Ellis Hollow Nature School

HIRING: Co-Teacher, Ellis Hollow Nature School

Spring is here and our mud kitchen is back in business! Enrollment for the 26'-27' school year is now open, and we still have some spots available. Come join the fun!

Come play with us!

We are enrolling for next school year! Have questions? Want to check things out? Want to meet the teachers? Come to our open house this Saturday, 3/14 from 10 am-12 pm.

We are located at 111 Genung Rd in Ithaca, right by the corner of Ellis Hollow Rd and Genung Rd.

Are you ready for spring? We are! We’ve traded our snow pants for rain pants and the snow for mud. Good thing too— school has barely started and we’re already covered!

Ellis Hollow Nature School is now accepting applications for next school year! Come see what we love about our school at our open house on Saturday, March 14th, from 10 am to noon, and visit www.ellishollownatureschool.com for more information and applications.

For our spring fundraiser, Ellis Hollow Nature School is partnering with Kids Kreations to transform your child's artwork into tote bags, magnets, jewelry, shirts, ornaments, phone covers, quilts, and more! With the school year half over, we all have a stack of artwork from our children. Instead of stuffing them into a box or letting them clutter the fridge, turn them into personalized gifts and keepsakes.

Go to www.KidsKreations.us (http://www.kidskreations.us/), choose your product, and upload your child's art directly to the website. At checkout, please indicate that the sale is part of a fundraising organization and search for Ellis Hollow Nature School. This will link the sale to our fundraiser.

Please order by March 20th to guarantee that your order will be completed and shipped before Mother's Day and Father's Day.

Have you met Snicker Zip? They’re the class pet! On Thursdays, they get to go home with one of the kids. The kids get to take them on all sorts of adventures. Their adventures are documented in a little journal and on Tuesdays, they go back to school to share their stories. Who will get Snicker Zip this week? Where will they go? What will they see?

Where would you take them?

On the dry, non-snowy days, classroom supplies are carried down to the outdoor classroom in a garden cart. In the snow, Ms. Ellie blazes a trail in snow shoes and pulls a sled laden with supplies and kids backpacks while Ms. Annette ensures there are no stragglers. We ❤️ our hardworking teachers!

Enrollment for the 2026-2027 school year begins 3/1. Visit our website for more info!

This is a wonderful explanation for our school’s policy and practice.

Hi everyone! This is Monica, director of ANBE. Someone asked an important question today and since I've heard it many times before, I thought you might like to hear my response.

The question came from someone who wants to start their own nature-based program and feels like they need to write curriculum in advance (or pay someone to write one). They are admittedly at the start of their journey in nature-based early childhood education, and they feel as if they are playing catch-up with a mid-career switch. As a community of members at ANBE, we want to lift each other up while illuminating ideas and practices, so I share this reply with love and respect, not judgment, in the hopes it may be helpful to others, too.

(And NO, this is not an AI response!!)
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My reply: If I am understanding correctly, you want to develop a formal curriculum for your program - is that right?

One of the things you can do is consider a seasonal framework of happenings in the natural world. This way, you can identify predictable topics that you are likely to explore each season (changing light and plant life cycles, for example). You can also create a suite of activities and experiences that may support learning about these seasonal happenings and align with various early learning standards/skills, values or topics.

Most nature-based programs utilize an emergent curriculum, which means lessons are not tightly planned in advance. This is because learning is child-directed, rooted in the authentic experiences and interests of the children in your group. That should be of comfort to you! As you observe children engaged in nature play, they will show you what they are interested in and what they still need to learn.

Emergent curriculum is more than "teachable moments" - it is a way to nurture relationships with children and co-create curriculum based on their interests and needs. The children's ideas about nature play become threads to weave with each day as you develop emergent curriculum.

Rather than a fixed curricular guide, my best advice is to flesh out seasonal interests that might be explored each month. Then begin to build a repertoire of developmentally appropriate activities and experiences which you can draw from (as children explore and show interest in these topics in real time). Perhaps each season there is a guidepost, so to speak, for the very important concepts and values you want to share/embed in your program. Those can form the basis of your approach to seasonal lessons while holding space for emergent curriculum.

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Every educator has a different set of circumstances and in some cases, you may have rigid parameters or other factors that make it challenging for you to offer open-ended nature play. Don't let this stop you from looking at your opportunities from a nature-based angle!

You'll notice that in my reply I did not say "there are no plans" or there is "no curriculum". Emergent curriculum provides a framework to hold space for learning, yet without the need for prescribed curriculum. And yes, it absolutely aligns with developmentally appropriate standards and skills.

Nature-based learning is for every child, in every setting, made possible when they have caregivers who are dedicated to it. Educators need opportunities to find the right calibration for their programs/settings to help every child benefit from a meaningful connection to the natural world.

These are the kinds of challenges we explore and celebrate in our Nature-Based Teacher Certification and ANBE's many other professional learning opportunities. If you are feeling stuck or worried about how nature-based learning can be a reality for your program, I hope you'll reach out so we can keep learning together.

As always, visit anbe.org for a world of nature-based PD possibilities! (Oh, and if you like this kind of long post with deeper NB insights, we'd love to know. 🥰)

February has just started and our intrepid explorers have already blazed a trail through the snowy meadow, hiked to the outdoor classroom and back, conquered snowy mountains, and tunneled to the other side. They are unstoppable!

❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️

If you are interested in enrolling your children so they can join in on the fun, visit our website for more information!