Our Approach
At Washington Outdoor School, we cultivate learning and growth in joyful partnership with nature and our community. We believe interacting with nature encourages a sense of place, awakens curiosity and creates healthy minds and bodies.
Our work is based on core values of strong communities, equal access to outdoor adventures, and stewardship of our natural world. We are a year-round program and children experience the natural world in all types of weather.
Celebrating over 10 years of nature based education in Kittitas County, we are excited to welcome new opportunities for children and families.
When your child participates in our program, they gain skills and enjoy experiences that are not possible in a four walled classroom. Our teachers integrate academic skill building into daily exploration of the natural world.
Every day is different at outdoor school and we embrace the world nature offers us and dive in with wonder and gratitude.
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Develop observation skills by slowing down and using our senses to take in information in our environment.
Plant and animal behavior and interaction reflection
Cycles and patterns in nature (life, hydro, rock…)
Identifying and classifying (plants, rocks, insects, animals, soils, waterbodies…)
Mapping and orienting to place (landmarks, directions, routes, tracking)
Predicting weather based on sky conditions and air movement
Writing, journaling, and recording observations
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Inquiry Cycle- Ask, Investigate, Create, Discuss, Reflect
Students are guided in asking questions about a focus topic. We form a plan about how to get the information needed and the students decide how they will record this information to make something to show what they have learned to present to a peer, teacher, parent, community member. The students then get feedback and have time to reflect on the process and to improve on it or to form a new inquiry into something else.
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Examine positive and negative impacts.
Leave no trace! Participate in keeping the areas explored clean.
Weigh needs and wants work toward sustainable habits.
Work at solving problems through the inquiry process.
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Fresh air and less exposure to illness.
Build coordination, gross motor skills, body strength, and confidence.
Resilience and preparation for any weather condition.
Exercise and endurance.
Collaborative proactive solutions (Teaching staff identify challenges and work with the child proactively to come up with reasonable strategies to solve problems).
Evaluation of risk in the natural environment and adapting to the conditions.
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Literacy skills integrate into nature immersion: “The sand at the star on the hill is slippery and we love to be there when it is sunny outside, but when it is windy we seek shelter under the sandstone cliffs nearby.”
Pre-writing skills are reinforced when we write in the sand with our fingers or sticks and spend time in a sit spot then writing about or draw our experiences in our journals on our own or with teacher support.
Math skills are reinforced when we spend time constructing forts or keep track of the number of wooly caterpillars we find in the Fall or graphing our favorite outdoor activities using natural materials to build the graph, fir cones become units of measure, sticks become the lines of the graph. Motor memory becomes physical memory that becomes a part of a child’s lived experience.
Social Emotional skills are strengthened and reinforced throughout every day as we manage our bodies in an ever changing environment, cooperate with our peers and teachers along trails that offer obstacles and frequent opportunities to work together.
Early Learning (Ages 0-6)
Washington Outdoor School sees learning as a continuum, and our Early Learning Program offers opportunities for our youngest learners to explore the natural world at their pace and from their perspective. WOS integrates outdoor child-led exploration, observation, and forest play.
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This unique child with caregiver class offers outdoor experiences for children as young as newborns and the opportunity for families to create community with other caregivers. The class will end at the Roslyn Library just in time for the library's Storytime and Craft program!
The class is an introduction to nature based, outdoor immersion learning. Parents and children socialize with other families as they learn, grow, and discover the wonders of the natural world.
Upper County: Tuesdays 9:45am-11:15am
Program Focus:
Learning a routine, multi-sensory (sight, sound, touch, smell) child led learning inspired by nature, songs, stories, art projects, listening and speaking, developing fine and gross motor skills, develop confidence and resilience.
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This class is for children that are ready to be on their own for an extended amount of time. They can manage their toileting and dressing and undressing with little help, and can carry their own backpack.
Upper County: Tuesdays & Thursdays 8:30am-12:30pm
Program Focus
Social Emotional:
This program is primarily child led and encourages children to develop and follow their own interests and imaginations within the structure of a daily routine. The daily routine encourages children to follow guidelines and abide by rules to keep us safe. Children build and develop relationships with peers and adults. Children are encouraged in self expression and learn and practice strategies to manage social challenges such as taking turns, taking breaks and sharing.
We celebrate and learn about our similarities and differences and embrace diverse perspectives, experiences, family structures, languages and traditions.
Physical:
Develop and improve gross-motor skills through hiking, climbing, balancing and other actions required to maneuver in our ever changing natural environment. We develop fine-motor skills through practical activities such managing our own gear: opening and closing backpacks, snack boxes, food packaging, mittens/gloves, hats, boots; along with utilizing art materials such as pencils, crayons, markers, paint, and scissors.
Cognitive:
Multi-sensory exploration and inquiry using all our senses to learn from nature in a variety of weather and seasons.
Math:
Sort materials by various quality, size, shape, color.
Expand counting skills (from 0 working towards 10 then 31 and beyond ) with various games and materials such as the calendar, hide and seek and counters such as stones, pinecones, sticks, and begin recognizing written numbers and practice writing them. Work to recognize a set of 4 items without counting and be able to combine sets and beginning addition.
