On a warm day earlier this summer, six preschool students tramped across a field in Boulder’s Sombrero Marsh with their moms, navigated across a small stream running stronger than expected with the help of rocks and adult arms and finally settled in a shady spot surrounded by trees.
Thorne Nature Experience instructor Jen Anderson led the parent-and-child nature play group in fashioning woodland creatures from pine cones, ribbons, pipe cleaners and fabric, then encouraged the children to explore and build their creatures homes from sticks and rocks.
A couple stayed safe on mom’s lap, while the rest wandered. One boy led a group to scramble up a dirt incline, offering a girl a hand as she contemplated how to get past a tree branch. Another girl protested she couldn’t make the climb, but then made it to the top with lots of encouragement from Anderson. After exploring, they shared their creatures and listened to a nature-themed story. Thorne’s summer parent-and-child nature play experiences are a preview of the environmental education nonprofit’s new licensed nature preschool, which is set to open in the fall as the area’s first preschool held “almost entirely outdoors.”
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Author: Mile High Mamas
