Come Along with us on a Day at Forest School
What does an outdoor classroom look like for preschool and elementary school?
Morning Academics
Students arrive between 8:30-9:00 am: the littlest Hummingbirds are walked to the cabin door by their families while elementary students hop out of cars with a wave to play with friends.
While Toddlers and Preschoolers may start their day more slowly, singing songs to unpack backpacks and get situated, even the older students stop for meditative sit-spots on the walk up the mountain.
It’s a beautiful way to start the day — especially in the winter!
Everyone begins with a Circle Time and Morning meeting. Today, the Hummingbird class has a special guest — one student’s grandmother is a substitute teacher!
Next, the younger students begin social & imaginative play and the older students begin Literacy & Math classes that are in concert with the seasons.
Sassafras math class today (First Grade) includes tapping and harvesting sap from maple trees; while preschool plays a name game that models recognizing numerals, counting with one-to-one correspondence, ordinal numbers, shape ID, letter ID, letter sounds, and name recognition.
During transition times, students take movement breaks in new and familiar places.
Elementary students visit forts that they build cumulatively throughout the year, rest in hammocks they’ve strung in trees, or engage in imaginative play with nature’s materials.
While preschool students walk to activities, children talk with teachers, discuss and observe the nature around them, and sing songs.
And today is Shabbat! The whole school gathers on the lawn to sing songs and celebrate — even some parents and grandparents who are able to join. It’s chilly, but we have tarps to sit on and the sun warms our backs.
Clara and Jill pass out challah while Josh and Anne play guitar and sing familiar songs that express our gratitude for the Earth and for being alive.
Midday Lunch & Play
What Parents Say —
“We love CBIFS with our whole heart and will always be so grateful for the gift of nature that they've provided to our entire family!”
I was raised by a mother who once wrote her nursing school thesis on the importance of children playing and learning in the outdoors. She raised my sister and me to appreciate the outdoors.
My favorite childhood memories involve playing outside in the woods and digging around in the dirt. It is so exciting to be able to provide those experiences for our children, too, despite the rest of the world seemingly wanting to focus more on technology and life indoors.
It feels deeply important and deeply personal to be able to watch them experience and fall in love with nature, and even more special to have that nurtured and supported in such a deep way by their (our!) school and teachers.
— Leah Baker, Parent
Afternoon Adventures
The littlest students are napping in their cabins, while older preschool students have quiet rest and play time.
Elementary students have specialty classes in the afternoon: Independent Studies such as writing or science; then Jewish Studies, Nature Studies, and/or Social Studies. After specialty classes, it’s Explore Time!
It’s a Buddy Day for the Oaks (3rd & 4th graders) and the Hawks (Kindergarten) today. These are pairs that will last all year and they form special friendships. Today, they are spending Explore Time together in the forest.
The day ends between 3:00-3:15, so classes begin making their way down the mountain to play together while they wait for parents to pickup. It’s been another glorious day in the forest together.
Afterclub
Afterclub is an option for students to spend an extended day in the forest, and to create friendships across grades and age groups.
Whether we are creating a drum circle out of sticks, art with natural materials, constructing shelters, or making lavender iced tea, Afterclub gives students open creative adventure time sprinkled with special projects in the outdoors with a variety of ages.
Today, Aftertrees (the older group) collected persimmons and cracked them open to explore the mountain legend of persimmon seeds foretelling the conditions of the winter season!
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