Friends’ Central School has been nurturing the connection between body, mind, and spirit for more than 170 years.

 

Their mission to “cultivate the intellectual, spiritual, and ethical promise of their students” began in Philadelphia in 1945 and continues today on their two sprawling campuses in Wynnewood. Fittingly, an aerial view of these campuses paints a scene in which greenery envelops architecture.

 

The Nature Nursery, nestled in the 18-acre Lower School campus, stands as the first of the School’s early childhood programs. Here, outdoor educational settings foster a love of learning.

 

“We are outside every day; sun, rain, snow. Whatever the natural world is bringing us is what we are exploring in, learning about, and playing in,” said Natalie Martin, one of Friends’ Central’s four Lead Nature Nursery teachers.

 

Martin described a daily routine, common to each of the four Nursery classes, in which the kids have constant opportunities to connect with their natural surroundings.

 

The teachers greet the children upon arrival, and they start the day with an art project. “Sometimes we draw on some of the things that we’ve been doing in nature, like projects with leaves in the fall and projects with flowers in the spring,” Martin shared.

 

The children move into open play before coming together for their morning circle on their green rug, aptly named “the green green grass.” This is the time where the teachers bring in some of the School’s “bigger learning moments.”

 

“It’s the beginning of the school year now, so we talk a lot about kind hands, kind words, and kind bodies,” Martin said. During this time, teachers introduce core Quaker values. “We refer to them a lot as the SPICES; simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality, and stewardship.”

 

The indoor spaces include tables for project making and sensory experiences, a train table, countless books on shelves and in baskets, and a cozy couch area complete with a faux fireplaces.

 

 

After their time indoors, the Nursery students head outdoors for a hike to one of the many places on campus that the kids love to explore.

 

“We might walk to the chicken coop, to the wildflower field, to the fairy forest, or to the frog pond, depending on what we’ve been learning about and what the kids are interested in,” Martin said. “After our walk, we sit down, we have snack, and we do a bit of exploration and play outside. We believe that for this age group, play is the most authentic way of learning. 

 

“The trajectory of the Early Childhood Program maintains play, discovery, and child-centered learning at the core,” shared Friends’ Central Lower School Assistant Principal Rowena Lesher. “We focus on the development of the whole child by aligning the academic needs with the social, emotional, and physical needs of our students.”

 

With surroundings that offer nature in every direction, students are able to explore multiple gardens and a forest within walking distance of their indoor learning space.

 

“There’s an amazing playground, there’s the garden where our science teacher Tiffany is growing the most amazing assortment of flowers and vegetables, there’s the chicken coop where we take turns caring for the chickens and collecting their eggs,” Martin explained further. “We talk about the plants, they learn the names of the trees and the flowers; there are so many lessons to be taught.”

 

Some of those lessons are planned, while others happen organically in opportunities that only nature can provide.

“Today, for example, there was a cricket on the stairs as we were heading back into the building, and one of my students got a bit startled and scared,” Martin said. She picked it up and brought it into the classroom for a lesson.

 

“We put it in a big round vase so that all the kids could look in and see it,” Martin continued. “We made observations about the cricket and had a chance to interact with it, we noticed that the cricket kept flipping upside down, and so we problem-solved how to help the cricket to feel more comfortable in the glass vase using rose petals left over from an earlier project.”

 

Martin credits nature for this invitation to empathy and unpacking fears, and the organic incorporation of science, literacy, and social emotional learning; lessons she says the kids will bring with them through their lives.

 

Nature Nursery teachers are “patient, compassionate, and adaptable” leaders, shared Assistant Principal Rowena Lesher.

 

“They all have a gift for helping our youngest learners feel secure, understood, and valued as each day involves creating opportunities and unexpected challenges. The Nature Nursery team serves as guides to our youngest learners, encouraging them to be curious, make discoveries, and ask questions,” said Lesher.

 

The teachers practice and interdisciplinary approach as they integrate academic “specials” like art, science, music, Spanish, equity, and social justice into the curriculum. These specials take place after the students’ outdoor exploration, and before the closing circle that concludes their day at the Nature Nursery.

 

To learn more about Nature Nursery at Friends’ Central School, register for an Admissions Open House or download their Early Childhood Education Brochure. 

 

 

Learn more about educational opportunities at Friends’ Central School in their other stories here on Main Line Parent. Are you a current Friends’ Central family, or an alum? Share what you love about your school with us, each testimonial is a nomination for our Main Line Parent LOVE Awards for Excellence in Education!