NATURE
AS OUR
MUSE
By Amy Kremer-Treibly
NewGate Montessori IB School (Sarasota,
FL) approached the fall semester of 2020 with
a bit of insight into how the school year would
need to play out due to Covid concerns. I took
the idea of “play out” literally and started to
design an inquiry unit with nature as our muse
that could have us reading and writing in and
about the outdoors. My class was small and
old enough to drive to most of the field experiences,
and several of my students were
quite interested in photography, so photography
became a focal point for the unit as well,
pun intended!
Inspired by this student interest and by my
roots in experiential and outdoor education,
I found essays, Ted Talks, short films,
photo essays, and field experiences that
would allow us to learn and gather together
safely and to find the numerous benefits we
all know come from time experiencing and
reflecting on nature.
Over the course of the semester we travelled
all around our hometown of Sarasota, FL:
Historic Spanish Point in Osprey; Turtle
Beach and Midnight Pass, on the south end
of Siesta Key; and the mangrove tunnels on
South Lido Key. In these places, students
wandered, collected details of the environment
in their notebooks, read passages from
nature writers, wrote poems with words and
phrases taken from signage, surveyed seagrass
for the county, and took photographs.
Back in our Zoom rooms, we wrote reflections
and responses to the various forms of
‘texts’ we encountered.
Students practiced writing responses that
included summarizing skills and critical
thinking about the texts. Each response also
included a reflective component that asked
them how the text or experience related to
their personal development as human beings.
Enough of my words; now some of theirs:
“I learned that nature surprises us in many
ways when wandering ... I also learned that no
matter where you wander, it will always give
you satisfaction.
Thoreau felt that people stay inside all day because
of either their job or their responsibilities,
leaving them with a tight schedule that has little
room for them to enjoy the outdoors. I should
know, because I spend most of my days indoors
while going outside for almost half an hour to
get some vitamin D in my body.
Sadly, Thoreau would not approve of my
method because I know that it is important to
take a break from electronic devices and walk a
little. For Thoreau, in his own words, “you must
walk like a camel, which is said to be the only
beast that ruminates when walking.” What he
means is that when we walk, we tend to deeply
focus on certain topics that haven’t crossed our
minds.”
The Shining Sun
Much like a turtle
That lays in its shell,
I lay on the sand
And gaze the horizon view
The heron stands stiff
On the crescent beach,
Its lyric becomes a groan
While I settle on Midnight Pass
Ignoring what is known
And even though I lay so still
And make such a blind pass,
It’s as if I’m a crab
That digs deep in the ground,
Moving all over the beach.
—Jackson Prodger
“It's not a good habit for people to be inside
working and doing responsibilities all day. You
must get outside and walk to get rid of the ‘rust’
you have acquired sitting indoors. Thoreau extolled
the experience of getting outside into the
natural world to see, smell, and hear things you
cannot inside. In addition, letting go, not having
to worry about anything other than what you
are doing at this moment in time.
I completely believe that spending time outdoors
helps in many ways with the body. I have found
that going outside is very relaxing and being
able to breathe fresh air is refreshing. I find
going outside for 20 to 30 minutes is very good
12 TOMORROW'S CHILD © JANUARY 2021 WWW.MONTESSORI.ORG
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