters in the snow, to observe animal tracks in the Ursulines’ garden or to work on gross motor skills through a racket.
In the classrooms, we go out twice a day (about an hour each time), rain or shine. “We have the clothes for that! The rain doesn’t stop us,” says M.me Pinard. The children can then bring back to class, on the nature experience table, their discoveries, which feed the lessons.
Wind of freshness
Bringing the class outside brings (sometimes literally) a breath of fresh air to learning. “We are not always enclosed; it does us just as much good,” says Camille Rousseau, a 4-year-old kindergarten teacher. Research shows, among other things, that spending more than 15 minutes outdoors provides physical and mental benefits. “We notice that children are more focused and calmer after an activity,” she notes.
“It also allows wonder. The child quietly discovers his community,” says Ms.me Cossette. Getting in touch with nature awakens children to the world around them. “We are in the process of training the citizens of tomorrow”, recalls Mme Pinard. The teachers hope to instill a sense of beauty and a taste for protecting the nature that surrounds us in toddlers, who will learn where the food we eat comes from (gardening) and where the waste goes (composting project). “We want to train children who will be nature smugglers”, summarizes Mme Pinard.
Even if the natural pedagogy poses some challenges for the teachers (adaptation according to weather conditions, patience for independent dressing), all are enthusiastic. “I find it extraordinary. They are inspiring, and it’s really a project, a pedagogy, which is close to their hearts,” says Marie-Pier Boucher, assistant director of preschool-primary pedagogy and in charge of the nature pedagogy committee.
The idea, it is hoped, could have offspring. Because, even in town, you can do nature education. “We are in downtown Trois-Rivières, recalls Mme Pinard, but there are parks, plants, trees. Even in the cement, life takes root. »