dressed for outdoor learning
“There’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.” This is one of those phrases that people toss around often in the nature community, and it is true, having the right clothing and gear is very important to enjoying the outdoors in a variety of weather conditions. The thing about this saying, however, is that high-quality outdoor clothing and gear can be a huge investment.
At Creekside Forest School, our preschoolers spend between 65% and 85% of their time outdoors. In fact, they get outside every single day, even on the rainiest spring days and most frigid winter days. The ability to get outdoors with preschoolers is dependent upon high-quality gear. Students are provided with all the gear they will need to feel dry, warm, and comfortable in all weather conditions. This gear is lent to the students, free of charge, for the whole school year.
While the gear allows for comfort, it also allows something much more important, accessibility. We know every student is being outfitted in the same quality gear. We partnered with SOKO Outfitters to establish our gear library and leaned into their guidance and expertise for the purchase of all of the items we provide our students.
For our rainy and muddy days, each student has sturdy rain boots, rain bibs, rain jackets, and rain hats. We have a class set of rain mittens we hand out as needed for those transitional weather days when the air is warm, but the water in Bena Brook is still chilly.
In winter, we provide snow boots, snow bibs, snow jackets, balaclavas, fleece mittens, waterproof mittens, and optional stocking caps (because sometimes a kid’s dinosaur hat is way cooler than a plain stocking cap). We also provide a preschool-sized backpack and a reusable snack container.
One of the best parts of our gear library, which deserves celebration, is that reusing our gear year after year has kept it out of the landfill!
Our gear has been used for five years, and while we occasionally have to replace items, like those pesky mittens that always seem to lose their match, the gear has held up extremely well.
We also regularly send items back to the manufacturer for repair, which is done at no charge. Creekside Forest School students don’t just wear their gear occasionally when it’s snowy or rainy, they wear some piece of gear almost every single day. Snow pants provide the warmth needed for exploring the woods and turning downed trees into an imaginary boat. Rain pants and boots let the kids stay dry while chasing frogs through the chilly spring waters.
Beyond the gear, our teachers send parents a message every night with suggestions of how to dress for the next day’s activities. Whether baselayers and mid layers are needed, and if it’s a balaclava day or not. We recently had a parent share that they had spent hours out playing in the snow as a family, because thanks to forest school, they know how to dress to enjoy it!
We are so grateful for the gear we are able to provide our students. The gear library allows them to adventure further, climb higher, and enjoy the beauty of nature in all seasons and all weather.