What if the best place for five-year-olds to learn language, math, and self-regulation wasn’t a classroom at all—but a scruffy patch of trees at the edge of a schoolyard?
For two veteran kindergarten teachers at Pierre Elliott Trudeau Elementary School (PETES) in Gatineau, Quebec of the Western Quebec School Board, that question became a seven-year experiment—and the results have been remarkable enough to earn national recognition and catch the attention of educators around the world.
A “Magical Forest” in an Urban Schoolyard
It started simply: two teachers, a nearby park, and a hunch that kids needed something different. They called it “the magical forest,” and they began taking their kindergartners there every single day—through bitter Canadian winters, mud season, and everything in between. Students now spend close to five hours a day outdoors, year-round, meeting the full expectations of Quebec’s provincial curriculum while developing something harder to measure: a deep, embodied connection to the natural world.
The program was originally developed in 2012 in response to a desire for a calmer learning space, one that would create better in-class harmony and promote play-based intellectual exploration. What the teachers found was that the forest didn’t just calm children down—it woke them up.
Learning That Sticks Because Kids Are Moving
Learning That Sticks Because Kids Are MovingThere’s a reason a worksheet completed on a tree stump often lands better than the same task at a desk. Movement and novelty prime the brain for attention, and outdoor environments offer both in abundance. When children are allowed to climb, balance, and explore while they observe, their focus sharpens rather than scatters.
The program is built on practices that sound deceptively simple. “Sit spots”—quiet, personal places in the forest where each child returns regularly—train attention and reveal calm over time. Sharing circles transform found objects like leaves, rocks, and sticks into prompts for reflection and emotional vocabulary. Nature journals become records of seasons, of scientific noticing, and of a child’s growing capacity to describe the world around them.
For second-language learners—a significant cohort in this French immersion school—the outdoor environment offers something a textbook cannot: the word and the thing at the same time. New vocabulary is acquired because it is held, drawn, and encountered in context on daily walks to the woods.
Story Land: Where Imagination Builds Literacy
The magic doesn’t stop at the forest’s edge. Back inside, PETES teacher Heather Balson-Riosa runs an activity called Storyland that brings the spirit of outdoor inquiry into the classroom. Storyland provides a rich backdrop of playful natural materials and whimsical stations that ignite creativity so that students can build worlds—and then tell stories about them. “It’s magical to them, and they love it,” she says.
Oral storytelling is a bridge to literacy, and by tapping into the vivid imaginations of young learners, teachers can encourage exploration of fundamental story elements like character, setting, and plot—and set students up for reading and writing success.
The through-line is clear: whether children are narrating what they found under a log or building a miniature world at a classroom station, they are practicing the same cognitive and linguistic muscles that reading and writing will eventually require. The outdoor program and the imaginative indoor activities are not separate curricula—they are two expressions of the same philosophy.
Safety Is the Foundation of Freedom
One of the most common objections to outdoor learning is safety. The PETES team has answered that concern not by minimizing risk, but by taking it seriously and systematically.
Every day begins with terrain and tool checks. The teachers have mapped local plants and mushrooms. They carry radios and first-aid kits, and hold wilderness first-aid training. A practiced “wolf call” recall system means that every child knows exactly what to do when they hear it. Daily risk assessments aren’t a bureaucratic formality—they’re the foundation of the freedom children experience once they’re outside.
The result is a program that is safer than skeptics expect, precisely because safety is never left to chance.
Families as Partners in the Wild
The culture shift at PETES didn’t stay inside school hours. Families who choose the program receive frequent photos and updates, and are invited into monthly outdoor projects—scavenger hunts, walking stick carving, guided nature observations—that weave the outdoor ethos into home life.
The effects have rippled outward: more walks after dinner, more bug kits and fewer video games, more confidence in children who have learned to navigate uncertainty with their own two feet. The environmentally focused approach has been a boon to the social-emotional development of students as well as to their health and well-being. Demand for the program has grown entirely by word of mouth.
Recognition—and a Model Worth Replicating
In 2023, the Canadian Museum of Nature recognized PETES as a finalist for the Nature Inspiration Award in the Not-for-Profit (Large) category—a national honor that acknowledges Canadians and organizations inspiring others to connect with and protect the natural world. Students at PETES have even established microsystems that allow them to observe the effects of climate change firsthand, a level of environmental literacy that no textbook chapter can replicate.
Edutopia has featured PETES twice—once for the benefits of taking kindergarten outdoors and again for how Storyland builds literacy by sparking imagination—making it one of the most-documented examples of nature-based early learning in North America.
You Don’t Need a Perfect Forest
If you’ve been curious about outdoor learning but feel overwhelmed, the PETES model offers a practical entry point: start with one lesson. Use whatever green space is nearest—a schoolyard corner, a city park, a strip of trees between the parking lot and the fence. The research supports it, the precedent exists, and the children are ready.
You don’t need a perfect forest. You need a clear plan, a practiced safety routine, and the courage to step outside.
Listen to our full conversation with the PETES kindergarten team from WQSB on the podcast—including the wolf call, the mud, the math, and everything in between. Subscribe, share with a colleague who needs a nudge outside, and leave a review telling us your biggest barrier to getting outdoors. We’ll help you tackle it next.
