Beyond Four Walls
Professional Development for Educators - at the Farm
Hands-on professional development that gets educators out of the conference room and into an environment where they can move, observe, experiment, reflect and learn together.
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Animals as Teachers
Learning with the Herd
What Animals Tell Us
Animal Behavior
Goat Hike -
Learning Through Nature
Nature as the Classroom
Risky Play
Big Body Learning
Observation & Inquiry -
Tools for the Classroom
Songs & Movement with Dr. Tish
Social Emotional Learning
Farm-to-Classroom Activities
Team Communication
Workshops Offered:
Learning With the Herd
Horses as a lens for no judgement, communication, perspective, leadership, regulation, trust, body language and teamwork.
Move, Sing & Play
Dr. Tish leads songs, movement games, rhythm activities and other easy-to-use ideas educators can immediately bring into preschool classrooms.
What Animals Tell Us
Observe goats, chickens, rabbits, donkeys, horses, alpacas, sheep and pigs. Educators practice slowing down, noticing behavior/body language, asking questions and turning observations into child-led learning.
Take a Hike With the Herd
A guided goat hike combining movement, nature, animal behavior and discussion about how outdoor experiences support regulation, connection and learning.
Learning Through Animal Behavior
More intentional animal observation: social groups, communication, hierarchy, play, problem-solving, conflict, boundaries and individual personalities - and connections to working with children.
Nature as the Classroom
How to use sticks, mud, leaves, rocks, weather, trails and natural spaces as curriculum instead of relying on manufactured materials.
Big Body Learning
Movement-based learning for young children - gross motor play, sensory input, outdoor games and ways to incorporate academics without asking children to sit still.
Risky Play: Why Kids Need It
Climbing, balancing, exploring, getting dirt, using tools and assessing reasonable risk. Helping educators distinguish risk from hazard.
Farm to Classroom
Ways to use animals, food, seasons and agriculture for science, math, literacy, dramatic play and social-emotional learning.
Slow Down & Notice
Observation as a teaching skill. Educators practice noticing before directing, asking better questions and allowing children’s curiosity to drive an experience.
How do we choose?
Choose the experiences that best fit your team. From animal behavior and outdoor learning to music, movement, leadership and social-emotional development, we’ll build a half- or full-day experience around your educators’ goals.
Tell us what’s happening in your program, and we’ll build a Beyond Four Walls professional development experience around your team.
“We need new ideas.”
“My teachers are burned out.”
“We need to communicate better.”
“We want to spend more time outside.”
“Transitions are chaos.”
“We need help with challenging behaviors.”
Examples of Customized Experiences:
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Beyond Four Walls: Stronger Together
9:00 - Welcome & No-Shop-Talk Farm Walk: a low pressure way to get everyone out of their normal roles and interacting.
9:30 - Learning With the Herd: Horse-based exercises centered on communication, leadership, trust and collaboration.
11:00 - Herd Reflection: Genuinely looking at different styles of communication and leadership.
12:00 - Lunch
12:45 - Goat Hike: A deliberately less structured part of the day. Talk, walk, laugh and do something together that isn’t work.
1:45 - Lessons From the Herd: Observe how animals communicate boundaries, respond to pressure, establish relationships and repair conflict.
3:00 - Our Team Agreements: The group develops a few practical agreements for how they want to communicate and work together when back at their center.
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Beyond Four Walls: Reset & Reconnect
9:00 - Coffee & Animals: No PowerPoint. No packets waiting on chairs. Just coffee & animals.
9:30 - Learning with the Herd: Focusing more on presence, regulation, body language and how animals (and people!) respond to our energy and behavior.
10:45 - Slow Down & Notice: Choose an animal or space on the farm and simply observe. Can also include a guided meditation.
11:30 - Dr. Tish Music & Movement: Energetic and fun, this will get everyone laughing and moving while learning some great songs to sing with your students!
12:30 - Lunch
1:15 - Goat Hike
2:15 - Why Play Isn’t Just for Kids: A discussion and activity around curiosity, play, movement, connection and why adults need those things too.
3:00 - What Do You Want to Bring Back? A time for reflecting, refocusing and refreshing.
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Beyond Four Walls: The Outdoors IS the Curriculum
9:00 - Welcome & Outdoor Classroom Challenge
9:30 - Nature as Our Teacher: Explore how ordinary outdoor spaces can support science, math, literacy, art, sensory development and SEL.
10:45 - Risk vs. Hazard: Climbing, balancing, sticks, mud, uneven ground, tools and exploration. Practice evaluating situations instead of automatically saying “Be careful!”.
12:00 - Lunch
12:45 - Goat Hike, Learning on the Move: Along the way, we’ll stop periodically and identify everything children could investigate at that exact spot.
1:45 - Animal Observation Lab: Practice observing wildlife and building curriculum from what children notice.
3:00 - Build Tomorrow’s Outdoor Lesson: Work in small groups to turn something they experienced into something they can actually do with their class tomorrow.
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Beyond Four Walls: Behavior Is Communication
9:00 - Welcome & Regulation Through Movement
9:30 - Learning With the Herd: Observe what happens when we approach animals too quickly, apply too much pressure, ignore their signals or change our own body language.
10:45 - What Animals Tell Us: Learn to recognize increasingly subtle signals animals give before a big reaction occurs, and connect to children.
12:00 - Lunch
12:45 - Goat Hike/Movement Break
1:30 - Big Bodies, Big Feelings: Movement, sensory input, outdoor time and practical strategies for helping preschoolers regulate.
2:30 - Music & Movement with Dr. Tish: Songs specifically useful for transitions, waiting, getting energy out, calming down and bringing a group back together.
3:15 - Take it Back to the Classroom: Teachers identify difficult parts of their actual day - arrival, cleanup, lunch, rest, transitions, etc. - and develop a few new approaches.