Begin your child’s nature preschool
learning adventure at Wild Acorns
Fostering your preschooler’s desire for outdoor exploration, friendship, and fun while getting Kindergarten ready.
Outdoor Focus
Rain or shine, your child will spend significant amount of preschool time playing, learning, and exploring in our magical nature playground. We spend time tending hens, planting seeds in our raised garden beds, digging in our sand/gravel pits, and classroom learning with Montessori inspired, nature-based curriculum. Most learning/art activities done in a typical classroom can also be done outside leading to increased confidence, independence, creativity, and empathy.
Weekly Themes
Each week consists of its own exciting theme, so your child has something new to anticipate. These themes are incorporated each and every class session during circle time, singing, instruments, crafts, dramatic play, and beautiful sensory bin experiences. Some of our favorites include: Dinosaurs, Pumpkins, Space, Birds/Nests, Snow/Ice, Caterpillars/Butterflies, and Ocean Life. Come ready to learn, sing, create, and explore with us surrounded by the beauty of the natural world!
Learning
Our program teaches your child the skills to be successful in Kindergarten with early literacy skills and social/emotional skills. These include curiosity, focus, participating in a routine, following 1-2 step instructions, listening with respect to teachers and peers, taking turns, and being a friend. Each class session will also practice academic skills including recognizing shapes/colors, counting, sorting, days of the week/months of the year, letter recognition/sounds, and rhyming.
Intentional toys for learning and playing
Each toy was carefully selected to serve as an open ended opportunity for your child to embrace a new challenge, to spark their imagination, to learn , or to involve their new friends in play. Unlike electronic toys that perform for the child and teach them passive engagement, open ended toys encourage creativity, imagination, problem solving, and overcoming challenges.
Some favorites are a full outdoor mud kitchen with acorn stew recipes, stumps for climbing and jumping, sand/rock quarry digging toys, bins of loose parts (rocks, pinecones, acorns, nuts) to tinker with, a wooden dollhouse with Maileg mice, a large barn with animal figures, and stacking wooden rainbows.
These are the last two years for your child to play in long, uninterrupted stretches. Let us fill your child’s life with a love for learning, new friends, and opportunities to enjoy the magic of being little.
Farm, garden, and forest
We strive to be outside enjoying fresh air, the four Silkie and Cinnamon Queen chickens, the garden, and playing under our towering trees- rain or shine! There are also times each class session when we enjoy our enclosed classroom holding purposeful toys, tables/chairs, and learning rotation stations.
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Montessori style teaching with Social Emotional emphasis
Learning is an invitation, not a lecture here at Wild Acorns. Some children enjoy achieving through academics while others are gifted musically, artistically, socially, or emotionally. There are nature-based activities for every academic skill level with the highest emphasis on being kind, an excellent listener, curious, and having a love for learning. We strive for children to first and foremost feel supported in their learning style and challenge them to grow in every way.
Each learning session time includes:
-theme of the week exploration
-hello/goodbye songs/singing/instruments
-practicing letters, shapes, days of the week, months of the year, or affirmations
Additionally, your child will have the opportunity for written classwork using the Gentle + Classical Preschool Morning Binder during the Winter and Spring seasons.
If your child has a passion for academics beyond the typical class lesson, we have additional material available to work on during free time or as take home activities.
Small class size for personalized attention
While our program encourages your little one to become a confident, independent learner, much individual attention is still required at this age. Our class size, therefore, is up to five children ranging in ages 3-6 years. A small nature preschool with only one teacher requires specific screenings of each child/family in order to ensure success for all.
There are countless lizards and at least six squirrels that live on site. It is exciting each time you find one to show your friends where they are hiding!