Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools is excited to launch their pilot project this year for their pre-kindergarten students.

The Discovery School is in its second week at the Riverbend Golf and Recreation Centre, where they take advantage of their surroundings to provide the kids with a more playful and inquiry based approach to learning, says Coordinator of Early Learning Suzy Potts.

“Instead of doing those copy and paste kind of crafts and worksheets, we’re making that more meaningful and authentic for the children. So they are doing math in the forest, we were counting sticks yesterday and berries and we were sorting them in lengths. And really they had no idea they were doing math, but they were getting all of those skills.”

Pre-K's from Maryview School were there Wednesday morning, and 5-year-old Axle says his favourite part is heading out into the woods, to do some hunting.

“We went hunting the other day for berries and twigs. (What do you hope to find next time you are going hunting?) I hope I find a dog!.”

Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools will host the week long pilot projects until the end of April, alternating classes every week in the morning and afternoon.

They hope to expand the program next year to include all pre-K and kindergarten classes in the division.

(Early Learning Lead Teacher for Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools Jennifer Smith talks to the pre-K kids from Maryview School during their Discovery School program Wednesday morning)