When students arrive at Wild Wonders, we start the day with social-emotional development by meeting as a group to talk about how people are feeling and our hopes for the day. From here, we plan our day as a group! Some students will want to revisit topics from previous weeks while others want a new adventure. After checking in with ourselves and our friends, we set off on our journey for the day!

Every day will look different, but each class will have significant time dedicated to exploration. During these times, students will get a chance to explore their surroundings, work with peers to build and create as they see fit, and take a closer look at whatever they find interesting. Exploration time can last for ten minutes or take the whole class depending on the student’s desires. Often, explore time is when students will learn independence, develop their creativity, test their boundaries to gain physical strength and confidence, create connections and empathize with others, and discover the smallest things that they find fascinating.

The rest of the day-to-day occurrences at Wild Wonders varies. Some days we focus on team building or different technical skills such as fort building or gardening. Other days we build on traditional classroom learning by offering real-world applications of scientific, mathematical, and historical concepts.

Students will end the day with time for self reflection which often takes the form of a sit spot. Sit spots are short periods of time where students pick a spot in the woods that they feel connected to and they sit, lay, or stand in or near that spot to reflect on what they did during the day. Younger students may request to accompany other students at their sit spot, and this is encouraged!