Nature-Wise: Environmental Programs for School, After-School, and Home

Nature-Wise: Explore the environment, our place in it,
and our power to protect all living things
Youth Engagement Programs for School, After-School, and Home
with Children’s Book Author, Literacy and the Environment Consultant Caroline Brewer
www.carolinebrewerbooks.com * caroline@carolinebrewerbooks.com

Nature-Wise helps children and teens understand and practice, on creative levels, that human beings are included in the definition of the environment. Protecting it is protecting us. We can’t protect what we don’t know or understand. The good news is that from our earliest days, we practice literacy and that opens a world of wondrous possibilities and opportunities to explore all the literacies — reading, writing, speaking, seeing, hearing, visual arts, music, dance, games, and so many more – as we dig deeper into the natural world, our place in it, and our power to be climate activists and better protect all living things.

With the Nature-wise Student Engagement Program, students will be treated to at least one of the following opportunities  based on a series of presentations:

  • Explore human and wildlife literacies, the environment as a love story and a reason to say their names
  • Engage with books that share paths for how to tap into our gifts, super-powers, and “somebodiness” as Dr. King explained, to explore our place in the natural world
  • Engage with books that help students get hooked on reading and writing and the exploration of a variety of literacies
  • Introduction to children’s literature on the environment and artistic responses to stories
  • Explore and respond to stories of “belonging” in nature
  • Explore the power of poetry to articulate feelings and observations about the environment
  • Meet local, national, and global environmental champions through books and online resources
  • Explore and evaluate wildlife (colors, shapes, patterns, textures, and behaviors of plants, animals, waterways, and humans) in our school and home neighborhoods; Create a neighborhood nature encyclopedia
  • Address fears about being outside and about various forms of wildlife
  • Create and play vocabulary games based on books and other literature
  • Write class and individual letters to authors and environmental champions
  • Create interview questions for environmental champions and authors
  • Create artwork inspired by stories and the work of environmental champions

*Professional Development Trainings for educators are also available. Email caroline@carolinebrewerbooks.com or Click here: https://carolinebrewerbooks.com/carolines-blog/nature-wise-reading-writing-probing-and-playing-in-the-outdoor-classroom/

NOTE: All photos in the graphic, except the Ghanaian child pointing to the garden egg in the garden, are images from the FREE e-book, Belonging: African Americans in Nature Photography Project, created by Nature Forward in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service’s Urban and Community Forestry Program.