Enabling Environments: Outdoors - Adventures in Italy

Adventures in Nature records their outings, and in this extract, nursery school teacher Chiara Zanotti and her children from Primo Maggio Municipal Nursery School relate their outing to the Rovere Mille Cave.

The long-awaited day has arrived, and with torches in their hands and snacks in their schoolbags, the children arrive at school. Some parents are clearly apprehensive.

On the bus, some of the children spontaneously begin to sing well-known songs. The bus follows the uphill curves and the group becomes quiet as the children closely observe the landscape and a lively discussion on some cows grazing in the field begins.

On arrival, we are met by our guides. My group faces a steep climb through trees, branches and bushes. The bravest children stay at the front with our guide, determined to take an active part in the search and overcome any obstacles. One by one, the other children follow in their footsteps and I stay close to the slowest children, who need encouragement and assistance.

We all gather in a small, open space in front of the cave's entrance. Ready to leave, the guide crosses the opening and starts to go down the vertically-positioned metal staircase. The children immediately approach the opening to follow him and stand in a row, one behind the other. A teacher, wearing one of the helmets, goes down so that she can meet the children at the bottom of the stairs.

We slowly descend, then climb another vertical staircase and proceed by torchlight into a low narrow tunnel leading to the underground entrance to the cave. The helmet lights and the children's torches glimmer in the cave's intense darkness, giving us brief glimpses of stalactites and stalagmites. We can feel the humidity in the air and a few droplets of water fall on us now and again.

LIGHTS OFF

The guides switch off their helmet lights one by one and ask the children to switch off their torches, so that we can experience the darkness. Slowly but surely, almost everyone switches off their torch. When all the torches have finally been switched off we are immersed in an extraordinary and intense darkness that can only be experienced inside caves.

For a fleeting moment, I relive the feeling of solitude and unease I experienced a few days ago when I went into the dark cave with colleagues. My thoughts immediately go to the children. The darkness lasts only briefly, as a few moments later some of the electric torches are switched back on. The cave attendant immediately switches on a light, which completely illuminates the cave. We are overcome by surprise and amazement as we look on, in silence, at the extraordinary environment surrounding us. The lights let us see the cave in all its glory and now we can all explore it easily. The small groups of children follow the pathways inside the cave and choose their own routes and stops. Now the time has come to head back, and on the way back the children are calm and relaxed.

Discussion after the experience is particularly important because it allows the children to interpret and evaluate what happened, which promotes and strengthens any positive emotion they have.

We propose to the group that they tell the school newspaper about their experiences. In the next few days, the children, with the assistance of their parents, bring to school a lot of information on caves and on the animals that live in caves, helping us to satisfy their thirst for knowledge.

This is an edited extract from Adventures in Nature, edited by Luigina Mortari and Rosanna Zerbato and published by Children in Scotland More information

Adventures in Nature, edited by Luigina Mortari and Rosanna Zerbato, is published by Children in Scotland as part of its Building Better Childhoods: International Perspective series. To order copies, priced £14.99 for members and £16.99 for non-members, tel: 0131 228 8484, e-mail: publications@children inscotland.org.uk or visit: www.childreninscotland.org.uk/publications

About the Verona project

The Verona project was inspired by local nursery teacher Rosanna Zerbato. Aware of the benefits that the natural world and sharing experiences can bring to young children, she set about developing an 'adventure project' that would develop children's sense of independence, confidence and all-round skills.

'The experiential nature of this project is what sets it apart and becomes its driving force,' she writes. 'But what defines this project is the way in which it is experienced - in an active and real way where everyone involved can feel competent and put himself or herself to the test.'

Since its inception, numerous school teachers in the municipality of Verona have undertaken training, and local gardens, meadows, woods, riverbanks, hills and caves have become places of adventure for local children from their very first year at nursery school.

Deciding where to go for an adventure is based on the teachers' observations, the children's games and imaginary play. The children are then involved in planning the outing and are able to explore their experiences further once back in school.

One teacher decided her children were not yet ready to explore local caves, so headed, instead, for the cellar! Another, observing her children's interests in 'below', 'hidden' and 'dark', descended into the city's underground passages. Other children headed for the woods - some on an adventure trail, others in search of 'a hidden castle'. A rafting adventure was the choice of one school, while another group had adventures - and a bonfire - in the dark.