The Nature Kindergarten Curriculum

Balanced Curriculum

  • As we make our way around the wheel of four seasons, our pre-planned, teacher-led curriculum blends with the emergent, child-guided curriculum.

  • This synergy creates a healthy balance of structured and unstructured time.

Teacher-Led

  • Our teacher-led curriculum guides the children through seasonally inspired studies of the living and creative arts including: drawing, painting, sculpting, handcrafts, cooking and baking, as well as tending and tidying.

  • Teacher-led singing and storytelling circles creates a strong sense of culture and community

Child-Led

  • Our child-led curriculum expands on the children’s observations of the teacher’s direct instruction, and on the teachings they receive from the natural world.

  • Children are given ample time to explore their curiosities through unstructured play time, through communion with the nature

Our teacher-led curriculum guides the children through seasonally inspired studies of the creative and living arts. These studies take form through a repeating pattern of activity rhythms.

Activity Rhythms

Day 1: Drawing and painting day

Day 2: Handcraft day

Day 3: Baking and cooking day

Day 4: Sculpting day

Day 5: Tending and tidying day

Sample Activity Rhythms

Drawing and Painting Day: Create a wet on wet watercolour painting using yellow and red paint (as well as the resulting orange) to create an autumn scene

Handcraft Day: Make a natural plant dye bath using onion skins to transform a play cloth from white to an earthy orange colour

Baking and Cooking Day: Making a vegetable soup and sourdough flatbreads

Sculpting Day: Using natural air-dry clay to sculpt figurines of animals we commonly see on the Islands in autumn

Tending and Tidying Day: Raking leaves and taking care of the garden before it goes to sleep for the winter

The healthy three-fold development of each child’s “head, heart, and hands” is nurtured through imaginative, emotionally rich, and physically active learning experiences.