Ilves Nature School offers nature insights

Janakkala’s own Ilves nature school will resume its activities in September. The last time the school operated fully was in the 2023–2024 school year.

With the nature school, every student in grades 1–9 at Janakkala schools will, on average, spend one day during the school year outdoors or engaged with nature topics.
The number may not seem large, but the wellbeing effects of nature are so significant that this is an important addition to everyday school life. I believe the nature school will inspire both teachers and students to draw more from nature, says the nature school’s teacher Johanna Sahila.

Of her working week, Johanna takes three days to bring classes from Janakkala schools into nature and teaches two days at Välkky as a so-called resource teacher.

The nature school begins in September with aquatic insect and plant studies for fourth graders.

– In the aquatic life lesson we talk about all the life found in natural waters, collect water, sieve it and examine the findings in petri dishes. The students are delighted to discover that the “debris” caught in the net are actually moving organisms, Johanna says.

Water is also studied by sensory observation and they talk, for example, about blue-green algae. Johanna is pleased that every school has a good study water source very close by. In Leppäkoski the Puujoki, in Tervakoski Alasjärvi and Tervajoki, in Harviala Hiidenjoki, in Tarinmaa Kuotolanjärvi, in Tanttala the brackish pond with its stream and in Turenki the ponds of Myllyoja.

– The lusher it is, the more interesting to study! Myllyoja and the Tanttala pond have been really great to investigate.

The nature school lessons are mainly held outdoors, although in the upper grades climate change and a sustainable future are also discussed in the classroom. Secondary school nature lessons start later in the autumn. Youth services and sports services are also involved in implementing them, and nature-based physical activity will be added.

The operation of Ilves nature school is funded for the next two years by a bequest received by the municipality, but the aim is to establish the school’s activities permanently after that. Ilves nature school belongs to LYKE, the network of nature and environmental schools. (In Finnsih)

– I believe that with the help of the nature school we can increase our children’s hope for the future, Johanna says