Hawken School’s Early Childhood Forest Program

“(My son) absolutely LOVES the outdoor program. We’ve noticed significant growth in his skills, especially his movement, his observations of his surroundings, and his vocabulary. He adores their stories, their animal and plant interactions, their hikes, and the way he feels each day. The teachers are extremely attentive and communicative—everything from advice on clothes through weather changes to detailed weekly updates which drive conversations at home.”
-Forest Program Parent

Nature Immersion

Our mission is to create an outdoor classroom environment where children feel nurtured and safe, allowing them to engage in deep and meaningful learning opportunities while they play, explore, create, learn, and grow in and with the natural world.

Benefits of Outdoor Learning

Research continues to affirm what we see each day in the forest: Outdoor nature-based learning supports the whole child. Children are more physically active outside, engage in richer imaginative play, and collaborate more deeply with peers. Natural environments strengthen social-emotional skills, problem-solving, creativity, and focus.

Regular time in nature also supports cognitive development, language growth, and early STEM thinking. Just as importantly, children experience increased joy, calm, and resilience. In the forest, children thrive as curious thinkers, caring friends, confident movers, and joyful explorers — growing in every domain of development.

Learning Values

Reggio Emilia and The Cedarsong® Way
Hawken’s Forest Program is rooted in a child-led, inquiry-driven approach to learning. While our indoor environments draw deeply from Reggio Emilia principles, these values also inspire our work in the woods. Children’s ideas, questions, and theories shape the flow of each day as teachers observe, listen, and thoughtfully extend learning through emergent experiences that honor each child's natural curiosity, relationships, and sense of agency.

In the forest, our practice is also guided by The Cedarsong Way®, a fully outdoor approach grounded in deep nature immersion, interest-led flow learning, and inquiry-based exploration. Children follow their curiosities across the living landscape, forming meaningful connections with place, peers, and the rhythms of the natural world. The Cedarsong Way® draws inspiration from Froebel, Steiner, Montessori, and Reggio Emilia, creating a natural alignment with our broader early childhood philosophy. Together, these shared principles offer children a seamless, nurturing learning journey—whether they are discovering beneath the trees or engaging in rich experiences within our classrooms.

Learning in Nature

How We Learn in the Forest
Children’s growth in our Forest Program is guided by the same five developmental domains used throughout Hawken’s Early Childhood program. These benchmarks naturally come to life outdoors, where children learn through hands-on exploration, collaboration, curiosity, and deep connection with the natural world.

Social & Emotional Development
Children build meaningful relationships as they navigate play, share discoveries, and collaborate in nature. The forest offers daily opportunities to practice empathy, problem-solving, patience, and care for self, others, and the environment.

Approaches to Learning
The forest invites wonder, persistence, and joyful curiosity. Children follow their interests, ask questions, test ideas, and return again and again to natural materials and challenges — developing focus, flexibility, and a strong sense of agency.

Physical Development
From climbing logs and balancing on uneven ground to carrying tools and observing textures, the outdoor environment supports whole-body development. Children develop strength, coordination, body awareness, and confidence as they move naturally through the landscape.

Cognitive Development
Nature supports deep thinking and inquiry. Children investigate patterns in the seasons, properties of water and soil, animal tracks, and changing ecosystems — building early STEM thinking, problem-solving skills, and environmental understanding.

Language & Literacy
The forest is rich with stories, conversation, and symbolic thinking. Children share ideas, narrate discoveries, listen to read-alouds in circle, and document their learning — building strong foundations in vocabulary, comprehension, and early literacy through authentic experiences.

Program Overview

The Forest Program aligns with the established schedules of the Early Childhood Program.

 Preschool:
  • 3 or 5 mornings (inclusive of lunch and dismissal at 11:45 am)
  • Option to add on 3 or 5 afternoons (dismissal at 2:45 pm)
  • After Care available until 6:00 pm
 Prekindergarten:
  • 5 mornings (inclusive of lunch and dismissal at 12:15)
  • Option to add 3 or 5 afternoons (dismissal at 2:45 pm)
  • After Care available until 6:00 pm
* Options to add-on time will be offered in mid-July and in October, February, and April.

Practical Highlights

Full outdoor immersion each morning
Children begin their day in the forest, engaging in rich, nature-based learning and play. Arrival follows the same window as our other Early Childhood programs.

Meals enjoyed in nature
Children gather for snack and lunch at their Forest base camp, complete with a covered platform and community table. During colder months, we transition indoors for meals to ensure comfort and safety.

A dedicated indoor classroom for rest and afternoon experiences
Our Forest Program classroom offers space for rest, continued learning, and occasional indoor days when weather requires a shift.

Thoughtfully designed outdoor facilities
A private toileting structure and hand-washing station support independence, comfort, and healthy routines during outdoor exploration.

Early Childhood Domains

The Early Childhood program at Hawken School focuses on five domains of development: Social-Emotional, Approaches to Learning, Language and Literacy, Cognitive, and Physical. These domains encompass the core academic disciplines, addressing each subject area from a developmental perspective, because each child progresses at varying rates within each discipline. The specific academic skills addressed at each level are outlined on the curriculum skills grid.
 

Social-Emotional Domain

The Social-Emotional Domain addresses the development of social skills and emotional competence, one of the most important goals in early childhood education. Children need these skills in order to achieve academically and to maintain relationships within the community of the school and throughout life. As students progress through the continuum, they develop social skills that provide the foundation for forming lasting relationships that are essential to emotional health, which encompasses the development of personal identity, self-esteem, expression and control of emotions, management of frustration, and perseverance.

Approaches to Learning Domain

The Approaches to Learning Domain describes the ways in which children move toward, interact, and reflect upon life experiences. The skills and attitudes children bring to their early school environment have a major impact on the approach they take when “learning how to learn” and can be developed by a learning environment that nurtures initiative, engagement, persistence, curiosity, reasoning, problem solving, invention, and imagination.

Language and Literacy Domain

The Language and Literacy Domain addresses the skills of listening, speaking, and writing. Language skills provide the foundation for a wide range of abilities that will be used in both social and academic situations throughout life. This acquisition is a natural yet complex process, and its ultimate goal is effective communication skills and literacy and the use of language to convey meaning through reading and writing. Competency continues to develop throughout the early school years as formal reading and writing instruction takes place in the classroom.

Cognitive Domain

The Cognitive Domain addresses the acquisition, storage, and retrieval of information. The Cognitive Domain encompasses math, science, and social studies. Key characteristics of the cognitive domain are knowledge of physical properties, knowledge about relationships and knowledge of cultural conventions; the primary cognitive processes are attention, memory, trial and error, cause and effect, reasons and problem solving, and prediction and estimation.

Physical Domain

Physical Development is a significant aspect of growth in the early childhood years and provides avenues for the way in which children explore their surroundings. This domain includes small and large motor competence as well as sensory awareness.
An independent, coeducational, college preparatory day school, toddler through grade 12

Early Childhood, Lower, and Middle Schools, 5000 Clubside Rd, Lyndhurst, OH 44124
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