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Nature and Enrichment Programs
We view ourselves as a forest school hybrid program. We spend a large chunk of our day out in nature learning, exploring, and just being a kid! This is where teamwork, problem solving skills, and gross motor skills are refined, and a love of nature is formed. On 18 acres, we have lots to see, do, and explore! That is where we spend the first part of each day.
The second half of our day is spent working together, individually, or in small groups on our enrichment activities. Here we immerse ourselves in topics of interest to the students and incorporate our place based learning through projects, cooking, crafts, writing, building, and more. It is so much fun to expand on learning with peers!
Some of the experiences your child will encounter are outlined below!
Outdoor Classroom Time and Exploration
The outdoor classrooms are created for exploring, building with loose parts material, art, sensory experiences, adventure, problem solving, and more. We have a giant sand pit, mud kitchen, climbing logs, gathering circle, hiking trails, canvas yurt, and other fun areas throughout the property.
Cooking and Baking
Our schoolhouse has a full kitchen equipped for cooking and baking. Math and science are so fun when taught through cooking. Culinary activities also lends itself well to learning about various cultures and their foods. We incorporate cooking into many of our studies and lessons for both classes.
Nature Art Experiences
Art is available each day in our forest classrooms and schoolhouse. Students can experiences various mediums and tactile experiences with natural materials. During the colder months, we pivot to a more open ended art experience that we have in the indoors. However, we dive into more complex art in our Tuesday class. Needle felting, clay, mosaic, painting, and more.
STEM Learning
We experience STEM through group work with messy science experiments, nature studies that dive into scientific facts, engineering with materials, and thinking and brainstorming logically with peers.
Wild Math
While math is not specifically the focus of our learning, we do like to incorporate such activities in the outdoors and with natural materials within the environment. This often done by using the curriculum Wild Math. Students work together or individually through hands-on experiences to expand their knowledge of math concepts.
Studying literature
Teaching literacy is such a wonderful component to a child's education. Through literature, children can learn vocabulary, cultural diversity, emotional intelligence, critical thinking and problem solving skills, and more! Literature lends itself nicely to art and drama expression. Students can often times find a character in the story that they can relate to or find characteristics that are aspiring to them. Through our literary studies, we dive deep into all of these things, taking the student's lead.
