Dundee Nature Kindergarten

What a wonderful activity in the Seedlings room today! The children are loving the mild weather and exploring the outdoors . Today, we were excited to be able to start bringing Blaze the tortoise outside into the garden to enjoy the fresh air and his natural surroundings! The children love to follow Blaze around the garden as he explores and are learning how to take care of him and be gentle when handling him. It has been so lovely to watch our children’s curiosity and connection with nature grow more and more as the weather brightens up! We can’t wait to carry on making memories this spring and summer 🐢☀️

Forest School (8/8):

2025 came and went, and 2026 popped into view. Forest School routines and rhythms continue to be embedded into nursery life, woodland management has been taking place with the kids helping to establish two willow coppices, thin parts of the 'New Forest' and maintain the dead hedges present in the forest.

As we look into the rest of 2026, and the years beyond, we are excited about the direction both Forest School and the nursery are taking. There is an optimistic and proud vision of becoming a predominantly outdoor nursery over the next few years, utilising the forest space as a practical, safe and compassionate place for children to grow, and using the woodland in a positive but respectful manner in line with conservation and eco-friendly values. Maybe we'll succeed, maybe it'll take a bit longer go achieve. Saliently, at the forefront of this vision, is the children of this nursery; the learning and development that is possible, and the great asset that the woodland is to their foundational stages of life. The forest here at DNK will always be a focus.

An urban nursery, with a forest on our doorstep, and a world of experiences at our fingertips. Here's to 2026!

Forest School (7/8):

Before we all knew it, 2025 was rolling around the corner and Forest School was only speeding up! In June, the arrival of a second Forest School Leader enabled us to expand FS provision to all children within the nursery - from the 10 month babies through to the oldest five year olds.

Sensory exploration, consistency and forest rhythms were our main focus for those first few months - with the aim that babies and toddlers would have the opportunity to access the forest space every day if they chose and desired to do so. It has been a beautiful period in DNK's FS journey, being able to share the wonders and delights that woodlands offer with the youngest of our children, and they have taken to these spaces with great vigour and curiosity!

Even as winter arrived, the children proved how resilient, perseverant and imaginative they could be, coping with the cold temperatures and wet weather through the use of sleeping bags, shelters, fires and active play. They only proved how fundamental the outdoors is to a child's learning and development!

With 2026 now here, tune in for our final post next week, and the vision of the future of Forest School at Dundee Nature Kindergarten.

Forest School (6/8):

Since January 2024, we have ran regular parent/carer events to encourage a community approach to the Forest School provision we run here at DNK. We run parent/carer weeks on a seasonal basis, opening up all sessions for a week each season for the children to bring their responsible adult/s to their FS session; we also host a ‘Summer Bonanza’ event in July to coincide with the Summer Solstice, and a ‘Festive Firepits’ event in December, to coincide with the Winter Solstice. These all have been met with great enthusiasm, and is a privilege to be able to share the space that the children have grown to love with their responsible adults and families; hopefully nurturing deeper connections with the natural world throughout our local community and strengthening the impact that woodlands can have on folk.

Our parents/carers have also been great at volunteering their time to help establish, maintain and support our Forest School provision. From moving heavy boats to chopping up timber, to volunteering joinery skills and building an outdoor toilet; they have been a great help in strengthening the provision we aim to provide. Forest School is child-centered, but it should also be community-centered, and we are keen to maintain this focus here at DNK.

Tune in next week to explore the further expansion of our provision to all children in the nursery, and the benefits this has brought!

Forest School (5/8)

As we entered Autumn 2024, there was scope to begin expanding our Forest School area and create an additional area for more sessions to take place - tying into our long-term vision of FS provision for all children in the nursery.

Although we had to wave goodbye to some of our ash, that had succumbed to ash dieback, the children worked hard to turn the timber into firewood, dead hedges and treehouses to begin transforming their new area. A staircase was built to allow the babies and toddlers to more readily access the new area of the forest, and the gradual and natural evolution of our forest space continued!