Use spatial awareness and problem solving through cooperative activities in nature, i.e. forts, dens and working with natural materials and classmates in realistic situations
Language:
Expand vocabulary through speaking and listening. Learn new words in a variety of languages including Indigenous and family languages represented in the class. Listen to stories, make predictions, become aware of the structure of how language is represented in writing (left to right top to bottom). Bring awareness to words that begin with the same sound and rhyming words though games and hand play.
Begin to develop awareness of letter sounds and blending sounds together through written print, games and activities. Begin writing to represent ideas first as shapes that represent written language moving towards learning to form letters in their name and other letters in the alphabet.
Science:
The natural world ignites curiosity and children are encouraged to ask questions, make predictions and identify ways to find answers. They use tools such as magnifying glasses, binoculars, shovels, sticks, containers, tape measures, shadows, compass, clocks and more to observe, build, measure, and record findings and observations. Students are encouraged to go deeper when our interest is peaked and we want to know more about something we have observed or experienced.
Social Studies:
Explore our connection to family and place. Explore family relationships and traditions of our own, the communities we are a part of including the natural world. Begin to express own feelings and beliefs.
Washington Outdoor School utilizes the Since Time Immemorial Curriculum to gain an understanding of our connection to the place we live from the perspectives of the Native people of the Pacific Northwest who have lived on and stewarded the lands on which we live since time immemorial.
Become familiar with landmarks, sun, shadow and directions to navigate local areas and favorite spots.
Arts: (Visual and Performance):
Children are exposed to various art mediums. Songs with movements, story telling, dances, and dramatic play, cutting, pasting, sticking, painting with a variety of materials. Children are given great freedom in this area to express themselves and to develop their own interests.
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This is a weekly class focusing on nature-based Inquiry exploration for students in Preschool through 5th Grade.
It is a perfect opportunity for homeschool families to connect with others in an organic group that is reflective of community learning.
Families can choose this as an independent class or opt to add it to a Preschool or K-2nd program schedule.
Lower County: Friday 8:30-12:30
Program Focus
Social Emotional:
We utilize the Plant Teachings for Growing Social Emotional Skills, Cultivating Resiliency and Wellbeing with Northwest Plants curriculum.
We explore ways of being, acting, and reacting, inspired by Coast Salish Indigenous teachings of plants that help us learn to live a balanced life that embraces and celebrates diversity and gives us strategies to manage life's challenges.
Physical:
Continued physical development and stamina to improve gross-motor skills through hiking, climbing, balancing, bending, twisting reaching and other actions required to maneuver in our ever changing natural environment. Games and activities that require throwing and catching, dodging, and striking (with bat/stick) to develop aim and accuracy and agility.
We develop fine-motor skills as we manage our own gear- opening and closing backpacks, snack boxes, food packaging, mittens/gloves, hats, boots, along with using art materials such as pencils, crayons, markers, paint, and scissors.
Cognitive:
Multi-sensory exploration and inquiry using all our senses to learn from nature in a variety of weather and seasons.
Social Studies and Science:
Through exploration and project based learning in the natural world, we will use various lenses of Social Studies and Science. We will utilize the Since Time Immemorial curriculum along with inquiry concepts: form (what is it?) , function (how it works?), causation( why is it like that?) connections, responsibility and reflection.
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0-3 w/Caregiver: Upper County Class will meet at Episcopal Church of the Resurrection in Roslyn.
Nature Fridays: Ellensburg Class will take place at Paul Rogers Wildlife Park or McElroy Park.
Homeschool Explorers: Upper County Program will take place in the Roslyn Urban Forest. The drop off point for most of our programs is at the Episcopal Church in Roslyn. At times we may meet in other areas for special events or field trips. We hike and explore the areas in and around the Roslyn Urban Forest.
School Age (K-8th Grade)
Our School Age Program offers opportunities for older learners including supplemental learning for Home Schooled students.
WOS ingrates outdoor child-led exploration, observation and forest play with inquiry and project-based learning, the Since Time Immemorial Curriculum, and The Plant Teachings Curriculum.
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This is a weekly class focusing on nature-based Inquiry exploration for students in Preschool through 5th Grade.
It is a perfect opportunity for homeschool families to connect with others in an organic group that is reflective of community learning.
Families can choose this as an independent class or opt to add it to a Preschool or K-2nd program schedule.
Lower County: Fridays 8:30-12:30
Program Focus
Social Emotional:
We utilize the Plant Teachings for Growing Social Emotional Skills, Cultivating Resiliency and Wellbeing with Northwest Plants curriculum.
We explore ways of being, acting, and reacting, inspired by Coast Salish Indigenous teachings of plants that help us learn to live a balanced life that embraces and celebrates diversity and gives us strategies to manage life's challenges.
Physical:
Continued physical development and stamina to improve gross-motor skills through hiking, climbing, balancing, bending, twisting reaching and other actions required to maneuver in our ever changing natural environment. Games and activities that require throwing and catching, dodging, and striking (with bat/stick) to develop aim and accuracy and agility.
