Member Spotlight

 

 

Y-Koda Nature School is a three-way partnership between the Sheboygan Area School District, Camp Y-Koda (a YMCA program), and Maywood Environmental Park. This unique partnership began in 2015 and is going strong today! The program is housed at Maywood Environmental Park, where, each day, students are taught by a certified teacher as well as a naturalist, balancing academics with play, science, discovery, and inquiry.

 

Camp Y-Koda’s outdoor education ethos has been in the works for over 40 years, making the addition of a nature-based school a logical measure. The shared goals of the three partnering organizations led to the creation of the Y-Koda 4K program. The 4K was established on the grounds of Sheboygan, Wisconsin’s largest city park, Maywood, which boasts 135 acres complete with a prairie, sugarbush, river, two ponds, and plenty of pine woods to boot.

 

With the support of the Sheboygan Area School District, Y-Koda Nature School is accessible free-of-charge to all families in the area, making outdoor education equitable for anyone interested. The addition of nature-based childcare on site in 2022 has allowed more families the chance to enroll their children and ultimately to get more kids outside on a regular basis!

 

Students in Y-Koda Nature School spend 50% of their day outside in all kinds of weather learning through interactions with our education animals, wildlife, plants, and other resources to create a developmentally appropriate and meaningful educational experience. Maywood created a designated nature-based play area, but classes are also encouraged to explore the variety of rich ecosystems present on the park grounds.

 

While many people see a rainy, snowy, or buggy day as a chance to hunker on the couch and stay inside, and while that can be appealing, the students at Y-Koda Nature School know the days with so called ‘inclement’ weather are often the most fun days for getting outside. As one student said, “I get to go outside to discover everyday no matter the weather.”

 

Our little learners soak up so much information each day, but they already have the true wisdom. Take a note from the four-year-olds at Y-Koda Nature School; flip over that rock, go explore that stream, next time it’s raining, put on your raincoat and see what you can find…you never know what you might learn or discover when you open up that door and step outside!