KOLA Curriculum Snapshot
For Prospective Families
Our ecosystem encompasses the natural spaces, community partnerships, and learning environments that create meaningful educational experiences.
Fire as Teacher
Fire teaches presence. Students learn to build and tend fires safely, gaining technical skill while deepening their sense of patience, responsibility, and respect. Around the fire, we cook, reflect, share stories, and explore cultural traditions that emphasize connection and care.
Mapping & Navigation
Learners chart both the outer landscape and their inner experience. Using compasses, natural landmarks, and hand-drawn emotional maps, students develop spatial reasoning, storytelling skills, and a deeper sense of orientation—both on the land and within themselves.
Animal Observation
Shelter Building
Students collaborate to design and construct real shelters from natural and found materials. These projects explore basic engineering, environmental ethics, teamwork, and creative problem-solving, while strengthening confidence and physical engagement.
Water & Land Stewardship
Our learners actively care for the places they learn in. Stewardship projects may include water quality testing, trail maintenance, native planting, and litter cleanups. These acts build responsibility, gratitude, and a sense of belonging to something larger than themselves.
Botanical & Herbal Studies
Students engage with local plant life through foraging walks, seasonal tea blending, salve creation, and garden work. These experiences build sensory awareness, plant identification skills, and a gentle connection to traditional and holistic knowledge.
Storytelling & Oral Tradition
Through daily story circles, guided narration, and personal myth-making, students develop voice, memory, and expressive language. We also explore Indigenous oral tradition and community-based storytelling as a form of connection and cultural literacy.
Seasonal Rhythms & Ecology
Learners follow the cycles of the seasons—tracking light, temperature, migrations, and phenological shifts. This supports systems thinking, environmental science literacy, and a deepened connection to place.
Nature-Inspired Arts
Students express what they observe and feel through painting, sculpting, music-making, and movement inspired by the natural world. Arts are woven throughout our program to support emotional regulation, creativity, and integration.
Communication & Conflict Resolution
Students practice compassionate communication, conflict repair, and peer mediation as part of daily group life. These practices build emotional intelligence, resilience, and leadership.
Independent Projects & Inquiry-Based Learning
Older students design and lead independent inquiries based on personal passions—whether it’s building a bee hotel, creating a nature podcast, or investigating a local environmental issue. This supports autonomy, executive function, and critical thinking.
Scientific Inquiry & Field Study
Learners engage in citizen science, ecological monitoring, and hands-on investigations—such as water pH testing, weather tracking, or biodiversity studies. These experiences build real-world scientific literacy and observational rigor.
Food Systems & Garden Literacy
From seed to harvest, students explore sustainable food systems through gardening, composting, and farm-to-table practices. They learn about soil health, pollination, and seasonal cycles—gaining a practical understanding of how humans relate to land through nourishment.
Rites of Passage & Personal Growth
We honor each student’s growth journey through intentional rites of passage—seasonal milestones, personal challenges, and community rituals that support self-awareness, courage, and belonging.
Neurodiversity & Individual Learning Pathways
Our approach respects and adapts to different ways of thinking, feeling, and processing. Students co-create learning pathways that reflect their strengths and needs, ensuring all learners are supported with dignity and flexibility.
Economic Literacy & Ethical Entrepreneurship
Students explore the basics of economic systems by launching simple micro-businesses, participating in trade days, and learning about ethical exchange, sustainability, and shared value. This cultivates creativity, numeracy, and real-world collaboration.
Cultural Awareness & Global Citizenship
We invite learners to explore different ways of living and knowing—through guest speakers, cultural storytelling, global environmental topics, and respectful discussion. This builds empathy, critical thinking, and a broader understanding of our place in the world.
