BEan IN NATURE

Stewardship, Mentorship, Social Emotional Learning and Nature Led Connection Program

NEXT Level Camp brief intro:

The prerequisite is that your student wants to participate and attend our Tween and Teen (12.5 up) weekend program.  

TEACHERS ARE MARISA DIRECTOR ON SITE AND LEAD STAFF FOR FALL NOAH FRASER!

Our focus will be on the advanced hard skills that make a human useful in a wilderness setting. With this said, much of our 1st weekend will be orientating to each other, to the land and forming our cohesive village, along with many nature awareness fundamental skills, games and practices to form our connections to the land and each other.  

• Leadership and Stewardship for the Nest 2 x a Season at this Nest, plus all kinds of fun learning... mushroom lessons, knife work, whittling around the fire with NEW lessons and creation, harvesting, hiking, adventures, plant medicine and fire creation by friction knowledge and more!

This class will focus on advanced hard skills that make a human useful in a wilderness setting. Each student should bring a journal to class. We will start with fundamental skills, moving through the following curriculum:

Fire making:

• single match/ how to build a fire
• ferro rod and fatwood fire
• hand drill use
• bow drill use
• pitch creation with sap

Projectiles Proficiency:

• Throwing Stick
• Archery

Shelter Building:

• Site selection and insulation basics
• Tarp Setup 
• Choosing Your Clothes

Naturalism:

• Common Trees and Ecosystems
• Common Birds of the area
• Scat and where animals go
• Fundamentals of Tracking 
• How to Journal 
• Native Plant ID and Wild Edibles & Medicinal Plants
• Mushroom and Fungi discovery and ID

Forest Ninja Skills:

• Stealth and silence in the forest
• Balance 
• Stalking

Knife Use:

• Knife Cert and usage

Once our class has mastered these fundamental skills we can move into deeper facets of land connection like Bow and tool making, Leatherwork, Planning a Backpacking and Trip, First Aid, Edible and Medicinal Plants, Mushroom ID, and more! 

Lessons will be mixed with activities and games designed to grow connection, stealth and camouflage, balance, and fun. 

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Summer Programs:

Description of TEEN Nature-Led Leader In Training (LIT)​:  

Leaders In Training will take an active role in helping us build communities of outgoing natural stewards!  A major role for the LITs will be  their contagious enthusiasm while assisting.   

Teen Leaders will become Leaders in Training are 13 and up, (preferable 13 but may invite 12 year olds and upeach can apply if they have been students with us for 2 years or more)

in our outdoor programs, or another outdoor program, a babysitter, an older bro or sis, or inquire as more may be fitting!. An Intern can also apply .

LITs will assist with various wild projects and outdoor activities throughout the day.   

LITs may support the coaches with teaching/demonstrating sports and/or art projects, take photographs, set up and clean-up activities, and organize camp supplies. Both may also assist various ways such as: aid minor injuries, snack break, story telling and aid in bathroom supervision.

Join our Teen Leadership Training  program!

Leadership skills with BEan In Nature begin with a week or more of camp leadership experience. Sign Up Now! 

Work with expert outdoor educators to develop your own Nature-Led connection through ancient living and wilderness skills, as well as, safe social emotional skills.  Our program includes a 1 week long training, either 4 Saturdays or 1 Week in your selected Teen Leadership Training Camp.

This will prepare your TEEN to step into Leadership with us this SUMMER!  They will get their official BEan NATURE-LED TEEN LEADERSHIP IN TRAINING CERT and from there SIGN UP to come out and assist the teachers, the staff,  in camps this summer and beyond!

Your registration fee is all-inclusive, covering both the Training Week and Summer Camp Field Weeks. 

DATES and Training see activity for current summer dates

Schedule for Camp Work

Every day is different and flexibility and willingness to take direction and change direction at a moments notice are imperative. Most importantly, they  will interact and engage with the campers, sharing stories, promoting enthusiasm, energy, fun in games and nature awareness skills.  Prerequisites for TEENS preferable 13 but may invite 12 year olds and up

Please take a moment here, pause and digest and we will chat about these in one form or another…

• Share your experience with teaching and why you’ve chosen to step into outdoor leadership?

• What are your outdoor interests?

• What are your hobbies?

• Why do you want to  assist in outdoor nature program with children?

• What other talents, skills do you have that might support our very busy nature program?

• and tell about your experience  if you have been a student with us or another outdoor programs, or assisted another teacher or program such as an art teacher or a theatre teacher/ group, perhaps you have been a babysitter, or an older bro or sis, or inquire as more may be fitting!. 

• An Intern can also apply.

Project-based and environmental-related lessons that are engaging and fun; all the while weaving in epic survival skills, ancestral living skills, and natural history education!  

We will offer a vast education outdoors, immersing students in a learning environment, in ways that traditional models can’t. With a whole-child-led focus, students become invested in their education and foster a lifelong relationship with the land, their mentors and classmates, and the community. Here students are supported to push their own boundaries through safe mentor-led supported risks, thereby teaching them independence, confidence, resilience, and perseverance.  

Offering more in an outdoor environment allows children to develop a strong sense of self and a natural love of science, creativity, writing, natural history, art with Clay, as well as the wild elements and more. In this design, children are naturally accessing their whole imaginations, incorporating their whole focus while growing into amazing earth stewards. 

Our curriculum is full of opportunity, just like the natural world, and we plan on being flexible and opportunistic just as we would on any trip into the wilderness! We may spend more or less time on a given subject based on the interest or abilities of the students, or on the cooperation of the weather. 

We are working with our professional and lay leaders to take a balanced and active approach, currently there is no mask mandate in our locations but we allow choice and supportive guidance if a child/family chooses to wear a mask or not wear their mask. 

What they will learn? 

Students learn critical thinking and stewardship in small-group, nature-based lessons that are safe, engaging, fun, and memorable. The core program is held and woven together by Marisa Bean with her thoughtfully chosen teachers.   

Who can participate?

Participants interested in participating in a nature-based program that fosters respect for the earth and a deepened awareness of the interconnectedness of all life.

How We Teach:

• Small groups
• Hands-on projects
• Guided exploration
• Stories, games, writing activities
• Student-centered activities
• Acute observation and inquiry skill
• Low instructor-to-student ratios 

Where do we meet: