Maple Sprouts Forest School

Maple Sprouts Forest School We have a 3 hour morning program for ages 2.5-6 running Monday-Friday. Our program is year round and located on 60 acres of forest 15 minutes outside of Canton.

Contact us for more info! https://maplesproutsforest.wixsite.com/forestschool

Enrollment for our next school year has filled up, but if you’re interested in our program you can contact us at maplesp...
06/19/2026

Enrollment for our next school year has filled up, but if you’re interested in our program you can contact us at [email protected] for more information and to get on our waitlist.

That’s a wrap for our 2025-2026 school year and what a wonderful one it was!This past week we’ve enjoyed some cooler tem...
06/19/2026

That’s a wrap for our 2025-2026 school year and what a wonderful one it was!

This past week we’ve enjoyed some cooler temperatures. We spent a lot of time wrapping up a few art projects. Everyone got to paint their piece of pottery that they made and take it home. We also made hand print cards for Father’s Day. And we worked together to finish hemming the edges of all of the capes we made for each child that is moving on from our program. Tasha used a sewing machine to add the elastic at the top and they were all very excited to bring them home.

We played at some of our favorite spots for the last few days, including the dragon castle and the bridge. Thanks to Ms. Val we also got to have an up close look at a male hummingbird and a hummingbird nest. The hummingbird had unfortunately flown into a window and had not survived the crash, so Ms. Val brought it over for the kids to have the very unique opportunity to hold one. Their reverence for the hummingbird and amazement with how light and tiny their bodies are and just how beautiful the male’s iridescent feathers are was a really special thing to watch unfold. They really took in what a sad thing it was for the world to lose something so stunning and used that energy to create a lovely final resting place for the hummingbird.

We celebrated all of the summer birthdays this week and on our last day spent the day in the play yard due to high winds and heavy rain/possible thunderstorms. The kids loved playing in the puddles all day and catching water dripping off the porch roof.

We made 7 capes for students moving on this year. It was truly wonderful to be able to watch each of them grow and change so much at Forest school and we know they will do wonderfully in their next chapter. We will dearly miss them.

September will be here before we know it and we are looking forward to welcoming back many returning students and meeting a few new faces too. Have a wonderful summer!!

06/16/2026

We're Looking for a New Director! Little River's founder and director, Steve Molnar, is stepping back after 27 years. We are seeking a director with teaching experience and a strong interest in democratic education to fill this role. Steve will train the incoming director and be available to provide...

This week we began with some watercolor painting by the stream on Monday. Temperatures were pretty high, so if we weren’...
06/13/2026

This week we began with some watercolor painting by the stream on Monday. Temperatures were pretty high, so if we weren’t playing by the water we were seeking out shady spots to play underneath the hemlocks and big maple trees. It’s amazing how much more comfortable the woods can feel on a hot day. A few kids explored up the stream at the bridge wi the Tasha and found a channel that cut through the tall grass that led to another spot with several leeches. They watched them for a while, counting how many and looking at the way they move in the water before returning to the bridge.

We began sewing gifts for our graduating students that we will be working on together over the next few days. All of the kids have been very interested in sewing and look forward to having a turn using the needle.

We made another birthday book that included more leaf rubbings and a few kids tested out flower rubbings as well. On Thursday we celebrated a summer birthday and everyone was so creative when gathering decorations to put on top.

Today we cut up strawberries for share snack and used some in our ice cream sundaes at lunch! We made chocolate ice cream in the morning (a popular request discussed last week) and put it in the freezer while we went to have snack in the woods. We came back a bit early to play in the sprinkler and at lunch everyone got to make their own sundae, complete with sprinkles 🍦

Our first week in June kicked off with one of our favorite projects….bubble painting! The kids love getting to blow bub...
06/12/2026

Our first week in June kicked off with one of our favorite projects….bubble painting! The kids love getting to blow bubbles in their cup. Some finish early enough to have a bubble design on their paper while others turn it into a sensory experience and keep going until they create a foam that they then use their hands to spread over the paper. Once everyone was done painting the left overs went over to the water table and were used over the next couple of days to make potions and colorful soups. They also experimented with making different colors and shades by mixing and diluting them.

On one of our visits to the stream a small group of kids wanted to do an exploration hike, so Megan took them up the trail to the Maple tree spot. There we found a large branch from one of the older maple trees that had fallen across our trail. They spent some time climbing on it and while we were there we discovered that some of the bark was coming off very easily in big chunks that were shaped like chutes. We gathered an arm load and carried them back to everyone at the stream where they were used to make water slides and boats. When we headed back to the school house we gathered them back up and brought them with us to be used at the water table.

