The health of our earth depends on the degree to which all our children become environmentally aware, respectful of all life on our planet, and develop a healthy sense of appreciation and reverence for nature.

Through our Environmental Studies Program, Greenwood School reaffirms deep ecological values. One day each week, we explore away from the confinements of chairs and desks and go out into nature’s amazing classroom. Our task is to introduce children to the interconnections within nature, environmental stewardship, and sound environmental practices. We emphasize reverence for the earth, attunement to its rhythms, and awareness of the complexity and diversity of all life forms on it. 

In the early years, we foster environmental awareness by providing the children with opportunities to experience a sense of wonder and awe. Nature’s pace, the rhythms of the seasons, and the cycles of life and death are embraced. Children have the opportunity to delight in the simple sound of a bird’s song, in the sweet smell of freshly turned earth, and in the warmth of sunlight through the towering redwoods. Out of this loving, respectful interaction can grow a feeling of kinship with the earth.

One day each week, beginning in first grade and progressing through the eighth grade, class is held in a redwood grove, walking distance from the school; at Slide Ranch or Green Gulch, coastal farm settings near Muir Beach; or on a field trip exploring the biologically diverse and rich landscape of the Bay Area. The children are led on hikes, create nature crafts, write poetry, and observe natural processes with their naturalist/environmental studies teacher.

Environmental awareness comes naturally when integrated into a child’s early experience. Environmental Studies Day provides the children with opportunities to experience a sense of awe and wonder that fosters respect and compassion for all living things. Out of this wonder can grow a kinship with the earth and an appreciation of our relationship and our place within the whole. As the children reach the fifth through eighth grades, the Nature and Environmental Studies Program shifts focus from an emphasis on observation, wonder, discovery, and reverence to observation, question/hypothesis, inductive/deductive thought, and a capacity to move between a variety of mediums in expressing knowledge and what has been discovered.

For more information on the curriculum of the Environmental Studies Program at each grade level, in relation to National Science Standards, Waldorf Science Curriculum, and the California State Framework, click here.

View a video about the Environmental Studies Program that aired on KGO-TV  — “The View from the Bay”.