Five Finger Learning is a website for Vincentian teachers interested in facilitating lessons in the outdoors. Though this website was founded by Anna Notaro and Victoria Shuster, two university students from Middlebury College in the US, the activities found on this website were created in collaboration with science teachers of the North Leeward Area, as well as Anna and Victoria’s project partner, Lesandre (La Fleur) John of Petit Bordel. La Fleur was a crucial aid to the project, as she showed Anna and Victoria all around the five different communities and schools they visited, and introduced them to important community members. 

 

Anna and Victoria study Environmental Studies, Justice, and Anthropology at Middlebury College and went to St. Vincent with an anthropology class focusing on the relationship between land and society on the island. Their university partnered with community organizer, Chrisiena Harry of Petit Bordel who facilitated relationships with local project partners and other community members. While in St. Vincent, Anna and Victoria interviewed principals and science teachers at all of the primary schools in the North Leeward Area to understand how environmental concepts are taught under the OECS (Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States) educational curriculum. Through these interviews,

they quickly learned that a commonly preferred method of teaching

involved hands-on activities and going outside. Though it was very

common for teachers to include hands-on activities in their classroom,

Anna and Victoria didn’t hear of any written record of these activities:

like a booklet that could be shared with other teachers. Instead, a lot

of these activities were passed down from teacher to teacher orally.

Nearly all of the teachers they spoke to also expressed the desire to implement more hands-on nature activities into their classroom’s but struggled to do so because of a lack of supplies, knowledge on how to use available supplies, or proper activity instructions, among other reasons. 

 

Led by the recommendations of these teachers and principals, Anna and Victoria compiled and created nature-based activities for primary schools on the North Leeward side of the island. The final product took shape as this website, and the crucial PDFs and other resources that make it up. The guiding framework for the activities and the website was to make them as comprehensive, accessible, and aligned with the OECS curriculum and learning standards as possible. All of the activities also have at least one component that requires students to engage with the natural environment, whether at home or during class time. 

 

The decisions to create a website rather than a physical booklet was based on teachers’ preference towards digital materials and serves a two-fold purpose: so that this website can hold not only these activities but also links to further resources and so that this website can continue to grow, as teachers comment on activities and add their own activities.

 

With this being said, if you are an educator or school administrator interested in having editing access to the website to help manage and add new activities, please reach out to either Anna or Victoria, whose emails are attached below.