Land of the Midnight Sun
Hallo! Welcome to Norway.
Norway is country in Northern Europe, and is part of the Scandinavian Peninsula. It is a long, thin piece of land that stretches all the way north into the Arctic Circle. It is often called The Land of the Midnight Sun, because the sun stays up in the sky during the summer even when its midnight! In the winter, the opposite is true, and it is dark even during the day.
The Norwegian landscape is covered in thick forests, steep mountains, plummeting waterfalls, deep fjords, and rocky cliffs that hug the rugged coastline. There are even over 50,000 islands!
The climate in Norway is typically quite cold year round. Most of the time, snow and ice blanket the land. The traditional Sami people who live far in the north live on frozen ground almost the whole year. Animals such as moose, polar bears, arctic foxes, gray wolves, and reindeer also happily make their homes here, no matter how chilly it gets.
The people of Norway are undoubtedly proud of their forests. From a very young age, people typically spend many hours amongst the trees, hiking, mountain biking, skiing, bird watching, and picking mushrooms and berries. There are many true (and not so true) stories told about the forests and those who live there, including stories of forest trolls!
Being connected to the natural world is so important to Norwegian culture, that some people even choose to send their children to forest kindergartens. A forest kindergarten is different than a regular kindergarten, because every day (rain, sun, or snow) the kids spend four hours a day out in the woods with their teachers. They freely explore the natural environment, and often do small group lessons using natural materials that they find. The kids are all responsible to carry their own backpacks and help set up their outdoor shelter, which is often a traditional Sami tent, called a laavu.
Would you like to go to school in the forest?
Norway is country in Northern Europe, and is part of the Scandinavian Peninsula. It is a long, thin piece of land that stretches all the way north into the Arctic Circle. It is often called The Land of the Midnight Sun, because the sun stays up in the sky during the summer even when its midnight! In the winter, the opposite is true, and it is dark even during the day.
The Norwegian landscape is covered in thick forests, steep mountains, plummeting waterfalls, deep fjords, and rocky cliffs that hug the rugged coastline. There are even over 50,000 islands!
The climate in Norway is typically quite cold year round. Most of the time, snow and ice blanket the land. The traditional Sami people who live far in the north live on frozen ground almost the whole year. Animals such as moose, polar bears, arctic foxes, gray wolves, and reindeer also happily make their homes here, no matter how chilly it gets.
The people of Norway are undoubtedly proud of their forests. From a very young age, people typically spend many hours amongst the trees, hiking, mountain biking, skiing, bird watching, and picking mushrooms and berries. There are many true (and not so true) stories told about the forests and those who live there, including stories of forest trolls!
Being connected to the natural world is so important to Norwegian culture, that some people even choose to send their children to forest kindergartens. A forest kindergarten is different than a regular kindergarten, because every day (rain, sun, or snow) the kids spend four hours a day out in the woods with their teachers. They freely explore the natural environment, and often do small group lessons using natural materials that they find. The kids are all responsible to carry their own backpacks and help set up their outdoor shelter, which is often a traditional Sami tent, called a laavu.
Would you like to go to school in the forest?