Next week, we will step into 2025 and the involvement of our parents/carers in our Forest School space.

Forest School (4/8)

As Spring started to arrive, we cracked on with dead hedge building, mud kitchen developing, building on our tool use and fire safety; and importantly exploring risk-taking amidst imaginative and explorative play.

Risk-taking is one of the core elements of Forest School - giving children the space to confidently and safely explore and challenge their own boundaries. Physical risk-taking is the usual association, but social, emotional, intellectual and spiritual risk is just as important - and it is these things that began to strengthen as children settled into the long-term rhythms of our wee forest.

Next week, we will explore the extension of our forest; a long-term plan to expand Forest School provision to all children in the nursery!

Forest School (3/8)

As the months rolled on, the children (supported by practitioners and the Forest School Leader) continued to explore, investigate and develop their woodland space. Signs were made from natural and recycled materials, dead hedges increased, our shelter became a more permanent fixture over the late autumn/winter period and fire safety continued to surround our sessions.

Around December 2023, we explored how we could expand our current provision with the 3-5s room to also include the 2-3s room. The weekly rhythms that had been embedded into the 3-5s room were easily slotted into the 2-3s room, and by January 2024 we had increased the provision of Forest School to roughly 120 children in the nursery.

Winter crept on, with some snow arriving and some muddy footpaths forming. But, Spring was on the horizon, and the children were becoming increasingly excited for the fresh leaves on the trees, the new shoots from plants, and the prospect of brighter weather!

Next week, we'll explore the arrival of Spring, developing risky play and encouraging connections to the natural world. See you there!

Forest School (2/8)

Once the forest had been deemed safe for the children to enter, it was time to start getting them involved with the journey of evolving this unused space into one for endless learning opportunities!

The children helped to shape where the paths would go; naturally running through the trees on the routes they wanted to go which then influenced where the 'main' paths would go. There were lots of conversations of what we could have in the forest, such as mud kitchens, pulleys, treehouses, spaceships, houses, swings, slides and much more!

We decided that a fire circle would be a good place to start, finding the best area in the forest to set this up. Learning about safe distances from trees both horizantally and vertically, it helped to set up a foundation of safety first when it comes to interacting with and sitting around our campfires.
Next week we'll explore how these foundations became more rooted in the rhythms and routines of the nursery.

Forest School Journey (1/8)

Hi! This post is the start of a series of posts over the next two months exploring the journey that our Forest School has been on over the last two and a half years.

Back in August 2023, the nursery decided to expand its current outdoor provision and open up an area of woodland (that we are lucky to have on site) dedicated to Forest School. Our wee project had begun! We wanted the children to be involved the whole way, but there was a minor hurdle to overcome first. The area of woodland had not been touched for over a decade, and was not an appropriate environment for the children to be in just yet. Thus started a fortnight of moving, transporting, shifting, sawing, checking and double-checking to ensure the woodland was safe to allow children to enter. The photos show how overgrown it was (not that we are opposed to this, but as an environment for children was not yet quite suitable!). Tune in for part two next week to see how the area slowly changed as the children got involved

🎄🎅 Merry Christmas to all of our families and followers from Dundee Nature Kindergarten🎅🎄
As the holiday season starts, we want to take a moment to express our special thanks to all of our wonderful families and much loved staff. Your support, smiles, and hard work make our nursery a very special place to be! We are so grateful to be a part of your children's lives, and we wish each and every one of you a joyful, peaceful, and magical Christmas filled with love and laughter❤️

What a wonderful two evenings at our nursery's festive fire pit nights in the forest school area! Families enjoyed craft stations, cozy fire pits, and warm cups of hot chocolate for everyone. Plus, a vibrant trail of lights lit up the forest, guiding families on a magical journey through the woods. A perfect way to celebrate the season together! We are so lucky at DNK to be able to offer these activities for all of our families to enjoy together and we can’t wait to offer more exciting opportunities for families into the new year ⭐️