A Day In The Life of a Wild Preschooler

Have you ever wondered what exactly a Wild Preschoolers day looks like in our fully outdoor nature school? Here you will discover a detailed description of a day spent at The Wild Preschool, written from a Preschooler's perspective.

Our Wild Preschoolers in The Heights, exploring and learning through play.

Hi, I’m a Wild Preschooler at The Heights. It matters where I attend The Wild School because our school is Place-Based. Other than having our lessons, we are always observing and learning about our environments. That is our main goal, to learn, about anything and everything. Also keep in mind that our school is Child-Led, so when we shift focus or pivot, my teachers think that’s okay. They use that as an opportunity to teach us about whatever we’re interested in instead. Oh and one more thing, my school is also Play-Based, so we’re always having fun! My teachers say that even if we’re just playing, we’re learning many skills in the meantime. So come along and I will tell you about a day I spent at The Wild School!

Arrival/Invitation to Play

When I got to school, my teacher had put out some bowls, tiny baseball bat looking things and some plants. She told us that those weren’t just any plants, they were herbs, and that the bowls and tiny baseball bats were actually called mortar and pestle and are used to crush and grind herbs. My friends and I quickly got to work.

My teacher taught us the names of each herb. We had Thyme, Sage, Oregano, Mint and Holy Basil. I recognized some of the names because my teacher had brought us tea with those herbs before. I then asked her how she makes tea from the herbs. She explained that she puts the herbs in a big glass jar, pours boiling hot water over them, and lets it sit for a while for the water to pull out the taste and smell of the plants. I thought that was amazing! We touched and smelled the herbs, and crushed them up with the mortar and pestle, which made the smell even stronger!

Some of my friends and I wanted to eat the herbs. My teacher said they don’t taste very good on their own, they’re good in tea, soups and mixed in with other dishes, but she said we could try them if we wanted to. She was right, even the delicious smelling mint didn’t taste very good when it wasn’t tea. 

Welcome Circle/Story Time

My teacher said it was circle time! We sat in a circle and sang our good morning song to say good morning to nature and each other. Then, my teacher started reading a book called “Flowers are Pretty… Weird”. The book was about some unusual flowers, ones that are tiny or huge, edible or poisonous, nocturnal or diurnal.

(Shifting focus) We saw these people come put a rope around trees and start cutting them. We were all really interested in it! My teacher paused the story and said we can watch them cut the dead trees. She explained to us that trees that don’t have any leaves in the Spring are dead and the park workers were cutting them down to make room for other plants. There was one guy cutting down the tree with a chainsaw and another guy holding the rope and pulling the tree down. When the tree fell down it was so cool we all cheered and clapped!

My teacher continued the story. She read about flowers that smell beautiful and ones that smell like stinky socks! We all loved learning about the ones that have a stinky smell. Apparently they use their stench to attract flies and beetles, who eat gross things, to come pollinate them. Flowers ARE weird! 

Movement

After we were done with our story, we started doing some plant themed movements. We pretended to be gardeners and started squatting down, pretending to plant seeds. Then we pretended to be the seeds, we got on the ground and curled up like tiny seeds. We then pretended to be the rain, we stood up, put our arms up, and then fell forward, hanging our body down, like falling rain. After watering our seeds, we pretended to be the seed again and slowly started sprouting! We grew and grew and grew. We stood up again, reached our arms up and brought sun rays down to our plant and we grew even taller!

Hike/Exploration

When we were done with our plant movement, we started getting ready for our hike. We drank some water to stay hydrated as we walked. When we were about to head on to our hike, one of our park’s workers came up to us and said he found a baby turtle and wanted to show it to us! It was so tiny! We got to touch the shell and the black slimy thing on top of it. The park worker said that was called a leech. He said leeches are parasites and they feed on the turtle's blood. Yuck!

We were ready to go on our hike as the park worker went to put the turtle back in the pond. At the beginning of our hike my friends and I like gathering some sour flowers (Wood Sorrel) to snack on while we hike. My teacher has taught us about them, they are sour weeds that make our bodies strong! While we hiked, we found an orange mushroom that had lots of flies on it! My teacher told us that it's a Stinkhorn Mushroom and just like the plants we read about, it uses its stench to attract flies to spread its spores! Wow! 

We also did our Sit Spot during our hike. That’s when we find a spot, sit down, and pay attention to notice things. After we were done, I told my teacher that I heard birds and the wind, and saw the wind moving the trees. We then went to the potty and washed our hands before snack time.

Snack Time

It was time to rest and eat some snacks. I traded some of my raspberries for my friend’s mangos and we were so happy! I love mangos and my friend said he loves raspberries. My friend put his raspberries on his fingers and I pretended I had mango slice fangs. We both laughed at that! After we were done with our snacks, we put everything away. 

Focus Activity

It was time for our daily activity. My teacher said we were going to try making paint from flowers! She had dried Butterfly Pea Flowers and Marigolds. We put them in the mortar, added some water on them and started squishing them. After a little while the water changed blue for Butterfly Peas and yellow for Marigolds. It was so cool! My teacher said we could try mixing a little bit of blue and a little bit of yellow in a different bowl to see what color we’d get. We got green! We then used our flower colors to paint! I painted a flower, green for the stem, blue for the petals and yellow for the nectar. My teacher said she loved it!

Tea Time/Goodbye Circle

After we helped our teacher clean up, we sat in a circle again. My teacher gave us teacups and I asked her what kind of tea she had today. She said it was Hibiscus and Mint. It was bright red like blood! My teacher said it’s red like blood because Hibiscus is really good for the blood. It was really refreshing and we loved it! We sang our goodbye song and said goodbye to nature and each other. We then got our backpacks and looked at the turtles in the pond until my mom and dad came and picked me up! I was excited to tell them about my day!

I hope you enjoyed reading about a day in the life of a wild preschooler, written from a kid’s perspective. At The Wild School, we help children connect to and learn about nature through fun and hands-on activities every day. Try a class today to see it for yourself!

Email us at info@thewildschool.org to learn more about our programs!

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by Viktorya Avetisyan