Forest and Nature Early Years Practitioner (FNP)

Focus on designing outdoor play spaces to enable risk and create adventurous outdoor learning environments.

Please note: This microcredential is delivered in a hybrid format, meaning there is a combination of live virtual sessions, self-directed modules, and a three-hour in-person forest walk in your community, scheduled independently near the end of the microcredential.

• design outdoor play spaces to enable risk
• create outdoor learning environments geared for adventure and challenge
• structure risky play with assessment tools

Explore the world view of many Indigenous peoples that everything in the world is connected. Experience forest school land-based pedagogies and teachings, supported by an Elder. Participate in gratitude and reciprocity of the land to build deeper ecological connections.

• co-design culturally meaningful connections to nature spaces
• create opportunities for intergenerational/indigenous knowledge sharing
• evaluate reflective tools for pedagogical practice
• define your commitment to Truth and Reconciliation

Develop an inquiry-based pedagogy of outdoor learning through reflective narratives individually and with colleagues.

• critique mandated Ontario early year curriculums using an outdoor learning lens
• construct a teaching philosophy that aligns with outdoor pedagogy and practices
• develop a place-based child-led outdoor curriculum

Create a joint understanding of an outdoor living curriculum, in community, that challenges traditional fields of thought in education.  

• analyze the view of the child within an outdoor learning community
• critique the view of the educator through pedagogical narration
• re-conceptualize the outdoor curriculum with an environmental lens