2025 - 2026 School Year
Ages 3 - 6
August through May
Tuesdays / Wednesdays / Thursdays, 9am - 1pm
If you are new to the idea of a forest preschool, a forest school is an approach to outdoor learning that aims to develop confidence and self esteem through hands-on learning in a woodland environment. Forest Friends Nature School is a year-round, all-weather outdoor classroom where a child-led and open-ended play model creates opportunities for critical thinking, problem solving, and creativity.
Our forest preschool takes place on The Farm community in Summertown, Tennessee. We partner with The Farm School, sharing indoor bathrooms, water fountains, and outdoor ‘classrooms’. Beyond that we utilize The Farm’s many wonderful walking and hiking paths, creeks, fields, pastures, and swimming hole.
Daily Rhythm:
8:45 - 9:00 am - Drop off
9:00 am - Welcome circle: Greet friends at drop off site and walk to the “classroom.” The welcome circle will feature songs, poems, stories and introduction of the day’s theme. Types of themes include creek life, natural dyes, survival skills, life cycle of plants and animals, garden tending, and herbal medicine.
9:30 am - Exploration: A short group hike to unstructured play destination. The children are free to explore the creek, fallen logs, slide down piles of leaves, bugs in the garden, or make a magical land with sticks, moss, and rocks.
10:30 - Tea/Snack & Story Time: Mid-morning snack which children can help prepare and serve to classmates. As the children eat their snack, the educator will read poems about the seasons or folk tales that reflect the season or demonstrate a caring value.
11:00 am - An open ended guided activity based on the day’s theme. Activities are designed for children to discover topics of art, science, numbers or letters. Some activities include puppet making, leaf printing, building dams or water pipes with bamboo, sewing, weaving, writing letters in sand, and counting flower petals to identify different types of flowers.
12:00 pm - Farewell: Return to “classroom” for lunch and reflection time. A short quiet time after lunch gives time for the children to reflect on their observations from the day in their nature journal. A sharing circle allows the children to share what they drew or wrote in their journal before we conclude with a farewell song.
1:00 pm - Pick up
Curriculum Topics for 2025-2026
August — Creek Life Exploration
September — Natural Dye Experiments
October — Working Together through harvests, music, and games
November — Color Studies of Trees
December — Caring for One Another during winter
January — Fiber Art
February — Survival Skills
March — Spring Renewal
April — Spring Medicinals
May — Spring Creatures
Tuition: $400/month
We invite you to fill out our online application. Due to the intentional nature of our program we have limited spots available and cannot accept every applicant. You will hear back from a member of our team shortly after submitting your application. If you have any questions before filling out the application please contact us at forestfriendstn@gmail.com.
If your application is accepted there is a non-refundable enrollment fee of $50 to hold your child’s spot in our program.
Please read our Parent Handbook thoroughly before applying.