Each week we’ve been making a birthday book for the kids who have birthdays in the summer and we will be celebrating them on our last couple days of school. This week some of the kids did leaf rubbings for their pictures and they had so much fun gathering things to put under their paper.

Our last week of May was mostly spent next to the stream. The kids found mud that was perfect for making mud cakes, we d...
06/12/2026

Our last week of May was mostly spent next to the stream. The kids found mud that was perfect for making mud cakes, we decorated a forest cake to celebrate a birthday, made a birthday book, and they spent a lot of time exploring the stream barefoot. The barefoot exploring led to our first leech spotting. There are not very many that live in our stream, but there are a few small ones that hang out in one deeper and slow moving spot. The first one always brings out some apprehension from the kids, which provides a really great learning opportunity to talk about what they are, what they can be used for, and it gives them a chance to get an up close look at one. On Friday we made honey ice cream since we’ve started spotting bees and so many other pollinators.

Month of May catch up post #3 and final one! We’ve been finding lots of owl pellets out in the woods this spring and on...
05/23/2026

Month of May catch up post #3 and final one! We’ve been finding lots of owl pellets out in the woods this spring and on Wednesday we found a very big one that we brought back to the school house and dissected Thursday morning. There were lots of tiny bones and so much fur making us think it was multiple voles that had been eaten. We went to the stream Thursday and found many crayfish skeletons that the kids enjoyed exploring and playing with. They also provided a great opportunity to talk about exoskeletons. All of the bone exploring motivated us to get our porcupine skeleton back out and the kids have been having fun sorting the bones by type and figuring out what parts of the body they are. On Friday we made homemade ice cream with Tasha’s crank powered ice cream maker. We did vanilla flavor this time but it was so delicious we decided to make it again and explore some other flavors. We are headed into a long weekend, but are looking forward to the warm weather and lots of stream time when we return!

Month of May catch up post #2! Before Mother’s Day all of the kids worked really hard painting cards and drawing pictur...
05/23/2026

Month of May catch up post #2! Before Mother’s Day all of the kids worked really hard painting cards and drawing pictures inside to take home. That week the yard was covered in dandelions so we made dandelion fritters for baking day. The kids helped by working together to gather a large pile of dandelions and taking turns dipping them into the batter before they went into the pan. We spent lots of time in rain gear this month enjoying plenty of puddles and were able to start revisiting our stream spot as the temperatures got warmer. We’ve seen so many flowers, including a couple trilliums with the biggest leaves we’ve ever seen and have started finding all of the fun creatures that live in the forest. Frogs are back out and hopping around in the stream, butterflies frequently flutter by, crayfish are peeking out from beneath rocks, snakes are sunbathing next to the trail, and even a hellgrammite was seen crawling on the stream bed. The trees have gotten so green and walking down the trail under the dappled sunlight watching the kids happily chat and hold hands is the most beautiful way to spend a morning.

Month of May catch up post #1! We spent the first bit of this month getting everyone a turn on the pottery wheel. All o...
05/22/2026

Month of May catch up post #1! We spent the first bit of this month getting everyone a turn on the pottery wheel. All of the kids really enjoyed this project and we can’t wait to get their stuff fired so that they can take them home by the end of the school year. We also started some tomato seeds for in our garden boxes, which we are very excited to plant once they’re big enough. With the warmer weather we’ve been able to get out the scissors again and the kids practice cutting on things like grass and leaves to make pretend salads. We also made pancakes over the fire for baking day and some May Day crowns on the 1st. We started seeing the forest sprinkled with green and it seemed to get greener every day.

We are doing a two week summer camp for school aged kids this year! This camp will be hosted by one of our current teach...
04/29/2026

We are doing a two week summer camp for school aged kids this year! This camp will be hosted by one of our current teachers, Megan, and by a new teacher, Kelsey, who moved to the area a few years ago after teaching at a Forest School out West. Contact us for more information or to sign up at [email protected]. Let your kids escape into the woods for a couple weeks before they have to return to school!

Address

155 Cassidy Road
Hermon, NY
13652

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 12pm
Tuesday 9am - 12pm
Wednesday 9am - 12pm
Thursday 9am - 12pm
Friday 9am - 12pm

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