Helena Field School utilizes nature to teach youngsters
While spending time outdoors, the students of Helena Field School have learned lessons about the environmental impacts of controlled burns versus uncontrolled burns as well as sought out bugs and fungus that break down plants.
SONNY TAPIA, Independent Record
Helena Field School teacher Lesly Valiton and her students give thanks to nature at the end of their day on May 16, 2024 at the Lime Kiln Trailhead.
"We introduce a topic, but most of the time nature teaches the kids," said Lesly Valiton.
Valiton and Linnea Sando are the founders of Helena Field School, which they started in September 2022. Valiton got interested in outdoor teaching through Tinkergarten, an organization that helps families move their children outdoors for nontraditional learning opportunities. Sando’s background is in geography, “so looking at how places are unique and what makes them unique.”
SONNY TAPIA, Independent Record
Two Helena Field School students write in their journal at the end of the day answering a prompt on May 16, 2024.
The two studied Scandinavian education practices and wanted to transfer some of the ideas to Helena.
"Our purpose isn't to meet the standards that they have in traditional schools,” Valiton said. “Our purpose is the enrichment side of things.”
SONNY TAPIA, Independent Record
A Helena Field School student explores local wilderness during a Helena Field School day on May 16, 2024.
Without a physical building, the school continuously moves lessons to various trails and outdoor spaces.
Helena Field School operates with five adults, but it allows for smaller student-teacher ratios. According to Valiton, the regularly seen ratio is four to one, but sometimes the school sees six to one. The founders said when there is a smaller ratio it can foster a better learning environment allowing the children more freedom to help guide lessons.
"It's been fun to see with our low student-teacher ratios how we can support a culture in a learning community," Valiton said.
Another goal of the school was to create an inclusive space for students and people to be who they are.
SONNY TAPIA, Independent Record
A student looks through a book with pictures of flowers and plants at Helena Field School on May 16, 2024.
Some of the lessons taught by Valiton are broad topics that allow for flexibility in scheduling and lesson plans.
In one lesson she taught students about their individual communities and places within them.
Through each individual lesson the experiences offer students the ability to find a love for every community they live in and make connections with it.
Even if students move out of town to another state or country, they will have the foundation to make a meaningful connection with the place they live, according to the founders.
Parents believe the program is great because of the outdoors aspect of it, along with the idea of making connections.
"It's fun just to hear the comments, unprompted too, from families that put their children in our school," Sando said.
SONNY TAPIA, Independent Record
Helena Field School students use watercolors to paint pictures of the scenery at Lime Kiln Trailhead on May 16, 2024.
