Fulton Community School & Farm

Fulton Community School & Farm Enrolling for fall! Fulton Community School & Farm is a nature based,reggio inspired program for preschool aged children, 2-5 years old and their families.

Lic # 493009877

08/26/2026

Listening for the Deeper Thinking

These children are well versed in planting, growing, harvesting, and sampling the bounty of the garden. But this seemingly simple encounter is about so much more than investigating sunflower seeds.

Moments like these offer a glimpse into the child’s world: how they approach a challenge, what they know, the experiences and practices they bring from home, and the unexpected connections that shape their thinking. When we slow down and listen, we begin to understand the deeper ideas driving their curiosity.

08/08/2026

Join us!

NEW AT FULTON COMMUNITY SCHOOL & FARM: PLAY GARDEN 🌿We’re excited to introduce Play Garden, a new 100% outdoor, part-tim...
08/07/2026

NEW AT FULTON COMMUNITY SCHOOL & FARM: PLAY GARDEN 🌿

We’re excited to introduce Play Garden, a new 100% outdoor, part-time learning community designed as a distinct experience from our Preschool program.

Play Garden gives children time. Time to dig, climb, create, care for animals, investigate, take risks, build relationships, and follow their curiosity. With long stretches of uninterrupted outdoor play and a small mixed-age community, the environment becomes part of the curriculum.

Before our fall session begins, we’re opening the Play Garden for a FREE Preview Morning.

Monday, August 31 | 9:30–11:30 AM

Children and their caregivers are invited to come explore the space, meet our educators, play, and experience what Play Garden is all about.

Parents, grandparents, nannies, au pairs, and other important caregivers are welcome.

🌱 Free
🌱 Ages 2–5
🌱 Caregiver attended
🌱 Advance registration requested

Our eight-week Fall Play Garden session begins September 14.

Learn more about the program and register for the free preview at:

FultonCommunitySchool.com/playgarden

Come spend a morning outside with us.

07/25/2026

Blueberry ice cream.

It started with a simple suggestion to make ice cream outside. Rather than saving the idea for another day, we used our fresh blueberries from Filigreen Farm and decided to do it right then.

The children mashed, tasted, adjusted, questioned, and talked through every step, gathered around the same bowl with a common purpose.

Development grows when children connect ideas, language, relationships, and experience into something meaningful. Shared experiences like this shape not only what children know, but how they come to know it.

Whether the ice cream turns out doesn’t matter. The memory, the relationships, and the thinking have already been created.

People often ask how experiences like this prepare children for school. I would argue that this is school readiness. Sustaining attention, working toward a shared goal, communicating ideas, adapting when things don’t go as expected, and making meaning with others are the foundations that make learning possible.

Agreements are a cornerstone of our pedagogical practice. They are not classroom rules imposed by adults, but social con...
07/24/2026

Agreements are a cornerstone of our pedagogical practice. They are not classroom rules imposed by adults, but social contracts developed through dialogue, reflection, and shared experience. When children encounter a challenge, they also possess the capacity to construct a solution. Because the agreements originate from the children themselves, they carry meaning, foster ownership, and strengthen accountability within the community.

Today, a conflict emerged in the block area. Rather than seeking adult intervention, the children independently returned to the agreements they had previously negotiated as a group. They revisited their collective thinking, reflected on the purpose of each agreement, and engaged in meaningful dialogue until they reached a mutually acceptable solution. They then returned to play with a shared understanding of how to move forward.

This is social constructivism in practice. Knowledge is co-constructed through relationships, language, and lived experience. The children are developing executive function, self-regulation, perspective-taking, and conflict resolution while learning what it means to be accountable to one another. In this community, the teacher’s role is not to control behavior but to cultivate the conditions in which children become capable, responsible, and active participants in their own learning and in the life of the group.

05/28/2026

A Study Tour to Reggio Emilia

Reggio Emilia is a place. Their practice is fundamentally grounded in their culture, their context, and their way of life. It has emerged and changed over time, but still holds true to what they believe: that children are profound and deserving of rich, responsive, dedicated spaces and educators. This image of the child, seen as capable, deeply intelligent, and worthy of our fullest attention, is not unique to Reggio Emilia. It is a truth that all of us who work with and love children should carry.

