Although it may seem like a no-brainer and unnecessary to include for some educators, the value of a group silent walk outside is often overlooked by others.
Basic Information:
- Grade Level: All
- Subject: All
- Number of Participants: any number
- Relationship to Environmental Education: Opportunity to demonstrate the importance of self-care, the therapeutic value of nature, and the importance of observing one’s surroundings.
Instructions:
- Walk as a group in silent meditation.
- Encourage students to focus on their movements, to look all around them and observe, or to reflect on a particular subject recently discussed in class. Encourage the group to stagger so that students remain silent. If the group walks close together, then brief more strongly that it is a silent activity. If the silence code isn’t followed, consider leting that happen if isn’t disturbing others too much (i.e. quiet conversation between two people).
- Provide opportunities, space and permission to walk in different ways.
- Be sure to reflect as a group on what was thought about, observed, etc. This can be done in large groups, small groups or even in a concentric circle. The following questions can be asked: “What happened on this walk – what do you notice about how people walked, how you walked, what you noticed in the environment, what kinds of thoughts and feelings occurred to you….”
- Variations: Pick up garbage along the way; pick up a piece of nature that “represents who you are” – then share with group at the end.
Critical Reflection:
As an educator, I do not want to complicate my classroom and forget the simple calming effect that nature can set for a classroom. By engaging in a silent nature walk, I can encourage my students to reflect on the importance of taking time outside of their busy schedules and the importance of spending some mental time free from agendas or free from voices telling them what they should think about. This activity is also useful as it allows a personal and group experience to happen simultaneously. It may be challenging to find a space to have such a walk but I could even do this in the street. The goals of such a walk can still be met. Similar to many of the other games and activities, I think debriefing the walk can be very useful dependent on the activity afterwards. Debrief may not be necessary if the walk was used to set a calm mood and tone for a following activity, or if independent time would be given to students to be creative and individually reflect.
An Educator's Toolkit 