Mathematical Thinking & Natural Patterns
At KOLA, math is not confined to worksheets — it lives in the forest, in the garden, and in the rhythm of the seasons. Learners explore mathematical concepts through hands-on, applied experiences: measuring the height of shelters, mapping distances, tracking temperature changes, calculating plant growth, and analyzing data from real-world projects. We engage with number sense, geometry, time, patterns, and estimation in ways that feel meaningful and connected. From crafting with symmetry to budgeting for micro-businesses, math becomes a tool for understanding the world and solving real problems.
Mindfulness & Self-Regulation
From breathwork to sit spots to nature journaling, students learn tools to notice their thoughts, settle their nervous systems, and build resilience. These practices help support emotional well-being and healthy relationships.
Identity, Values & Self-Expression
Learners explore questions like “Who am I?”, “What do I care about?”, and “How do I show up?” through reflective journaling, creative projects, and facilitated conversations on values, strengths, and self-awareness.
Ancestry & Lineage Learning
Students have the opportunity to explore where they come from and reflect on family stories, traditions, and heritage. These lessons encourage respect for cultural roots and foster curiosity about intergenerational wisdom.
Environmental Justice & Climate Ethics
Older students engage in age-appropriate discussions around environmental challenges, equity, and action. This strand empowers learners with hope, agency, and awareness of how human choices shape ecosystems and communities.
Land-Based Leadership & Outdoor Risk Management
Students develop practical skills in group decision-making, navigation, and safety awareness in wild spaces. These experiences build confidence, responsibility, and collaborative leadership.
Public Speaking & Youth Voice
Whether sharing reflections at circle or presenting a community project, learners develop confidence in their voice and communication. This strand supports clarity, storytelling, and the courage to be seen and heard.
Intergenerational Mentorship & Elder Connection
We build bridges between generations by inviting guest mentors, Elders, and community knowledge keepers to share stories, skills, and guidance—supporting reverence and relationship beyond peer groups.
Systems Thinking & Regenerative Design
Learners begin to recognize how ecological, social, and economic systems interact—and design creative solutions for harmony and regeneration, from food webs to human communities.
Community Contribution & Purposeful Action
Students contribute meaningfully to the spaces and people around them—designing initiatives, helping younger learners, or responding to community needs with care and initiative.
Media Literacy & Nature-Tech Balance
In a screen-saturated world, students explore their relationship to technology while building healthy habits and awareness. This strand supports digital discernment, attention restoration, and mindful tech use.
Our Activities & Learning
• Workshops and outdoor learning intensives across the seasons
• Social-emotional development and group leadership practice
• Bushcraft, fire-building, and outdoor cooking techniques
• Nature crafts, candle making, herbal studies, and traditional skills
• Restorative circles, storytelling sessions, and group process work
Real-world project work, such as:
• Soil sampling and climate pattern tracking
• Launching youth-led pop-up micro-businesses
• Growing and managing a small-scale food or herb garden
• Designing and constructing eco-structures or water systems
• Creating salves, teas, or natural dye products
• Planning nature-based challenges and community celebrations
Curriculum Access Policy
KOLA’s curriculum has been carefully and intentionally developed to protect the integrity, originality, and depth of our learning model. To ensure the program is delivered with fidelity and respect for the children and communities it serves, full curriculum access is granted only to:
- Licensed program partners and site directors (with signed agreements)
- Staff and educators employed or contracted by KOLA
Enrolled families receive partial curriculum previews and seasonal overviews to support transparency and partnership. These may include term themes, sample schedules, or learning goals. However, full access to KOLA’s protected curriculum—including proprietary methods, curricular frameworks, and internal documentation—is reserved exclusively for authorized partners and staff.
Public-facing materials (including this document) are offered as a preview of our educational philosophy and core learning threads. All proprietary frameworks, curricular structures, original language, scope/sequence documents, and facilitation methods remain the intellectual property of KOLA and are not to be copied, distributed, or implemented without express written permission.
If you are an educator, partner, or prospective licensee interested in accessing the full KOLA curriculum for program alignment or collaboration, please contact us directly to begin a conversation.