JANUARY 2016

Welcome to January news from the Natural Start Alliance. If you have news you'd like to share with the early childhood environmental education community, let us know.

Catching Tracks in a Forest Classroom

Tromping through the woods on a brisk, snowy morning in northern Illinois with a dozen red-cheeked, bright-eyed 4-year-olds was just the beginning of another day at Natural Beginnings nature preschool in Illinois. The children startled a group of deer and watched as they bounded away, leaving fresh tracks in the snow. It was a moment that sparked a weeks-long project that would build the children’s understanding of sensory experiences, refine their critical thinking, and test their determination. Read more.

In the News

Recent news from Natural Start and around the Web:

• Two Veteran Professionals Team Up to Offer Business Planning for Nature-Based Preschools
• Call for Manuscripts: International Journal of Early Childhood Environmental Education
• Recess could be mandatory in N.J. schools next year
• Preschool Without Walls
• The Joyful, Illiterate Kindergartners of Finland
• Into the woods: When preschoolers spend every class outdoors
• I send my toddler to school outside. You should, too.
• Kids in the Pacific Northwest are Going to "Outdoor" Preschools. Here's Why We Need More
• New Federal Education Law Promotes Environmental Education
• 20 Conversation Starting Early Childhood Conferences of 2016

Member Spotlight

At Atlanta’s Turning Sun School, the community is the classroom, with one campus in an urban neighborhood and a second on 13 acres of forest. According to Head of Curriculum Alicia Karpick, “The children, teachers, and parents work on year-long projects together following the methods of the project approach. The local Atlanta community and natural world are major parts of every project.” Children at Turning Sun have collaborated with local artists, presented their ideas for improving the city’s mass transit system to the system’s CEO, helped develop cooking videos for preschoolers, and helped start a Community-Supported Agriculture program that linked the school to a nearby urban farm. Read more. 

Call for Presenters: Nature-Based Preschool National Conference

Natural Start is seeking compelling proposals for presentations related to nature-based early childhood education. The Nature-Based Preschool National Conference brings professionals together from around the country to advance the movement to use nature to improve early childhood education, and to create a community for this new and growing profession. This year's conference will be held at the Dodge Nature Center and Preschool in the heart of Minnesota's Twin Cities. Proposals must be received by February 29th, 2016. Learn more.

Job Opportunities

• San Antonio Zoo, Education Director, Zoo School 
• Merrohawke Nature School, Forest Kindergarten Teacher

Schools in the News

• Forest Kindergarten: Into the woods with preschool explorers
• Trenton teachers take students back to nature
• Strong interest in Nature Kindergarten
• Play and Discovery at The Land and in the woods at the Riley School
• Using the forest as a classroom
• San Antonio Zoo preschool to expand later this year
• The Waldorf Way: White Mountain Waldorf Forest Kindergarten 
• West Side Christian School launching nature-based preschool program