Noted poet-educator Amy VanDerwater collaborates with Sheldrake Environmental Center naturalists and Mamaroneck teachers to design unique learning experiences for elementary students. This week, as elementary students have clicked open their daily distance learning plans, they have encountered some new and innovative offerings. Through an exciting collaboration, Mamaroneck students are taking weekly, virtual field trips to the nature reserves of Sheldrake Environmental Center and to the rural landscape of western New York where poet-educator Amy VanDerwater offers students an eye into her process as a writer. In a coordinated series of lessons each week, Mamaroneck students learn from Sheldrake naturalists to act like scientists, closely observing their environment for signs of spring, forest ecology, birds, and trees. From Ms. VanDerwater, students learn to "write wildly" from nature by taking an observant, inquiry stance and collecting ideas and sketches in nature journals. Mamaroneck teachers are embedding these resources into their daily learning plans and writing alongside their students, modeling how to craft words and images into nature poems, riddles, and other vibrant forms. Not only does this collaboration provide authentic learning experiences for children; it emphasizes the renewal and reassurance that the natural world provides each spring.
Click here to meet Sheldrake Environmental Center Executive Director Jennifer Keefe and the dynamic team of Sheldrake naturalists.
Read a review of Amy's latest poetry anthology, Write! Write! Write! in the New York Times Book Review.
Click below to enjoy a sampling of Mamaroneck students' writing at the end of the first week: © 2020 Mamaroneck Schools |