Outdoor Education

Outdoor spaces at Canterbury School provide young children with a rich environment to explore, learn, and grow.

With access to 70 acres of natural settings—hiking trails, an orchard, a creek, and outdoor classrooms—along with visits to local nature preserves, and time spent in Lili’s Garden, a specially designed natural play space, children engage deeply with nature-based learning, including diverse ecosystems and seasonal changes. Embracing all weather, we teach students that every day brings new opportunities for natural discovery of the physical world around them.

Outdoor Education is essential for childhood development, offering benefits for physical health, curiosity, and social-emotional growth. Research highlights that time in nature fosters critical thinking, confidence, and a love for the environment, as well as skills like assessing and managing risks through activities such as balancing on logs or identifying plants.

Our curriculum focuses on learning in, about, and with nature. “Learning in nature” brings core content outdoors through teacher- and child-led activities, often using natural materials for hands-on math, science, and art. “Learning about nature” introduces environmental themes and scientific skills like observation, guided by units on plants, animals, and ecosystems. Finally, “learning with nature” taps into children’s spontaneous curiosity, with teachers encouraging extended child-led exploration on topics sparked by discoveries such as a bird’s nest or the sound of a stone on ice.