An exploratory, nature and play-based program with an indoor classroom that empowers children to be active in their own learning while connecting to each another and the natural world.
Our program supports the development of the whole child, sparks curiosity and a sense of wonder, and instills a love of learning and connection to place. At the end of each day, parents and caregivers are met by children who have been making sense of their world by delightfully following their curiosity in natural spaces using eager hands, wide eyes, and listening ears. We are Vermont’s first licensed Forest Preschool embedded in a nature center. Our program qualifies for Vermont’s Act 166 Universal Pre-kindergarten tuition. NBNC’s Forest Preschool is a 4-star program with Vermont STARS.
About Forest Preschool
Program Overview
At FPS, we empower children to be active in their own learning process by encouraging and supporting their innate curiosity. Our curriculum emerges as we pay careful attention to our students’ interests within the context of the changing seasons. We use a balance of provocations, child-led, open-ended programming, free play, and sensory exploration in natural environments to support the development of the whole child and inspire relevant and meaningful learning. We use the nature playscape, meadows, and forest as our classroom.
Each day includes “loose parts play” in the nature playscape. This is a time to explore nature-inspired art projects, seasonal, open-ended materials that may be manipulated in multiple ways.
Songs, storytelling, fingerplays, books and imaginative play come together to promote foundational literacy development. Our provocations often invite students to experiment with early math concepts including measuring, counting, comparing, and sorting.
We provide opportunities for children to learn how to safely use real tools including hammers, whittling peelers, and saws. Using real tools promotes fine motor skill development, a sense of agency, and a positive self-concept.
Because learning and risk-taking often go hand in hand, we also support children’s exploration of healthy risk-taking. This may take the form of climbing a rock or small tree, balancing on a log, etc. In taking healthy risks, children develop confidence and the ability to assess and calculate risk for themselves.
FPS is emphatically committed to weaving equity and social justice learning into our curriculum. FPS staff use books, open and honest conversation, images, provocations, classroom guests, and family members to build a strong foundation of learning around social justice and equity. We highly value family input, involvement, and support of this ever-evolving aspect of our curriculum. As a staff, we are committed to ongoing learning, stretching, and growing in this area in an effort to provide informed, thoughtful guidance for your children.
Sample Day
Each day is structured with a familiar pattern to support children as they engage with natural wonders and one another in the forest and fields. Special care is used in creating gentle transitions.
8:30 am: An offering of natural “Loose Parts” material to inspire learning and personal growth through spontaneous play and exploration.
9:15 am: Clean up and bathroom break.
9:30 am: Hike to Deer Camp with time for observation, discovery, and trail games along the way.
9:50 am: We come together for circle time to share songs, oral stories, finger play, or puppet shows.
10:00 am: Snack time. This is also a time for children to share personal stories and observations.
10:30 am: Children become active again, following their curiosity, and engaging in flow-learning. Children may choose to become “chefs” in the mud kitchen, weave natural material into an outdoor loom, explore, engineer with sticks and rocks, look under logs, initiate imaginative play, watch a bird, build a mouse house, create, follow animal tracks, balance on a log, experiment, discover, etc.
11:45 am: We come together again for an end-of-the-morning circle to sing and share gratitude, discoveries, and/or observations.
11:50 am: We journey back to the Swallow’s Nest.
12:10 pm: Lunchtime.
12:45 pm: Rest time.
2:00 pm: “Loose Parts” play as children transition from nap/rest time. There may be options for emergent projects and learning, focused projects, or group documentation of learning in Floor Books.
3:20 pm: Closing circle.
3:30 pm: Time to go home.
Waitlist, Registration, and Tuition
- We are glad you are interested in NBNC’s Forest Preschool! Our program is in high demand, and we want to make it clear that we have very few openings each year. We prioritize returning students, siblings, and staff children, then we fill the remaining spaces from our waitlist on a first-come-first-served basis.
- We maintain waitlists for each school year, and you can join the waitlist for multiple years. We charge a fee of $50 for managing your waitlist spot(s). If you are interested in more than one year, you will need to complete a separate application for each year, but you will only be charged one application fee. We may close or pause the waitlist for a given year if the list gets too long.