We develop fine-motor skills as we manage our own gear- opening and closing backpacks, snack boxes, food packaging, mittens/gloves, hats, boots, along with using art materials such as pencils, crayons, markers, paint, and scissors.
Cognitive:
Multi-sensory exploration and inquiry using all our senses to learn from nature in a variety of weather and seasons.
Social Studies and Science:
Through exploration and project based learning in the natural world, we will use various lenses of Social Studies and Science. We will utilize the Since Time Immemorial curriculum along with inquiry concepts: form (what is it?) , function (how it works?), causation( why is it like that?) connections, responsibility and reflection.
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Students will experience nature-based, inquiry exploration during this fun, multi-age age (K-8th Grade) class. Our classes are child-led; giving WOS teachers the opportunity to create lessons based on the collective group interests using the natural world as a guide. To accommodate the wide range of ages, students will be divided into School and Middle School age groups.
School Age: K-5th Grade
Students will experience Washington Outdoor School's nature-based learning while our teachers integrate academic skill building into the exploration of the natural world.
Middle School: 6th-8th Grade
The Trailblazers group is for older students to go deeper in the natural world through all of the seasons by cultivating: leadership skills, nature knowledge, and relationships with ourselves, others, and the world around us.
Program Focus
Social Emotional:
We utilize the Plant Teachings for Growing Social Emotional Skills, Cultivating Resiliency and Wellbeing with Northwest Plants curriculum.
We explore ways of being, acting and reacting, inspired by Coast Salish Indigenous teachings of plants that help us learn to live a balanced life that embraces and celebrates diversity and gives us strategies to manage life's challenges.
Physical:
Continued physical development and stamina to improve gross-motor skills through hiking, climbing, balancing, bending, twisting reaching and other actions required to maneuver in our ever changing natural environment. Games and activities that require throwing and catching, dodging, and striking (with bat/stick) to develop aim and accuracy and agility.
We develop fine-motor skills especially as we manage our own gear- opening and closing backpack, snack boxes, food packaging, mittens/gloves, hats, boots, along with using art materials such as pencils, crayons, markers, paint, and scissors.
Cognitive:
Multi-sensory exploration and inquiry using all our senses to learn from nature in a variety of weather and seasons.
Social Studies and Science:
Through exploration and project based learning in the natural world, we will use various lenses of Social Studies and Science. we will utilize the Since Time Immemorial curriculum along with inquiry concepts: form (what is it?) , function (how it works?), causation( why is it like that?) connections, responsibility and reflection.
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Nature Fridays: Ellensburg Class will take place at Paul Rogers Wildlife Park or McElroy Park.
Homeschool Explorers: Upper County Program will take place in the Roslyn Urban Forest. The drop off point for most of our programs is at the Episcopal Church in Roslyn. At times we may meet in other areas for special events or field trips. We hike and explore the areas in and around the Roslyn Urban Forest.
After School (TK-5th Grade)
At Washington Outdoor School, we believe children need the space to explore the natural world to decompress and challenge their minds and bodies in ways not typically integrated in the traditional school day.
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Washington Outdoor School has offered an after school program at CERSD since 2022.
Our program at CERSD offers an after-school program for TK-5th grade students that immerses students in the forests just beyond the walls of the school.
The 2025/2026 program will be a one day a week program on Tuesdays and will continue to be offered by school year (10% Discount) or session: Fall, Winter, Spring.
Child-Led As a child-led program, our outdoor activities vary greatly. Although we have daily educational activities and games at the ready, our teaching staff is open to exploring what is of interest to our students. Being outdoors with the different plants, animals, and insects that share our environment provides the perfect opportunity for this kind of flexibility.
Benefits of Nature Immersion The benefits of fresh air, extended time in nature, and the freedom to explore is what makes our students willing and happy to endure even the most trying elements which also builds their resilience, confidence and grit—transferable lifelong skills we want students to gain as they grow toward adulthood.
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The Early Release Wednesday class gives students the opportunity to decompress and challenge their minds and bodies in ways not typically integrated in the traditional school day.
Students will meet at McElroy Park.
Families must provide private transportation or arrange bus transportation with the Ellensburg School District. Space on the buses is not guaranteed and needs to be confirmed prior to registration as WOS is unable to refund tuition.
Program Focus
Social Emotional:
We utilize the Plant Teachings for Growing Social Emotional Skills, Cultivating Resiliency and Wellbeing with Northwest Plants curriculum.
We explore ways of being, acting and reacting, inspired by Coast Salish Indigenous teachings of plants that help us learn to live a balanced life that embraces and celebrates diversity and gives us strategies to manage life's challenges.
Physical:
Continued physical development and stamina to improve gross-motor skills through hiking, climbing, balancing, bending, twisting reaching and other actions required to maneuver in our ever changing natural environment.
Cognitive:
Multi-sensory exploration and inquiry using all our senses to learn from nature in a variety of weather and seasons.
Social Studies and Science:
Through exploration and project based learning in the natural world, we will use various lenses of Social Studies and Science.
