Enchanting the Forest
The word "enchant" comes from Latin roots that mean "to sing upon." To enchant a forest means, literally, to sing to it, and cultures around the world have historically sung to forests and other special landscapes. In this workshop, we'll walk the trails of HVNC, noticing the wild things around us engaging in word play along the way, including rhyming, alliteration, and onomatopoeia. When we reach the barn, we'll turn this word play into poems inspired by those in books The Lost Words and The Lost Spells by Robert Macfarlane. When we're done we'll speak, or sing for those brave enough, our poems out loud--thus enchanting HVNC's forest.
Andrea Lani is the author of Uphill Both Ways: Hiking toward Happiness on the Colorado Trail. As a Maine Master Naturalist, she teaches nature writing and nature journaling workshops around Maine.
A note to educators
There is immense value in getting students outside, even for short amounts of time, to explore the natural world. Research is continuing to show that taking kids outdoors benefits social-emotional learning and leads to greater focus when students return to the classroom. For many teachers, this may seem daunting for a plethora of reasons from short class blocks, behavioral concerns, ticks, access to trails, and the perceived difficulty of meeting learning goals in an unconventional setting. Teachers may also be new to learning about the ecology of their setting. This Naturalist Workshop Series is designed to help address the concerns and challenges of taking students outside and grow your comfort level facilitating class learning goals within and beyond the playground.
Each program will provide an opportunity to observe an educator teaching to a group of students. We will provide supplemental materials for teachers to bring back to school, content you can use with students, and time at the end to ask questions and brainstorm ways you can transfer the lesson to your school's unique setting.
We hope you will step outside with us and bring what you experience back to your schools!