Welcome!
Little Naturalists can enrich your child’s life through nature-based play.
While we generally reach out to schedule tours with families a couple of months before their desired start date, if a tour is requested sooner upon getting added to our waiting list, we can often accommodate that. Please fill out our Enrollment Inquiry Form if you are interested in starting our enrollment process!
Philosophy:
At Little Naturalists Nature-Based Preschool, we help guide young children through early development via nature-based play, while striving to encourage and inspire a curiosity with the natural world.
We offer a year-round early childhood curriculum with kindergarten readiness practices, which will prepare your child for their next big steps while enriching their lives through nature-based play. Some of the ways this is achieved is by creating an environment that encourages curiosity and experimentation, developing activities that support each child's ability while challenging their growth, inspiring problem solving through asking questions, and guiding play by providing information relevant to each child’s natural inquiries, interests, and ideas.
Our Values:
Along with nature-based activities and play filling up our days, we do our best to acknowledge and fight against systems of inequality while empowering students to find their own sense of liberation and agency. The Little Naturalists curriculum incorporates topics of intersectional environmentalism into day-to-day teachings, lessons, and activities.
At Little Naturalists, we value creating a non-violent and community-centered classroom that is inclusive, creative, and collaborative! We value radical acceptance, being in a respectful relationship with the land and all living beings, empowering children’s agency to make their own choices, and equitable access. Some of the ways we practice our values is through celebrating diversity, practicing bodily and emotional regulation, creating intentional narratives in play, communicating within conflict, and honoring consent.
Little Naturalists Curriculum:
The Little Naturalists curriculum is centered around intersectional environmentalism. We focus on topics of gender identity affirmation, celebrating diversity within the classroom, emotional awareness, communicating within conflict, inclusivity, kindness, respecting personal boundaries, and consent.
Children are encouraged to learn through different forms of expression and experimentation via nature-based play. Our curriculum and lesson plans are followed while supporting students interests and incorporating them into each learning experience.
There is so much to be learned in relationship with the natural world. As a nature-based preschool, most of our days will be spent outside when weather permits. Quiet areas, science and nature stations, music and art areas, library centers, and more will be provided outside as well as inside throughout each school day. When we are not able to be outside, our inside spaces are also thoughtfully curated to provide nature-based play and learning indoors.
Little Naturalists is a Parent Aware approved curriculum. Parent Aware provides resources to families and works to connect them with quality childcare programs throughout Minnesota. For more information on Parent Aware of Minnesota please visit www.parentaware.org.
Kindergarten Readiness Practices:
To prepare your child for there next big step in their educational journey, lessons plans will be written in line with the ECIP domains (Early Childhood Indicators of Progress). Students will learn:
Approaches To Learning- Students will be encouraged to learn and explore their own curiosity, through engagement in various daily activities, making connections to the natural world, and daily life via daily free play.
The Arts - focusing on how children intentionally use the arts for self expression and learning, using vocabulary to describe their creations. Students will learn to identify colors, shapes and textures. Explore various forms of art and materials. Observe rhythm and beats in music, movement activities involving dance, dramatic play, and other various forms of self expression.
Language, Literacy, and Communication - Students will learn vocabulary in which to communicate with peers and adults in conversation, explore literature, and various expression of written word through reading, and explore word play, sounds of language and phonically awareness. Students will explore these topics through various forms of literature and written/spoken word, writing projects guided by staff, incorporating and encouraging sentence structure and thoughtful conversation such as writing letters, reading, singing songs and music.
Mathematics - Students will be introduced to mathematics through sorting activities, measurement, exploring patters, exploring spacial thinking, data analysis, matching activities, time management, and more.
Physical and Movement (motor skills) - Students will explore coordination and balance, via our natural playground and natural balancing object, climbing wall, and stepping logs. Students will have daily access to art projects such as using child protective scissors, painting, and drawing with various tools. Students will also begin practicing tying shoes and dressing themselves for outside play each day. Learning to write their own names, working with puzzles, blocks, and other manipulation tools.
Scientific Thinking - Students will explore this domain via various science projects, experiments, and daily activities, being encouraged to formulate questions, make plans and predictions, and verbally express those thoughts and ideas. Students will have daily opportunities for nature exploration and outside play, identifying simple flora and fauna, and building and manipulating natural items in play.
Social and Emotional - As students explore this domain, they will be encouraged to navigate the ability to be self aware, learning to self regulate emotions, show confidence in self direction, identify their experience of gender, explore family, community, and culture. Students will learn social skills, how to express needs and emotions, and begin to manage conflicts in social interactions. Students will be encouraged to implement emotional and bodily regulation practices and emotional problem solving skills with the guidance of teachers, morning and afternoon meeting reflection practices, daily emotion journal reflections, and hands on emotional guidance posters, helping students to identify emotions and to find their own personal best practices of working through them.
Social Systems - Students will begin to understand their identity and form a sense of belonging in different group settings, learn to follow rules, and show interest in community and culture, participating in taking turns, and operating as a part of a community. Students will explore important dates (such as birthdays and special events), observe globes and maps pertaining to their neighborhoods, cities, towns, states, and the world as a whole, and exploring self and community awareness through various community building activities.
Those learning outdoors develop their creativity, problem-solving, confidence, and more. Playing in natural spaces supports a child's sense of self, allowing children to recognize their self-worth and interdependence with their community and the natural world.
Magic in every season!
As a part of our curriculum here at Little Naturalists, our students will have hands-on experience with nature projects throughout the year. Some of our fun and exciting nature immersive projects for each season includes the following.
Maple Tree Tapping
(Winter & Spring)
Students will help tap the Little Naturalists Maple tree, learn the process of tapping, where syrup comes from, and even get to bring some of their very own maple syrup!
Harvesting & Cooking
(Summer & Fall)
A great mindfulness practice is cooking and learning about the food we eat and how to cook with the food we grow. Students will learn to make simple and healthy meals with the food that they grew themselves!
Gardening
(Spring & Summer)
Students will learn how to grow their own food through planting seeds in the Little Naturalists garden. They will do everything from planting seeds to harvesting at the end of the season. Through this process students will gain an understanding of where food comes from, how it's grown, and how it arrives on our plates.
Why do leaves change?
(Fall & Winter)
The midwest is notorious for our gorgeous fall leaves. During this season we will explore what is happening when this change occurs, why the leaves change colors, and how they get to be those beautiful colors we see during the fall months.
Overview of daily schedule:
8:30am - Drop off / free play
10:00am-10:15am - Morning meeting / greeting the day
10:15am-10:30am - Morning snack
10:30am-12:00pm - Daily lesson plan and activities / free play
12:00pm-12:30pm - Lunch
12:30pm- 3:00pm - Nap / rest time
3:00pm-3:15pm - Waking up and preparing for outside
3:15pm-3:30pm - Afternoon meeting: reflections on the day
3:30pm-3:45pm – Afternoon snack
3:45pm-4:30pm - Free Play
4:30pm - Pick up