Forest School Programs

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What is Forest School?

“Forest and Nature School is an education model for early and primary years. Although the term ‘Forest School’ came from Denmark in the 1950s and moved to Canada in 2008, the concept has been around for much longer—Indigenous peoples have been leaders in land-based learning for thousands of years.”

Marlene Power, Founder of Forest School Canada

What Happens at Forest School?

At Forest School, children are exposed to storytelling, building fires, creating, using tools, roaming and exploring, playing with introduced loose parts and much more. The Forest School team members are ‘co-conspirators’ in play, immersing themselves in children’s play worlds, deepening learning through a process of inquiry. They work on building trusted relationships, and supporting social emotional learning, communication and physical skill development.

Choose Your Own Adventure!

At Little Pine Learning, we offer a variety of Forest School sessions, each with its own adult-child ratio.

Forest School Day Camps

Forest School sessions take place during five consecutive half-days within a structure of routines that provide familiarity and promote independence. Children first arrive with their kit and we gather for a hello song and meeting. Next, nature becomes our classroom during the free-inquiry part of our session. Your child may choose to go on a forest adventure to wander and wonder within nature itself, or seek the open-ended loose parts materials the Forest School team introduces to provoke experimentation and creative problem-solving…or both! Following free-inquiry time, we come together as a group for “Nature Minutes”, where we take time to experience nature through all of our senses. We end our session by sharing stories and singing good-bye.

Program Details

Session Dates for 2022

Summer 1: July 25 - 29

Summer 2: August 8 - 12

slow-down saturdays

Young children often have the same fast-paced, highly scheduled lives as the adults who care for them do. Slow-Down sessions are offered weekly and provide the same structure and routines as offered in Forest School day camps. They afford your child the opportunity to slow down, take a breath and deeply engage in self-led play and learning with their peers over the span of six to eight weeks. Gathering with the same people in the same place over a longer span of time allows for deeper learning and often encompasses more than one season. This type of session format is often chosen to serve as a dynamic alternative or addition to a typical indoor classroom experience.

Program Details

Session Dates for 2022

Spring Session
April 30
May 7, 14, 28
June 4