Category: Outdoor Learning

My first time going to the local art gallery was quite the experience. My knowledge of art galleries is scarce, but I had always wanted to visit one and boy, was it a life-changing experience seeing how people see art.

The “Hope” exhibition was a beautiful demonstration of the contemporary life of the artists. One piece in the exhibition stood out to me; it was called “Mother” by Keerat Kaur. This piece of pure art was so realistic that you could see the little peach fuzz on the lady’s face. This piece was a realistic painting, and Kaur also incorporated embroidery on the canvas of a life-like heart. Through this piece, one could feel the pride that Kaur wanted to demonstrate for mothers and grandmothers and the gift of life they give their children.

Keerat Kaur was one of many artists whose pieces were displayed in this exhibition. Each piece had its own demonstration of community and contemporary life in its own particular way. An exhibition like this would be amazing for students to experience in order for them to understand different cultures. I feel that the Two Rivers Gallery is a wonderful place to bring students so that they can learn to appreciate different types of artistic expression and maybe even get to explore their own artistic abilities.

In the future, I would love to bring my students on a field trip to the Two Rivers Gallery because I believe it is a wonderful place to discover art and allows the students to find art that resonates with them and that they connect with. It would be wonderful to get the students to participate in an art class where they can explore their individual artistic abilities.

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On a chilly yet beautiful Monday morning, our elementary cohort got to go on a peaceful adventure to West lake. When I stepped out of my car that morning, I immediately felt a sense of peace wash over me. The water of the lake was calm, and it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. I knew that we were in for a beautiful start to the day.

Not only did we get to enjoy this beautiful scenery, but we also got to explore the walking curriculum and really center ourselves with the land that we live on. In random groupings, we got prompt cards like “make a list of what you hear, see, smell,” etc. With these prompts, we were able to really focus on the quiet around us and notice the things that we may not have if we were too busy with the sound in our minds. During this trip to West Lake, my connection to the land grew stronger, and I was even tempted to start all my days at the lake, just taking a minute to think about the day.

In my future classroom, I plan to bring in as much of the walking curriculum as I can because I love being outdoors, and I believe that there is so much that we can learn from the land itself. Each piece of land has so many different stories behind it that it is our duty to at least learn a little bit about it. After this trip to West Lake, I might honestly start my morning out on the land to get that sense of peace that I felt when I arrived at the lake.