2. Introduction a. Philosophy EverWild’s Forest School provides children with meaningful outdoor experiences and high-quality mentorship in Los Angeles' canyons, beaches, wetlands, and wild spaces. Encompassing forest-school and place-based learning philosophies, children spend 100% of their day outdoors, immersed in the local environment and alongside nature-based mentors. Children are guided by nature as they play, explore, discover, and create. EverWild Mentors support deeper learning through project-based learning. Mentors develop projects based on children's interests, naturally occurring events in nature, environmental stewardship skills, and Next Generation Science Standards. EverWild enhances children's social and emotional development, 21st-century skills, and ecological literacy. We believe in creating opportunities for children to become nature-connected, passionate, and innovative life-long learners with the desire to protect and care for all living things.
b. Learning: The EverWild Way Place-Based Learning Before we can ask a child to help the Earth they must first build a relationship with it. Place-based learning immerses children in their immediate environment. Placing children directly in nature supports their understanding of the local environment, knowledge of Earth’s living systems, and guides them to discover their place within it. As the child grows, the complexity and richness of their environment and knowledge of a particular place expands in breadth and depth. When a child has a meaningful relationship to nature they feel compelled and driven to care for it, protect it, and replenish it. We incorporate environmental conservation and stewardship skills into each class. We have organically led and have been led by the children to clean our streams and estuaries, to pick up trash from the beach and our canyons, and to support nature in the removal of invasive plants and regrowth of native plants. Aside from planned environmental conservation efforts led by our mentors and visiting community experts, children often utilize their autonomy in our program to create environmental projects and practice environmental stewardship skills in each of our classes. Project-Based Learning Project-based learning provides the opportunity for gaining more knowledge about the natural environment and supports the development of the child's 21st century skills. Projects are driven by the group's interests and naturally occurring events in nature in collaboration with group members and with the support of qualified
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