What I witnessed was a deep, abiding connection to children and a profound sense of responsibility to them. Every detail of every space and action communicates that children’s thoughts matter, that their ideas have weight, and that the adults around them are paying close attention. Environments are designed as places of research, where questions are welcomed and curiosity is treated as serious intellectual work. Nothing is incidental. The documentation covering the walls is not decoration; it is evidence of careful listening, a platform that says your thinking was seen, recorded, and honored. Planning flows from children outward, shaped by what educators observe, what children wonder, and what the community holds as meaningful.

I walk away knowing that no one outside of Reggio Emilia can truly experience a Reggio school. However, we can be deeply inspired and honor their view of children and the importance of this time of life. We must look at our own context and think critically about what that means to us. True inspiration asks us to go deeper, not just borrow the look of something beautiful, but to understand the beliefs underneath it. We must elevate the image of the child, see them as competent, capable, deserving members of our community, know that they are researchers, and give them a rich, inquiry-based environment that honors the genius and gift that they are. We have the privilege to research alongside children and be taught by them.

Thank you for the opportunity

04/30/2026

The Spark of Initiation

The Self-Directed Inquiry

This research project didn’t begin with a prompt or a prepared invitation. It began with the child as the protagonist. After working with red paint, she brought her own history to the water table, initiating a transformation that was entirely her own. She didn’t just wash her hands; she launched a deliberate investigation into how pigment behaves in a new medium.

An Open Invitation

Because the environment is a “third teacher,” it allowed her initial spark to become a communal one. There was no adult direction needed for the second researcher to join. He was drawn in by her focus and the vibrant shift of the water. Together, they entered a self-governed negotiation of space and tools, proving that the most profound learning happens when children are given the agency to follow their own “What if?”

The Sensory Truth

Their conversation about the cold water was the raw, honest dialogue of scientists in the field. They weren’t performing for an audience; they were authentically immersed in the sensory truth of the moment. From the “scoop and pour” rhythm to the shock of the chill, every second was a testament to the power of child-led discovery in the log yard.

04/16/2026

We welcomed our new rabbits, and the response from the children has been profound.

You can see the shift. Children are slowing down, observing more closely, and approaching in a different way.

We will be taking the time to investigate what they need, what they like, and how they live. This work will unfold with the children.

Together, we will design and build a permanent home for them. Something thoughtful, functional, and responsive to the animals themselves.

We have the privilege of bringing these new members into our community, and with that comes the responsibility to create a space where they can live well.

We need more early childhood educators.There is a pathway in Sonoma County that removes the biggest barriers to entering...
04/15/2026

We need more early childhood educators.

There is a pathway in Sonoma County that removes the biggest barriers to entering the field.

You can work in a classroom
Take college courses
And earn your Associate Teacher Permit
All at the same time.
Tuition is covered.
You are supported step by step.

This is how we grow a workforce that actually understands children.

If you have ever thought about working with young children, or you are already in the field and want to move forward, this is worth looking at.
Apply here:

childdevelopment.santarosa.edu/sonoma-county-early-childhood-education-apprenticeship

Contact:
Jasmin Demil
[email protected]
(707) 522-2722

Made possible through partnerships across Sonoma County, including Santa Rosa Junior College and First 5 Sonoma County.

03/15/2026

Go outside. 🌿

In the middle of Santa Rosa, Taylor Mountain Regional Park rises quietly above the city. More than 1,100 acres of oak woodland, grassland, and winding trails offer a place to slow down and remember what this landscape has always been.

This land is the traditional, ancestral, and unceded homeland of the Southern Pomo and Coast Miwok peoples, who stewarded these ecosystems for thousands of years. The living presence and resilience of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria and other Indigenous communities continues today.

Time outside changes the body and the mind. Research shows that green spaces lower stress, support immune health, and help regulate the nervous system. But the deeper gift is attention.

The scent of California bay in the warm air.
Wildflowers scattered across the hillside.
Wind moving through the oaks.

Small details that remind us this landscape is alive.

Access to nature is a gift.
Caring for it is the responsibility that comes with that gift.

Step onto the trail.
Look closely.
Go outside.

Address

1225 Fulton Road
Santa Rosa, CA
95401

Telephone

+17075238035

Website

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