It is a daunting task to justify the value of nature-based learning despite the enormous body of research to substantiate it. When stacked up against other early childhood education (ECE) programs, how does nature-based learning measure up? Is it really as valuable as other ECE programs? Challenging Educational Norms | Since establishing The Nature Preschool… Read more »
The sunshine and rain continue to bring our corner of the world alive. This week the children continued to explore spring magic by: going to the rain garden near the entrance and “swimming” finding a click beetle in the Outdoor Classroom discovering a huge black beetle in the Outdoor Classroom planting seeds to take home… Read more »
Just what do nature preschoolers do in Spring? Here’s what emerged this week as we discovered habits of birds in spring: making a nests out of cat tail fluff making binoculars with toilet paper rolls (it never gets old!) finding “wormies” creating worm homes in mud puddles exploring the wetlands and making mazes through the… Read more »
As we continue to celebrate what makes each of us special, we also continue to explore the spring thaw. The children had another adventure-filled week. Here’s what they were up to: finding 17 bones in a pile on the trail finishing up our chapter book, The Story Snail (Miss Sophie’s M/W/F morning class) using binoculars… Read more »
Every person is special and holds a special place in our beautiful world. This week we celebrated the many things that make each child unique within our learning community. Here are some of this week’s highlights: sharing common interests and learning about differences with our All About Me drawings/collages playing “The West Wind Blows” mud… Read more »
How do The Nature Preschool students discover spring? Here’s what we were up to this week, the first official week of spring: We visited the stream and sloshed our way through the mud – even getting stuck in all this melting snow We made nests in the meadow to mimic what many animals are starting… Read more »
The March winds sure were blowing this week at the Nature Preschool! The weather was cold and blustery, rainy and warm, chilly and sunny, all in the same week! We had a fun week looking for signs that spring really is on the way. We learned that this is the time of year for bluebirds… Read more »
This week children explored the ways that animals are equipped to hide and survive in nature. We used camouflage like other animals by using different colored fabric for fur coats.
We explored the properties water freezing and melting in winter. We loved hiding hunks of ice on the trails to predict which would melt the fastest or not at all. We used thermometers to track cold temps (particularly good this week since it got to be 6 degrees!). We also met a toad and discovered… Read more »
Okay, not really. There were no actual bears or children harmed during this week’s classes! Instead, we reveled in the fun song and story We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen. We introduced tents and caves during our play. We continued with snowy fun on the trails and pretended to be tired bears… Read more »
