This is a reprint of a post from the Primitive Pursuits blog by Kirsten Wise from 2015

In September I had a chance to visit the Ithaca Forest Preschool just as the school year began.

Spiders. Fires. And monsters making ice cream.

Stranger things have happened at the Ithaca Forest Preschool. In a classroom where the walls are made of hills and the forest canopy provides windows to endless possibilities, learning and imagination run rampant.

In January 2014, Primitive Pursuits founder Tim Drake and team member Melissa Blake decided to start a preschool-aged nature education program. Blake says she didn’t want to wait until her son was six to get involved in the wilderness experiences that Primitive Pursuits was providing. By that March, a pilot program was up and running one day a week. Today the program runs five days a week and in two locations.

This fall, on the first program day, some kids already knew the lay of the land, having returned from a previous season. Others were just getting acclimated to the space, taking advice from the returners on how to create paint from sedimentary rocks and charcoal. When the time came to head down the trail, some chose a stony path along a creek, while others climbed over a log that spanned the leafy forest floor. A few asked mentors Melissa and Sean for help, or just saved the challenge for another day.

Later, they headed back to the creek to collect water for an activity. But once a toad was spotted, the task was all but forgotten to explore the differences between frogs and toads.

“There’s so much required of them,” Blake says as the children carry steel pots and rocks. Not only is it their first time without their parents, but for some, there is also the adjustment of being outside for hours at a time. However, as Blake has seen over the years, no matter the different exposure they have coming in, it’s evident that “young children naturally really want to be outside.”

In another area, a small tree had fallen across a tree trunk lying on the ground. Because of this, it could bounce. A boy belly-scooted along the tree and invited an instructor to come, too. They were going to “the ice cream store.” It was like Max’s imaginings in Where the Wild Things Are, but in reverse. Instead of the posts of Max’s bed turning into trees, the trunk began to morph into something industrial. Note to adult: regardless of where a child is, there is always another world to be found.

These preschoolers may not understand how unique their forest classroom is—however, it is evident that their skill-sets and level of comfort with nature surpasses many who are much older. Blake recalls a snowy spring break when there was a week-long program for teenagers near by. At first, many of the young adults seemed timid with their surroundings and uncomfortable in their lack of proper clothing. The youngsters, however, were embracing the cold and playing in the deep snow, bundled well in the lessons of winter preparedness.

At one point on Friday, one boy lingered back from the group and picked up a branch, thin and two feet long with a dangling limb.

“It’s a monster!” He whispered.

“Oh, no!” I gasped.

Quickly, he had to tell me about one of his favorite animals.

“I like bats,” he said, “because they eat frogs and mosquitos!”

I asked if he had ever seen a bat. He said no, but he knew they stayed together, “Like 1300 of them! In a big circle!”

I considered what a wild thought this was, for both of us.

A steep hill with a giant tree trunk providing a railing seemed to be the largest attraction of this forest classroom. A group of four kids began to climb, with a mentor following them. Within minutes, another boy notices them and races toward them, until he abruptly stops at the foot of the hill. He needs to make sure an instructor is there to watch him. Once he gets the okay, he speeds up the hill until he reaches the tricky part—where the mound becomes steep and the tree trunk is out of reach. There, he joins the other kids whose steps are becoming more deliberate, more thought-out. It takes each child a good three minutes to reach the top, listening to suggestions from their mentors and not getting upset when they fall. Some announce their delight before sliding back down.

But most are quiet, only giving you a smile that asks you to believe what they just did, because they barely believe it themselves.

At the end of each day, the kids have lots to tell. Genna Knight says when she picked up her son Rowan from class, “he was smiling and chatty and told stories the whole way home about his morning. He called both sets of grandparents and told them all about it.” When asked how many days he wanted to attend Forest Preschool, he replied, “Eight days a week!”

Add to this the fact that recess is shrinking and becoming more structured (one school she mentions in her blog has instituted mandatory lap-walking around the track at recess time to fight obesity); children today spend much less time in outdoor free play than they did in the 70’s or 80’s.

Did you know that, statistically, American children’s bones are getting more brittle? Hanscom relates this to a lack of weight-bearing exercise in early childhood. Remember the “bent arm hang”? Children today perform, on average, worse on the same national physical strength and agility tests we took in school. Clearly they are not getting enough of the kinds of physical activity we had. Increasing numbers of children are presenting with sensory development and sensory integration issues. Hanscom compares the state-of-the-art OT classroom with a natural environment and finds the classroom comparatively lacking in the right kinds of sensory stimuli.

She notes that a common treatment for certain types of auditory processing issues is to listen to pre-recorded birdsong; she maintains that listening to real birdsong, outdoors in a 360 degree environment, is far superior.

And she examines what’s wrong with modern playgrounds, both in terms of the types of physical and sensory stimulation they provide and the lack of opportunities for healthy risk taking.

Meet the Peace Superheroes! Feel Better Butterfly, Fine Words Fox, Peaceful Porcupine and Unity Unicorn (top to bottom).

