At Wild Fauna Nature Play we provide nature-rooted outdoor programs all year-round. 

 

Our mission is to provide enriching, child-led, educational learning programs - through play in the outdoors - to the children, youth & families of the Clarence-Rockland and Ottawa East-End community.

 

Learning takes place through the natural sciences of the rhythms of the seasons; and It is through observation, active listening, appropriate levels of risky-play, and child-lead curiosity that learning through these changes happen on the land. Mother Nature is the teacher, and we are her students.

 

Children are guided through hands-on learning activities that look like:

 

• Farm animal caring and the different stages of growth

• Land & animal tending through different seasons

• Learning to coexist with Wildlife, print tracking, scat identification, and learning

• about their natural habitats

• Homesteading principles (e.g. gardening from seed to harvest)

• Crafting with natural materials (e.g. tinder bundle foraging, basket weaving, shelter

• building, log structures, etc.)

• Environmental education & eco-consciousness

• Plant identification, foraging and making natural medicines

• Survival skills such as: building shelters, fire building, cooking on the fire, knots 

• Water anatomy & its importance in the ecosystem

• Storytelling, team building, and creative problem solving activities

• Mindfulness & forest bathing invitations

• Tree identification & learning about the different types of wood and their uses.

• Honorable harvesting 

• Indigenous cultural teachings (done in collaboration with Indigenous people)

 

Wild Fauna’s Farm, Forest & Nature School is based on much of the same philosophies& benefits outlined in the Forest School Pedagogy - Which started in the early 1950’s in Denmark.

 

“[Forest School takes] participants' holistic development into account, considering well-being, social connection, and environmental awareness just as important as (and arguably necessary for) academic achievement. Benefits associated with Forest School are improved mental and physical health (reducing stress and increasing physical fitness), support of emotional and social development, and the strengthening of participants' relationships to their local area and the greater natural world.” ~ (Forest Schooled, 2018)

 

Why Farm, Forest & Nature School?

 

• It provides an opportunity for children to expand individual awareness of environmental impacts, where food comes from, and their connection & appreciation to Nature & its living beings. This through their growing understanding & appreciation for the ecosystem, its diversity & trust in the science of Nature’s life-cycles.

 

• It provides individualized learning opportunities for children to build individual resilience, self-confidence & trust within themselves through an appropriate level of risk (e.g. climbing trees, building a fire, whittling sticks, etc.) due to the high adults to child ratios.

 

• It’s a more conducive learning & playing environment for children with Autism, ADHD, Down-Syndrome, and PMLD

 

• “Forest Schools provide an environment for individuals with profound and multiple learning disabilities to excel. This is in part due to the sensory curriculum, which is vital for individuals with disabilities.” Pavey (2007)

• “In terms of Forest Schools, Pavey (2007) found that children with autism perform better academically outdoors than indoors.”

• “Pavey (2007) observed that in the forest, children with severe disabilities often look and behave in a comparable way to other children.”

 

Ongoing studies have proven the benefits & importance of empowering children through:

 

• Child-led learning through free-play & curiosity, without the overinvolvement of adult intervention (Peter Gray, 2013; J. A. Patridge, 1955; Outdoor Play Canada)

• Time spent outdoors which in turn provides a whole-holistic health (Richard Louv, 2008)

• Spending time in gardens & with animals - as there is a persuasive amount of evidence of the benefits & therapeutic value of this. (Richard Louv, 2008)