Our Approach

Our forest school curriculum is designed to build ecological understanding alongside practical skills for resilience, self-reliance, and stewardship. Key areas of learning include:

Naturalist knowledge

• Wildlife observation: getting to know the animals who share our environment and how they live, including direct observation and tracking their movement through the landscape
• Birds and bird language: learning about different species of birds, how they communicate, and what we can learn from them about our surroundings
• Plants and trees: learning how to identify plants and trees, and how we can use them (medicinal, edible, and practical uses)

Wilderness skill development

• Hazards and risk management: learning to identify and assess things that could be harmful in our environment, and navigate them safely
• Outdoor and survival skills: drawing on nature to meet our basic needs – fire, water, shelter, food. Skills like fire-building, carving, shelter-building, navigation, and crafting using natural materials.

We believe that children and youth learn best when they’re trusted, supported, and immersed in the natural world. Our mentorship-based approach encourages participants to follow their curiosity, take healthy risks, and direct their own learning at their own pace, in their own way.

Mentors don’t just teach—they listen, observe, and gently guide. They use nature as the classroom, drawing on each season, animal track, birdsong, and moment of wonder to spark meaningful learning. Mentors create safe, supportive environments where participants engage directly with nature, learn by doing, build confidence through challenge and play, and develop a deep, lasting connection to the land.

Some key methods we use include:

• Place-based: Fostering a sense of place by directly interacting with local heritage, cultures and landscapes.
• Experiential learning: Learning through direct experience, hands-on skill development and crafting, and personal reflection
• Inquiry-based: Encouraging participants to pose questions and actively seek their own answers
• Play-based: Incorporation of self-directed and facilitated learning through play, including natural loose parts
• Cross-curricular learning: Conscious design and integration of multiple subjects

In practice, forest school participants experience our teaching approach through fun, passion-driven activities, games and experiences. Some of these include:

• Wandering through nature
• Singing and storytelling
• Playing nature-based games
• Practicing wilderness skills & crafts (eg. friction fire, shelter building, basket weaving, carving using carving tools)
• Nature journaling and other activities that help to expand awareness and observation
• Sharing gratitude as a group
• Sitting quietly in nature to listen, observe and learn

Each day is guided by seasonal rhythms, group energy, and individual interests, with mentors shaping the experience in real time.

Pine’s nature programs help children and youth build a deep love of nature, and that connection leads to so much more. While participants gain practical, measurable skills like identifying plants and animals, they also experience meaningful personal growth that extends far beyond the parks. 

People who join Pine:

• Love learning
• Value community
• Practice resilience and confidence
• Are physically and mentally healthier
• Respect the land, its history, and its people
• Grow into caring and thoughtful leaders and environmental stewards

In a recent survey, 99% of parents reported that Pine’s nature connection programs positively impacted their child’s connection to nature, social and relationship skills, mental and physical health, personal growth and learning outcomes.