There is a certain magic that comes from sitting around a campfire. The warmth of the flames, the smell of the smoke, and the popping sounds from the burning wood cast a spell over all those gathered. 

“I like warming up and then going to play,” said kindergartner Florence H. “Then I come back again when I get cold.” 

Florence and her friends are gathered around a fire not high in the Uintas but in the play yard of the Beginning School. It’s part of the new expanded nature curriculum for the grade’s ongoing Switcharoo, time spent mixing Rowland Hall’s three kindergarten classes for various activities. Each week all the students are mixed up into different cohorts and take part in one of three activities: outdoor cooking and storytelling, nature-based art, or the study of birds.

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“I see a lot of benefit in letting them explore and learn outside,” said kindergarten teacher Mary Grace Ellison. “It’s a different way that their brains get to work and learn from nature and not from manipulatives and teachers.” 

The benefits of nature-based learning are well documented. Students of any age see gains in cognition, problem-solving abilities, and creativity.

The benefits of nature-based learning are well documented. Students of any age see gains in cognition, problem-solving abilities, and creativity. The time spent outside can help decrease anxiety, feelings of sadness, and loneliness, and improve mental health overall. It also can help improve physical health, increase coordination, and refine motor skills. 

“Any time we are outdoors it ticks all the boxes,” said kindergarten teacher Melanie Robbins. “It fulfills the sensory needs of the children, gives them new skills, and improves relationships and how they work together. It does it all.”

And this year’s Switcharoo program has a new nature element – from an unexpected place. Melanie was hiking in Norway’s countryside when she came across an outdoor classroom where students would come for hours, or even days, to learn in nature. After talking to the program director she decided to ask her fellow teachers if they could expand their nature studies by adding an outdoor cooking and storytelling component to it. They embraced the idea wholeheartedly. 

The new aspect of the program has led to the students exploring lessons normally not taught in kindergarten—fire safety, for example. Before they light the fire the children go over all the rules about how to behave around the fire, and what to do if a problem arises. Since they all know their time around the fire is a privilege they take the instructions very seriously.

“We don’t run around the fire, and we don’t go inside the circle around it,” said kindergartner C.J. L. “That way we all stay safe.” 

There are also new ways of learning being explored, which is how kindergarten teacher Bethany Stephensen ended up with a large bird nest outside of her classroom. The students examined a variety of bird nests and then built their own using tree limbs and sticks they collected from the play yards. 

“We took the first thing they all knew about birds, that they live in nests, and we built on it,” Bethany said. “Having this nest makes the learning more tangible. It’s concrete and real and they can play in it. That’s how children solidify their learning, through play.” 

While learning from nature, children are also gaining an appreciation for it.

While the children are learning from nature, they are also gaining an appreciation for it, not just in parks or preserves, but everywhere. After all, a tree isn’t any less important because it’s planted on a parking strip rather than in an arboretum. The students are also finding ways to give back to nature with projects like bird feeders for their feathered friends.

“Sun butter, pine cones, and seeds, that’s what we used,” said kindergartner Aldyn G. “I hung it at my house and a hundred birds came. Or eight. Or eighty.”

Students are also learning how to appreciate and care for each other. During these activities, they are not with their regular classmates, but with a mixture of friends from all three kindergarten sections, some they know from years past, and some they are meeting for the first time. 

“It feels like more of a community that way,” said kindergarten teacher Mimi Andrews. “And not just for the students, but the teachers too. We get to know all of the kindergartners, not just our classrooms.”

Connecting with the community, appreciating nature, and building skills that last a lifetime. A Switcheroo is as magical as the campfire at the center of the gathering and teaches lessons that will be remembered long after the last ember has gone out.

Academics