Supporting Students' Wellbeing Through Outdoor Explorations

In our pre-k program we believe that spending time outdoors is important in all aspects of children’s development. It supports their sensory development, builds resilience, and is a huge proponent in developing their gross and fine motor skills. We also believe that spending time in our natural surroundings sparks our sense of wonder and helps build a love for and a close bond with the land. This is a crucial relationship that needs to be developed as we ask our students to be stewards of the land around them.

The Scandinavian cultures have a philosophy, friluftsliv, which essentially translates to ‘open-air living’, and involves spending time outdoors for your well-being. Spending time outdoors together is a big part of family life as well as a way of developing a healthy work-life balance. This cultural philosophy is also part of the root of the development of the first forest schools which originated in Denmark. These pioneering educators inspired forest and nature programs all over the world, including the place-based and outdoor pieces of our own pre-K program.

This summer, thanks to the generosity of Richard and Donna Tadler P ’05 ’09 and the Tadler Grant, I was able to travel to Norway with my own family to explore this concept firsthand. To maximize our outdoor experience, we traveled in a camper and spent almost two weeks traversing the southern part of the country. We were awestruck at the beauty of the place and especially the diversity of landscapes that we encountered in just the small portion of the country we saw. In the rugged landscape, there are abundant opportunities for outdoor exploration, from hiking, biking, mountain climbing, surfing, skiing, and camping.

We arrived in the capital city, Oslo, where we explored for the morning before picking up our camper and hitting the road. We were most amazed to learn that because the country is so focused on caring for the environment, you can actually swim in the city harbor! Our first stop was Lillehammer, a small community in the mountains north of Oslo and host to the 1994 Winter Olympics. There I was able to visit the Birkebeiner Friluftsbarnehage (Birkebeiner Open Air Kindergarten), which is situated at the site of the Olympic ski stadium. Norway’s kindergartens are for ages 1-6, encompassing our daycare, preschool, and Kindergarten ages. Many Kindergartens have a theme such as music, sports, or nature/outdoors. This school is similar to GUS pre-K with a mix of indoor and outdoor time. Similar to GUS pre-K, they value building resilience, spending time in the forest, and working with loose parts both indoors and out to problem-solve and create. Norwegians especially love being outdoors in their long winter season! Families provide skis, bikes, and sleds for their children so they can enjoy those favored activities at school. The teachers and students at Birkebeiner were so welcoming and excited to have a visitor.

We then spent two days driving towards the second largest city, Bergen. This drive on narrow winding roads brought us through fir-forested mountains, valleys, and the Hardangervidda Plateau at 1500 meters (about 4000 ft) above sea level. We then entered the long tunnel and bridge systems under the mountains and over the fjords in the western part of the country. Bergen, the rainiest city in Norway, did its title justice. They say you can experience all four seasons in one day, and we came close! It poured rain off and on the entire time we were there, interspersed with sunny skies. There were times it was pouring on you and sunny only a mile away! This city really highlighted the outdoor focus of the culture. Almost every child we saw out walking with their family was in full rain gear. This city is surrounded by seven mountains, and we took a tram to the top of Mt. Fløyen, where there were hidden natural playgrounds scattered throughout the forest. There was even an outdoor children’s theater performance at the top of the mountain in the pouring rain!

In Bergen I was able to visit Fana Gård Og Friluftsbarnehage (Fana Farm and Outdoor Kindergarten). In contrast to the kindergarten in Lillehammer, this school, nestled into the steep forested hills of one of the mountains, spends almost their entire days outdoors. Their program is very place-based, similar to GUS. Anna, the director, explained that in addition to forming a connection to the land, it is important for their children to experience the traditional farming and fishing culture of Norway. Students participate in all aspects of farm life, caring for the animals, food growing, wood chopping, and even watching the butchering process of preparing food from their lambs and then cooking the meat over the fire. As they progress, children build upon their levels of responsibility with the older ones completing most tasks independently. 

They believe spending so much time outdoors helps to develop robust, resilient children, but is also important for creating a positive relationship with the outdoors. To this aim, the schools provide the infrastructure to support children in acclimatizing to the elements. They have spaces throughout the forest and fields for exploring with a variety of shelters from lean-tos, cabins, and lavvus (the tent structures used by the traditional Sami people). All of these shelters have fire pits for warmth and cooking. Young children in Norway often nap outdoors in strollers, at home and in schools, and at this school, they often nap in the shelters in the winter! In addition to the structures in the forest, they have roofed shelters and small dramatic play houses on their playground where the children can take their gear off for a break. They believe that through their program, they are helping their students become people who know themselves and what they are capable of. They know how to care for themselves and others, how to build trust, manage risks, foster independence, and solve problems, all contributing to becoming “good people,” as Anna put it, valuable members of society. This ideology really resonated with what we hope for our students at GUS!

Students all carry their own waterproof backpacks with their food and water on all adventures. In both places, the older children were able to show their responsibility with the ability to move around and play in spaces nearby without a teacher directly with them. With their multi-age groupings, encouraging olders to support youngers in managing their gear and building resilience. In Bergen, climbing the 7 mountains surrounding the city is a rite of passage for residents and visitors. In their final year at kindergarten, the 6-year-olds utilize all of the independence and resiliency skills they have built, and accomplish this rite by the end of the year! 

Leaving Bergen, we then spent the rest of our trip moving deeper into the magical fjord areas in the western part of the country. We camped in incredible locations alongside the still, chilly waterways and beneath what must have been hundreds of waterfalls. We felt fortunate to have brought our own rain gear so we could fully enjoy our time exploring and hiking even with the wet, chilly weather (it was in the 40s at night). Our favorite campground was in Jostedalsbreen National Park, along the shores of Oldevatnet, a milky blue icy glacial lake, nestled between high mountains surrounded by glaciers.

While this trip was very busy, my family was really able to slow down a bit and connect with each other. We returned feeling refreshed and energized from so much time in nature. I find that more time in nature definitely helps me feel more balanced in my daily life. I am excited to think about approaching our outdoor time and use of our spaces in pre-k with more intention, thoughtfully planning our explorations around how it supports both our, and the students’, well-being and relationship to the land.

About The Tadler Grant

The Tadler Grant provides extraordinary professional development opportunities to exemplary GUS teachers - who then bring those first-hand experiences and knowledge back to the classroom. Established by former Trustee Richard Tadler and his wife Donna P ’05 ’09, the grant has provided GUS faculty members with a wide range of amazing experiences, from attending educational conferences to traveling to foreign countries.