- We will update you once a year via email, typically in November, with your waitlist position for the upcoming school years and to confirm that you’d like to stay on the waitlist. This notification will require your response.
- In February, if there is an open spot for your child the following school year, we will reach out for a family conversation and invite you for a visit. If we feel your child would be a good fit for Forest Preschool, we will invite you to register.
- Your child must be at least 3 years old by September 1 of the school year you are registering for.
Join the 2027-2028 Waitlist
Join the 2028-2029 Waitlist
FPS-Tuition-Rates-2025-2026
Our Forest Preschool qualifies for Act 166 Universal Pre-K funding.
Other financial support may be available.
Withdrawals and Cancellations
Your initial $350 deposit is non-refundable after May 1st. This is a security deposit that will be held in case of withdrawal from the program, and will be applied towards the final installment(s) of the FPS tuition at the end of the school year.
If you choose to withdraw your child from this program, you must notify us in writing of your intent to withdraw at least 30 days prior to your intended withdrawal date. You will be responsible for up to 2 full months of tuition following this withdrawal date, or until your child’s space is filled from our wait list (whichever comes first). Your $350 deposit will be applied towards any tuition owed post-withdrawal. We will do our best to promptly fill your child’s space in our program and provide a partial refund, but this cannot be guaranteed.
Please note that it is very difficult for us to accommodate requests to change days. Withdrawals resulting from requests that cannot be accommodated will be treated as any other withdrawal from the program.
Meet the Teachers
Jenna Plouffe (she/her)
Forest Preschool Director
Jenna spent her childhood exploring the woods and waters of Massachusetts, building homes for animals, making “potions,” and exploring the tiny worlds often overlooked by adults. She has never really outgrown these things. Jenna is passionate about getting children outdoors, and loves sharing her curiosity and wonder about the natural world with children.
Jenna has a Master’s degree in elementary education and spent 12 years teaching in Vermont’s public school system. She completed the Educating Children Outdoors (ECO) Institute here at NBNC and spent several summers teaching at Audubon camps in both Massachusetts and Vermont before teaching for a year at NBNC’s Forest Preschool. When Jenna is not teaching Forest Preschool or leading Robin’s Nest Playgroup she can be found exploring the woods of the Mad River Valley with her children and husband.
Ask Jenna about: Robin’s Nest Playgroup and Forest Preschool. And Fairy Houses.
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Harriet Hart (she/they)
Forest Preschool Teacher
Harriet is a transplant from the Yorkshire Dales National Park, United Kingdom. Days spent rambling on the moors, mucking about in streams and down caves led them to the understanding that everything is better if you just go outside. Harriet has worked in early childhood nature-based programs across three states and in private and public school settings, holding the roles of director, lead teacher, consultant, mentor, and workshop facilitator. They hold a Masters in Education with a certificate in nature-based early childhood education from Antioch University, New England. Harriet is committed to listening to childrens’ stories, telling their own stories, and inspiring their colleagues to experiment with storytelling. They enjoy making art, vegetable gardening, exploring the woods with their family, and having a nice cup of tea outside.
Ask Harriet about: Forest Preschool, and gardening with young children.
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Mia Leonard (she/her)
Forest Preschool Teacher
Mia has a fondness for the natural world that stems from her upbringing in New England and spending time climbing trees, catching daddy long legs, fishing in streams and ponds, and on her grandparents’ farm. In a past life Mia was a licensed massage therapist, practicing in New Hampshire. When she moved to Vermont she started substituting at a community-based preschool, which ignited a newfound passion in her life to earn her degree and licensure in Early Education. Mia has always been proud of her Abenaki heritage, though she is still working on owning it. She has participated in an Abenaki language community in an effort to understand the culture and enjoys sharing these understandings with the children that she works with. If she’s not teaching you can find her wandering through the woods, gardening (or at least sitting in a very weedy patch of what used to be a garden), experimenting in the kitchen, working on her asana practice, giving belly rubs to her only child, her dog Mera, or building her house with her partner Jon.
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