Speaking of forest friends, remember those beautiful leaves the Nuthatches gifted us during week 2 of preschool? The Chickadees made a fire, melted beeswax in a pot and carefully dipped the leaves into the melted wax. Each child got to pick out several leaves to dip in the wax. Some picked out heart-shaped leaves, others chose ones with “teeth.” They left the leaves to dry and will be using them to make something to give to the Nuthatches in return! What do you think the Chickadees are going to make with the waxed leaves?

The Chickadees warming their hands around one of their first fires! The children learned about different sized firewood (“wispies, pencils and markers”) and how to be safe around fire. They did a great job!

The children stopped for a ride on the Horsey Log on their way to collect firewood.

Our mystery bag has held some exciting mysteries over the past two weeks! During Opening Circle, the mystery bag was passed around. Each child felt the outside of the bag, described what it felt like and gave a guess as to what they think it could be. “Bumpy,” “hard,” “a stick,” were some of the things said as the mystery bag was passed around the circle. After a loud drumroll the bag was opened and inside was a plant with small, golden flowers — “goldenrod!” some of the children exclaimed upon seeing it. And it was indeed goldenrod! The Chickadees went on a search for goldenrod and found some growing at the edge of the front field. They filled their baskets with the flowers and headed down to Trillium Camp where they made a fire and filled a pot with water. Next they put in goldenrod, purple aster flowers and white hand towels. The children made predictions about what color the hand towels were going to change to. After some stirring, the pot was placed on the fire where it started to bubble and turn yellow!

Sarah and a Chickadee stirring a pot filled with water, white hand towels, goldenrod and purple aster flowers. The children learned that goldenrod and purple aster flowers are in the same family (the Aster Family, Asteraceae).

Next week the Chickadees will use another plant to add purple to their hand towels — stay tuned to find out what it is! We’d like to leave you with this sweet moment of some Chickadees walking back up the path towards the red oak tree at the end of the day holding hands using a “friendship stick.”

Thank you for reading — we love sharing the adventures of preschool with you!

Jumping in puddles,
Sarah, Maddy & Hannah

Hello Nuthatch Families!

The fire in the sun
Makes the fire in the trees
Makes the fire that we light tonight!

The fire in the sun
Makes the fire in the trees
Makes the fire that we light tonight!

Fire, fire burning brightly
Shield us with your light.

The fire in the sun
Makes the fire in the trees
Makes the fire that we light tonight!

The fire in the sun
Makes the fire in the trees
Makes the fire that we light tonight!

In our third week, the Nuthatches spent a lot of time thinking about changes and fire! The crisp air and our first (much needed) rainy day, made us think of the warmth cozy fires bring us. Here are some highlights so you can connect with all the joy we’re finding in our new forest home together!

During our second full week at preschool, the busy-building Nuthatches spent time “getting ready” for the colder weather. We transformed the shelter in our Ash Grove home to a place we can retreat to when we want to be cozy. Our special guest, Sean, helped us get the roof ready by dragging huge logs over to where the roof would go, and the Nuthatches got to use a real saw to cut off one of the logs that was too long. That was exciting!

After we made the shelter ready, the next day we installed the roof. Now we have a place to keep fire-making supplies and ourselves dry on wet days!

Now that our roof was finished, it was time to get the fire ready. We collected lots of materials from our bountiful Ash Grove. Special Guest, Sean, helped us learn about “wispies” and “tinder” small, dry fire-making supplies for the bottom of our fire. Since the branches were wet from the delicious rain, Sean shaved off the “raincoat bark” and the pine shavings underneath were nice and dry to help our fire grow. Once those were in place, we were ready to add “pencil sticks” and “marker sticks” to help feed our fire. Now that the fire was built and ready, we needed the “spark” that would bring the fire. 

Sean told the Nuthatches a story about how fire came to humans. The animals wanted to help humans survive as the world became colder. So the Raven flew up to the sun and took a small coal. We played the “Fire in the Sun” game to “catch” the coal from “The Raven” so we finally had a spark for our fire. 

Once our fire was burning, Sean used a “fire pencil” to start to “write” ASH GROVE on a sign to welcome friends into our special nest. We will add more letters to our sign as we build fires on the days to come. 

This week, two Nuthatches brought in Mysteries for the Mystery Box. It took us lots of guessing and questions, but we finally discovered one was a beautiful piece of blue sea glass found in Cayuga Lake, and one was a gorgeous yellow, white & gray Northern Flicker feather found at Monkey Run. We can’t wait to see what new Mysteries we’ll find in the Mystery Box next week!

Last but not least, the Nuthatches had a new adventure on the last day of the week… We set off to “Meet the Creek.” We made some predictions about what we might find at the Creek: A fish? Fossils?  An alligator? Would there be water? 

Hello Nuthatch Families!

