Outdoor Learning Areas

Camp Herms: 1100 James Place El Cerrito, CA 94530

After students arrive we venture to Dog Patch. 

• We hold our community meetings around a fire pit surrounded by log benches. 

• We use tables under awnings/roofs as one of our work spaces.

•  There are also a variety of logs with flat tops for us to enjoy sitting and working on, when preferred. 

• We explore and tend to our garden that features:

  • plants for tea: rosemary, lemon balm, and some mint

  • flowers: yarrow, calendula, dahlia, coreopsis, borage, milkweed

  • edibles: ground cherry, borage

After setting our backpacks down, using the bathroom and getting our water, and conducting our morning meeting,  we prepare for our morning hike up to and around the Ridge. Our adventure may take anywhere from 30 to 50 minutes depending on what we are able to observe. Everyday is an awesome learning experience that can feature:

• animal identification: wild turkeys, deer, banana slugs, coyote, and a variety of birds especially Dark-eyed juncoes, Steller's jays, and hawks.

• plant identification: plantain, poison oak, Rooreh (formerly known as Miner's lettuce), poison hemlock, coast live oak also known as yuukis, eucalyptus, california bay laurel, douglas fir, pine, monterey cypress, cedar, california poppy, pineapple weed (wild chamomile), and many more...

• leadership experiences and wilderness safety training

Our hike is concluded when we return to Dog Patch for snack and sit spot. We sit among our cedar, redwood, and oak trees and invite the birds to join us for snack. We provide them with suet and peanuts and enjoy watching them for 20 minutes. This experience inspires awesome conversations filled with detailed observations, curiosity, and respect which also inspires our writing in our writing journals.

Literacy is structured for some whole group, small group, partner, and individual projects to support students in their individualized learning goals within our theme of appreciating each other and nature. Our community agreements are to be kind and be safe. We have a 20 minute work period, sometimes longer for some students who may be in the groove. Then the children choose a movement break, choices may include:

• gardening projects: weeding, watering, planting, digging, trimming grasses, etc.

• log climbing

• shelter building

• collaborative game playing

Children enjoy their breaks anywhere from 10-20 minutes then we return for another focused work period. 

Literacy is concluded around noon which is our lunch time. We tend to eat at Dog Patch but will venture to the Redwood Grove to enjoy the shade among redwoods and sequoias. 

The afternoon is a time for projects...(more descriptions coming soon...)