Fostering a natural passion within our educators, children, and families for the well-being of the natural world. We provide a program that encourages children to respect and care for nature while our educator’s role model valuing others and the natural environment. Through our daily interactions we encourage children to view the beauty of the environment and we discuss and reflect upon our environmental practices with children.
Educators are reflective practitioners who learn about children using various strategies and informed best practices. They listen, observe, document, and discuss with other professionals, and families, to understand children as unique individuals. Educators consider their own practices and approaches and the impacts they have on children, families, and others. Through critical reflection, educators test long-standing views and taken-for-granted practices and consider new approaches and ways of thinking about their work.
Outdoor learning for both children and educators is about the process. This process values witnessing the children’s thinking, meaning making, and memories. When operating from a joyful disposition we recognize that opportunities for possibilities are endless.
Discovery values educators that manifest positivity in their daily lives through their words, actions, and habits. Every child, educator, and family has a sense of belonging when he or she is positively connected to others through supportive relationship and contributes to their natural world.
Draws upon the give and take relationship that exists between children, educators, and the environment. Educators engage in reciprocal relationships with families and caregivers, children, and the environment learning about, with, and from them. Discovery values the reciprocal relationship that is fostered through daily interactions with the natural world.
The process of reflection inspires a proactive mindset that Discovery values in all its educators. Planning for children’s learning in a natural environment involves a process that recognizes evaluating yourself, the environment, and experiences you are providing to enrich children’s learning and discovery experience.
Children, educators, families, and community partners working together in nature achieve a common goal. Discovery’s collaborative approach to learning values the process of engaging in critical thinking, problem solving, and reasoning skills. This process allows for educators to co-plan with children and with families