This past week, the Nuthatches spent a lot of time thinking about changes, in ourselves and in our surroundings… and the change of seasons! We celebrated and welcomed Fall, finding signs of its presence all around us in the changing leaves, the crisp morning air, and in finding our rhythm in our new Ash Grove nest. Here are some highlights so you can connect with all the joy we’re finding in our new forest home together!

During our first full week at preschool, the Nuthatches really settled into our routine and rhythm. We’ve spent time together each day making our new nest – the Ash Grove – our home. We learned how to spot ash trees in our nest by noticing their compound leaves, and opposite branching patterns – like stretching your arms out to both sides! In our opening circle on Tuesday, the official Equinox, we practiced standing on one foot. Then we tried extending our arms on either side, like the ash tree’s branches, and found we were able to balance more easily. We paused to think about how the day and night are the same length now, like two branches level with each other, or a balanced scale. The Nuthatches also celebrated this special time of year by learning a new song and singing it every day this week (there’s the third R: repetition!). Here are the lyrics so you can sing it with your child (there are motions too!):

Turning, turning, the Earth is turning.

And from morning, round to night.

On our way to Ash Grove one day, we gathered signs of Fall and then placed them in our fire circle (yet to hold fire!). 

The Nuthatches are a busy brood of builders. We’ve made a playground in our Ash Grove! Every day, this playground looks different. Often we find that all we need is a sturdy ash limb (left over from the construction of our lean-to) and we can go on top of, under, over, or even hang from it! One day, an ash limb became a door and we took turns giving clues for fellow Nuthatches to guess passwords like “goldenrod” and “charcoal” and our birth months.

One of the many evolutions of our forest playground! 

On Tuesday, Elisabeth finally revealed what was inside the Mystery Box! A sinking stone, used by Native peoples to fish, and used by Tunbar in the final installment of our first ongoing story. We asked for volunteers to bring our next mystery and were met with enthusiasm; one preschooler kept a secret for two days, giving us hints and fielding our questions about the object. It was bigger than the sinking stone, round but bumpy, different on the outside than on the inside, and it had been cracked open using not one but two hammers. At the end of Thursday, our volunteer opened the box to show us… a geode!

A preschooler holds onto Mira’s arm to take a big jump — and a moment after this picture does it independently!

The Nuthatches played games this week to learn each other’s names and to get to know each other. One the preschoolers asked for again and again was Seasons Are Changing, a rendition of a Primitive Pursuits favorite, Forest Fire, which Mira adapted for our themes this week. We started our “project time” – the South part of the day in the 8 Shields model – with a conversation about animals and how they change throughout their life cycles and adapt to the changing seasons. Shedding fur/scales/skin! Growing bigger and more independent! Hibernation! Migration! Caching! Then we invited everyone to choose an animal but keep it to themselves until the end of the game, like their own little Mystery. For the first round, Mira started off in the middle of a field, playing the role of The Seasons. Preschoolers then ran from one side to the other when Mira called out an attribute or behavior of their animal, dodging bandana balls – or “banana balls” as we accidentally, and now jokingly, call them – on the way. Upon getting tagged, preschoolers became “Seasons” too and collectively came up with more traits to call out: “If your animal _________”… And when nobody ran, we shouted “Seasons are changing!” signaling all the animals to run to the other side, because seasonal changes affect every living being. 

The Seasons huddle while the animals wait to hear if they need to run. 

Last but not least, the Nuthatches took our first adventure far from the nest on Wednesday. We gathered colorful leaves that called out to us as we walked to the camp up the hill from the Chickadee nest. We then practiced “fox walking” down the path into Trillium Camp, which we had heard would be empty when we got there. Still, we wanted to be as quiet and mysterious as we could while sneaking in, placing the basket in the Chickadees’ fire circle, and going right back out the way we came. Despite the excitement of this task, we stayed quiet until we were all the way up the hill again! When we got back to our camp, we found a basket of beautiful leaves in our fire circle… how did it get there, we asked? One preschooler thought the Chickadees may have read our minds (we’ve been having a lot of “mindreading” moments lately). Another preschooler suggested that a snake ate the basket, carried it in her stomach to Ash Grove, and then pooped it out for us to find. One of the numerous mysteries this week, and there are many more to come!

Equinox wishes for balance and welcoming changes,

Elisabeth and Mira 

Hi Chickadee Banditry!

The forest is constantly changing around us and we feel so grateful to have the opportunity to observe these changes with your children, who see so much! They’ve noticed the abundance of leaves on the ground in Trillium Camp, they’ve spotted some leaves starting to change color and they’ve been taking time to stop and pick up rocks to see what might be hiding underneath. This time of year, the harvest season, can be so busy but your children remind us to slow down, look at the world with wonder and walk with curiosity.

The Chickadees on a wander in the Meadow in search of colorful leaves.

This week we welcomed Fall and all of the colors, smells and gifts it brings! Maddy wrote and taught us this Equinox Song, which you can listen to by clicking on the link below. And here are the lyrics so you can sing along too!