FAQ
What is Forest School?
Forest School is a 100% nature based program for preschoolers. Forest School is a teaching philosophy with roots in Europe where all the preschool activities happen outdoors, usually in forested locations. Forest school is guided by the philosophy of child-led play, children learning by their own curiosity and interests in an unstructured way.
What are the benefits of Forest School?
There are so many benefits to nature school including building self confidence, developing social skills, improving communication, building physical skills and increasing knowledge and awareness of the nature world plus all the health benefits of simply being outdoors in nature.
What is a typical day like?
A typical day might include circle time, nature wandering, climbing hills, creek exploring, fairy garden construction, shelter building, nature based arts and crafts, nature treasure hunt, nature journaling, storytelling and child inspired play.
What is the curriculum?
Our nature program emphasizes unstructured, child-led creative play in combination with a nature connection program. Our Nature Mentor will guide your children through a magical experience of nature school style learning. They will have a chance to really drop into their bodies and build a sense of connection to the space. Our programs are experiential based learning. Since we will be at the same location over an entire school year, we will have the opportunity to get to know all about the plants, animals, insects, trees and other cycles of nature that will be happening around us. We practice emergent curriculum creation where teachers are listening to the interests of the child and creating curriculum based on what they are most interested in. Nature is constantly changing and shifting so you never know what you are going to find. We will put together a plan for the day, but are also open to shifting plans based on what we see in the moment.
What to Wear/What to Bring
For our classes, we ask that children have their own backpack with a snack, a lunch, and a water bottle. Children should be dressed for varying weather conditions since we operate 100% outdoors. There is no bad weather, just bad clothing. Having the right gear will make all the difference. We can make recommendations regarding clothing.
COVID PROTOCOL
We are committed to keeping our children and their families as safe as possible, and to that end, we have established the following protocols:
If your child is experiencing symptoms, please do not bring them to class.
We do not practice social distancing in our classes. Our programs allow children to freely play and engage with nature and others. We will have alcohol-based sanitizer on hand for children to use if they happen to touch a shared object.
Masks are optional at this time.
If any member of your household comes in contact with a confirmed case of COVID-19, please notify me right away so we can discuss our protocols for quarantine.
If you have any questions or concerns with regard to our protocols, please do not hesitate to reach out.
Sincerely,
Bonnie McKinney, Director
Peninsula Forest and Beach School