Honouring the 'Wild Child'

image from pinterest.com

This poster, using text from Wild Child by Jeanne Willis, reminded me of the first week of school in kindergarten year after year.  That first week I would find shoes scattered throughout the classroom - the children were not used to wearing them after spending their summer footloose and fancy free, and would kick them off at the first opportunity. And quite frankly, I wasn't used to wearing shoes after a summer spent barefoot or in flip flops. 

How can we welcome our youngest learners to our schools and still honour their wildness?  Some ideas that immediately came to mind for me were:

Play-based learning - large blocks of uninterrupted time for child-directed play-based learning with open-ended materials

Outdoor learning spaces - finding ways to incorporate the outdoors into our day as often as possible, even in urban environments 

Inquiry-based learning - allowing student wonderings and questions to lead our learning. Educators may bring in natural objects, ask questions or share their own wonderings to spark inquiry.

How else can educators provide a positive learning environment for students without taking "all their wisdom and wildness away."