SNAILS &
TURKEY TAILS
A Nature Immersion Program in Marin County
"Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt."
- John Muir
Welcome to Snails & Turkey Tails! Our program was created to get kids outside in the natural world where they learn through hands-on discovery. When you look at it closely, there really isn't one thing in the natural world that isn't completely fascinating. Our mission is to inspire a love of learning through holistic, nature-based play and outdoor education. We aim to cultivate creativity, curiosity, and deep gratitude for the natural world while instilling an unwavering sense of community and belonging. We offer programs for children ages 6 months to 5 years old!
We celebrate the magic of early childhood! Our philosophy emphasizes unstructured play, development of practical skills, and environmental stewardship, aiming to cultivate empathy and a profound connection with both nature and community. Our mixed-age preschool and kindergarten classes integrate early literacy and numeracy within a curriculum focused on nature study, seasonal rhythms, and fostering interpersonal relationships. Our approach encourages children to explore freely while developing mindfulness, observational skills, and a lifelong passion for problem-solving and confidence. This holistic education prepares children to advance gracefully to the next stages of their academic journey.
100% of our days are spent outdoors, rain or shine! As a forest school program, we think of nature as our third teacher. The natural environment gives children a unique experience and connection with nature. Children might engage in tree climbing, puddle jumping or potion making, among other things. Children are encouraged to get messy, take risks, and find adventure hidden within the natural world around them. We understand that there are so many benefits to nature-based education. Time spent exploring in the natural world builds skills like resilience, problem-solving, focus, self-regulation, creativity, self-confidence and it helps to reduce stress and boredom.
Our activities are child-led, which nurtures a sense of self, encourages collaboration skills, and inspires creativity. When the adult steps back and lets the child lead, the child is left to explore and use their natural abilities to problem solve. Kids have a chance to explore, play and learn in their own individual ways. Teachers become collaborators and work with students as they explore their special interests.
WHAT IS FOREST SCHOOL?
According to the Forest School Association, "forest school is a child-centered inspirational learning process, that offers opportunities for holistic growth through regular sessions. It is a long-term program that supports play, exploration and supported risk taking. It develops confidence and self-esteem through learner inspired, hands-on experiences in a natural setting."
The world's first known forest school was created by in Denmark in 1952. The idea formed when neighborhood families began gathering daily in a nearby forest, an unofficial form of daycare which elicited great interest among other parents in the community. The parents formed a group and created an initiative to establish "walking kindergartens" out of the Waldorf-Steiner approach to education- child-led and play-based, with adults as facilitators not teachers. Forest schools, or Naturbørnehavens, started popping up throughout Denmark in the 1950s as the country struggled with a lack of indoor space for young childhood education centers.
Sweden:
Outdoor learning has been part of Swedish schooling for more than 100 years however the term friluftsliv, or "free air life" was first mentioned in Swedish curriculum documents in 1928. Around the same time that the forest school concept was building in 1950s Denmark, a Swedish ex-military man Goesta Frohm, created the idea of Skogsmulle, four fictional characters to teach children about nature. Forest preschools based on Frohm's model are called "rain or shine schools" or I Ur Och Sku, with the first established by Siw Linde in 1985. Swedish forest schools often visit meadows, where children are taught to ski, sled and canoe. No toilets are provided—students are taught to walk seven bushes away, and dispose of waste safely and sanitarily.
Germany:
German forest schools, also known as waldkindergarten or waldkitas, began popping up in Germany in the 1960s, but the first German Forest Kindergarten was not officially recognized as a state-supported daycare until 1993. Outdoor kindergartens in Germany offer a mix of forest kindergarten and traditional daycare, typically spending their mornings in the forest and afternoons inside. Shelter comes in the form of an outdoor toilet, open-sided tent with a fire pit, or tool shed. By late 2017, the number of forest kindergartens in Germany surpassed 1500. Most of these schools have no access to heated indoor facilities, even in the winter.
United States:
Wakelin McNeel and H.L. Russell introduced the first American forest school concept in 1927 in Laona, Wisconsin, inspired by an outdoor tree-planting project Russell observed in Australia. The Laona Forest School was the first school forest - an outdoor classroom built specifically for learning. The first known modern forest school in the States was not founded until 1996 in California. The 2005 best-selling book, “Last Child in the Woods" by Richard Louv helped popularize the idea that children should spend as much time as possible in the outdoors and caused a resurgence in environmental education. The following year a very marketable version of the forest school concept, the Cedarsong Nature School opened in Vashon Island, WA. Between 2016 and 2017, the U.S. saw a 66 percent increase in the number of registered outdoor preschools and kindergartens. There are an estimated 240 nature preschools in the States, although they aren’t operationally identical.
United Kingdom:
Forest School was introduced in the UK in 1995 when a group of lecturers and childhood educators and nurses from Bridgewater College in Somerset visited a Danish Forest School. At many UK Forest students are given access to woodcraft workshops where they make mallets, spatulas, and bird feeders using a variety of tools and different carving techniques.
Australia:
Bush kindergarten or bush kindy was pioneered in Australia in 2011 by Doug Fargher, an educator who was passionate about children's wellbeing and development. The movement encourages children and educators to venture beyond the confines of a bounded and traditional learning setting. Whether at the bush or on the beach, each of these sites has differing characteristics impacting upon the experience of its learners.
New Zealand:
Early childhood care and education services in New Zealand established enviroschools. These schools are grounded in indigenous Māori worldviews which feature a strong connectedness to place and a deep and spiritual inter-relationship with the land, mountains, rivers, and oceans.
Canada:
In 2007, the first Canadian outdoor preschool was opened outside of Ottawa. Today the movement is catching on quickly, coined under the term Forest and Nature School (FNS).
Japan:
Japanese forest schools, or Mori-no-ie or Mori-no-youchien, are becoming more popular because they are provide an escape from the strict rules in Japanese society. Many parents are worried that Japan is becoming too stressed and high tech and there is not time to communicate and connect with nature. In Japan, forest bathing, or shinrin-yoku is encouraged for adults,so it is only natural that this sensory experience is extended to youth.
Forest schools help and facilitate more than knowledge-gathering, they help learners develop socially, emotionally, physically and intellectually. They create a safe, non-judgemental nurturing environment for learners to try stuff out and take risks. Forest School inspires a deep and meaningful connection to the world and an understanding of how a learner fits within it. Our approach to risk means that learners constantly expand on their abilities by solving real-world issues, building self-belief and resilience. We believe that risk is more than just potential for physical harm, but a more holistic thing, there are risks in everything we do, and we grow by overcoming them. Forest School therefore, helps participants to become, healthy, resilient, creative and independent learners.
The American Forest Kindergarten Association is a national organization bringing together educators, parents, policy-makers, and other stakeholders passionate about the Forest Kindergarten model. They advance the Forest Kindergarten model through education, advocacy, and collaboration.
