outdoor wilderness curriculum

All of our curriculum starts from the question, "how is this knowledge relevant and applicable to living on this earth in a sustainable way?"

At The Bear's Web, children learn wilderness survival and primitive skills while developing a deeper connection with the natural world. By teaching a core curriculum that emphasizes cooperation, environmental stewardship and the acquisition of technical skills, we help youth improve their self-confidence and interpersonal relationships. By learning to survive and live with nature, students develop agile thinking, planning and research skills, creativity, and a profound awareness of nature and systems thinking.

We are a school of community and nature. Students journey outside and into the forest every day. They learn through collaboration with peers and alongside their teacher and mentors. Our interdisciplinary curriculum includes hands-on learning, centered around observation in and participation with nature. We dive into naturalist studies and life sciences, fostering research skills that last a lifetime. Journeying beyond nature play, we live with the seasons, forage for wild foods, and make forest tools and crafts.

Our purpose is to create a village of connection to the land, accountability, common sense, and limitless enthusiasm.

We provide innovative education in nature connection and authentic outdoor skills. Classes include outdoor skills, wild plants, archery, restoration and much more. Our organization and education models are collaborative. While most schools teach concepts with very little or no actual experience to go along with the concept, our program takes the opposite approach. We start with the activity and the real world need, and then through the act of creating, the concepts emerge. Any given day we are working on building a horse barn from old pallets, a schoolhouse from mud and straw and discarded logs from the timber industry, harvesting and drying elderberries, picking and freezing blackberries, skinning rabbits and turning their coats into blankets, and so much more.