816-392-3558
Kansas City, MO
Forest School Program
What is Forest School?
Ever heard of a forest school before? If not, you are not alone. Despite its seeming simplicity, the concept of formalized forest school is relatively new, especially in the United States. Humans have spent their entire history discovering our interconnectivity with nature and yet the concept of forest school did not originate until the mid-20th century. The world’s first known forest school was created in Denmark in 1952. The idea was formed when a group of neighborhood kids began gathering daily in a nearby forest and formed an unofficial form of daycare. The parents formed an initiative to establish “walking Kindergartens” out of the Waldorf-Steiner approach to education. The concept was child-led, and play-based, with adults as guides rather than teachers. Forest schools continued to pop-up all-over Denmark in the 50’s as the country struggled with a lack of indoor space for childcare. The first “rain or shine” schools started in the 1980’s as the idea spread to Sweden. The first modern forest school was not established in the United States until 1996 in California following the release of popular book, “Last Child in the Woods” by Richard Louv. Between 2016 and 2017, the U.S. saw a 66 percent increase in the number of registered outdoor preschools.
Countryside Montessori Day School, located near KCI airport, spreads across 80-acres of tranquil farm land. We could not be happier to be able to make the invaluable resource of nature available to our students every day. Our forest area boasts an outdoor classroom perfect for our 6 to 12 year old students, complete with covered shelter, fire pit, direct access to Second Creek, and many acres of explorable woodlands. Students will also partake in the management of our intergenerational garden in which the goods grown will be shared with our families on the Produce Stand at pick up times.
CMDS offers a Permaculture and Forestry School experience unlike any other in the greater Kansas City area.
“Let the children be free; encourage them; let them run outside when it’s raining; let them remove their shoes when they find a puddle of water; and when the grass of the meadows is wet with dew, let them run on it and trample it with their bare feet; let them rest peacefully when a tree invites them to sleep beneath its shade; let them shout and laugh when the sun wakes them in the morning.”
– Maria Montessori
