Bolton Conservation Trust
Environmental Learning for the Future (ELF)

What is ELF?

Environmental Learning for the Future is a volunteer based program sponsored by the Bolton Conservation Trust where parents teach lessons about the natural world directly in the classroom through workshops and written materials. ELF, as it is called, is designed to encourage children’s curiosity and concern about the world we live in. This gives parents and children an understanding of the way it works and their role in it. This parental involvement allows teachers to divide the children into small groups within the classroom, each with a parent volunteer. The parent leaders frequently take the children outside to investigate the surroundings related to the subject being taught.

The History of ELF

ELF was started by the Vermont Institute of Natural Sciences (VINS), in Woodstock, Vermont, as a response to parental requests for materials to teach natural science in the local elementary schools. VINS designed the hands-on workshop method as an introduction to the natural world. They have been presented frequently in elementary schools throughout Vermont over the past twenty years.

The ELF program has been in our community since 1989, beginning at Emerson school and continuing at Florence Sawyer School, following the guidelines set up by VINS. Our wonderful program boasts There has been a great response and effort on the part of the many volunteers to make this program work here in Bolton. We have three related workshops each year.