Crestview Takes a Walk on the Wild Side

Crestview Elementary students have the unique opportunity to learn hands-on about the natural environment right outside their classroom through the school’s partnership with Shepard Farm. Shepard Farm, managed by Dodge Nature Center, is a nature preserve with a historical farm and buildings that are used for agricultural and environmental education in Washington County. 

Each week, Shepard Farm’s naturalist, Michael Harrison, joins Crestview’s kindergarten, first and second-grade classrooms to teach science lessons about the natural world. Classrooms participate in nature walks in the wooded area behind the school and let their curiosity lead the lessons.

“The kids get so excited when they know we are going to have a nature walk day,” first-grade teacher Kayla Kieser said. “They love finding things to ask Mr. Michael about.”

“Last week we learned about milkweed seeds and how they use the wind to travel,” said first-grader Teagan Olson.

“We found a bumblebee sleeping in a flower,” said first-grader Olasunkanmi Ekundayo. “I never knew that bees and grasshoppers sleep.”

“A couple of weeks ago, we learned that dandelions exist all over the earth,” said first-grader Sully Allen.

“Did you know that leaves turn into dirt?” said first-grader Vivian Star.

For Naturalist Michael Harrison, these moments of student-led discovery are the ultimate goal. "When a child stops to ask how a pond dried up or why a mushroom is that color, that's the real learning beginning," he says. "Our role isn't to have all the answers, but to foster that innate sense of wonder.” 

The partnership between Crestview and Shepard Farm is helping cultivate a generation of curious observers and future stewards of the natural world. Their education is alive, growing and rooted in the world right outside their door.