The new school year has arrived quickly and with it – activities in the environmental education programmes of the JSC “Latvijas valsts meži” (LVM). For several years students and their teachers of Latvian general educational institutions are welcomed to participate in the Mother Nature Masterclass (Mammadaba meistarklase) and in the LVM Forest Olympics to show their knowledge not only in classrooms but also outside – in Mother Nature’s lap!
Which is the best classroom? Of course, it is the one that is outside! It already has been discovered by several thousand schoolchildren that have participated in the Mother Nature Masterclass. It is an opportunity to learn traditional school subjects, for example, mathematics and English, outside – in school's yard or in the Latvia's state forests! When learning outside school premises, children can feel soil, sun and water on their skin, and at the same time create a real masterpiece.
In the Mother Nature Masterclass programme each class with their teacher during the school year have to carry out 3 master pieces: outdoor masterclass, wood masterstroke and forest masterday. Schools that have been the most active ones with the masterpieces of children and have learned about forest also in other LVM school programmes can be candidates to Mother Nature Embassy title and also can get the Mother Nature Master badges.
“During the Masterclass we created two big outdoor pairs of compasses to improve our mathematics skills in the outdoors environment, and also to organise various games.with the spring in the air we could not resist and created a birdhouse to put it on the tree in school's yard, because we did not have any before that,” about the experience in the Mother Nature Masterclass tells teacher Inese Širina from Jūrmala Primary School “Atvase”.
The 7th-9th grade student teams, who want to demonstrate their knowledge not only in mathematics and language competitions, are welcomed to participate in LVM Forest Olympics. All subject teachers and students can participate in it by sending in an idea for an educational outdoor game and adding instructions for it. The author teams of 10 best games will meet in the finals, in active leisure competitions in the LVM Nature Park in Tērvete, where the fastest and smartest will win and go to a nature expedition abroad.
“It is a great experience for children to work in a team, to see the creative works of other teams and see their attitude. We will bear that in mind next year. We also liked that the event took place in such a wonderful place – in the LVM Nature Park in Tērvete, where together with students we got to know it from s totally different perspective,” says teacher Žanna Murahina from Aizkraukle Regional Secondary School.
The LVM implement environmental education in schools from year 2005 and every year around 20’000 children participate in it in collaboration with the National Centre for Education and the International Foundation for Environmental Education, involving Latvian and European forest industry partners. With more than 10 years experience in work with schools, with recommendations of the National Centre for Education and internationally acknowledged forest pedagogy practice, the LVM has drafted Forest Education guidelines for Latvian general educational institutions to perform regular development and improvement of school programmes. Application forms, statutes of programmes, educational materials and additional information can be found in www.lvm.lv/skolam.
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