At Rooted in Nature Forest & Farm Preschool, we believe in giving children the freedom to be children. We spend a large portion of our time outdoors. Our program encourages children to explore the wonders of nature, while engaging in play on their own terms. We value the gifts and opportunities that nature provides children to problem solve, build social skills with peers and care for the world around them. 

 

After some of our best learning is done through play, we do ensure that each session dedicates a portion of our time to our preschool curriculum that helps students become “kindergarten ready”. We have an indoor classroom and an outdoor forest classroom to use throughout the year to work on various skills listed below. 

 

Language and Literacy: actively participating in reading activities, retelling familiar stories, following multiple step directions, prepositional words, asking and answers questions to clarify and seek more information, building phonemic awareness (we utilize Heggerty), singing songs, alphabet recognition and letter sounds, writing names, building schema through exploration in countless science topics and activities

 

Social/Emotional: building confidence in our various abilities, using words to express emotions, responding to others emotions, making self directed choices, remembering and following multiple step directions, actively working to problem solve independently or with others, express their creativity

 

Physical: climbing and jumping on play equipment, drawing freely on paper, stringing large beads, walking up and down stairs without adult support, throwing/catching/kicking balls, balancing, running, hiking and so much more

Cognitive: verbally identifying similarities and differences, expressing curiosity, making a plan, predicting outcomes, revising a plan when the expected outcome does not occur, identifying numbers, writing numbers, subitizing, rote counting, cardinality, estimating quantities

Our farm school curriculum will coincide with our seasons here in Missouri. Nature is our true teacher at Rooted In Nature, and we encourage and facilitate learning in connection with our world. We will focus on various themes and units as they come up naturally.

 

Year Round- 

• Tending to our farm chores such as feeding, watering, grooming, and providing for our animals

• Exploring the great outdoors (forest walks, exploring the creeks, and our Missouri native meadows)

• Incorporating age appropriate emerging literacy and mathematical skills

• Social emotional development with peers and our world

• Collecting and studying things in nature

 

Fall Focuses:

• Pumpkins

• Changes in nature (the trees & leaves- raking and playing)

• Fall gardening & harvesting

• Preparing the land for winter to come

 

Winter Focuses: 

• Snow play and design

• Ice examining and smashing

• Ice art

• Water cycle exploration

• Phases of matter

• Animals in the winter

• Building bird feeders

 

Spring Focuses:  

• Gardening flowers and vegetables

• Hatching baby chicks- the natural way through our hens and in incubators for an up close experience

• The rainy season- enjoying the fun the rain brings

• Changes in nature (the trees & leaves)

• Hatching butterflies

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AND SO MUCH MORE!