Whistlebrae Nature Kindergarten opened its doors to children in January 2007. It is a small cosy nursery in the countryside near Braco in Perth and Kinross run under the direction and management of Claire Warden and Niki Buchan who have a huge amount of experience as teachers, consultants and nursery managers and a great love of nature and the outdoors.
Whistlebrae offers the best of all worlds, a secure natural space inside, a gently challenging outdoor investigative zone which supports young children to develop emotional confidence and skills, and then the wild wood where they can feel the freedom of a fully natural environment.
The children spend the majority of the day outdoors, either in the large enclosed garden or in the woodlands where they have been discovering how to build dens, abseil down the embankment and keeping safe in the woods. They have also been watching the snowdrops emerge from the undergrowth in a lovely white carpet and after finding a hungry robin they now make food for the birds and are planning to build their own birdhide to help them spot and identify the large assortment of birds found in the area.
The winter weather allowed the children to discover the magic of soft white snow, the icy crystals of morning frost and the amazing ice sculptures nature left for them overnight. It is an exciting season for all and the children are very happy to be outside dressed in appropriate outdoor clothing supplied by the nursery. As part of an investigation about keeping warm the children made their own felt and this evolved into the creation of their own red felt hats to use outside.
Nature provides a range of purposeful contexts that the children can really become involved in. The planting and harvesting of vegetables, the creation of habitat piles to increase biodiversity in the area and the use of natural streams to explore the properties of water all give children tangible ways of working with and in nature to increase their connection to it.
The curriculum at the centre is based around nature. All of the opportunities are developed through natural materials found in the local environment or supplied through eco friendly and ethical trade routes. The mathematics zone offers a host of interesting and sensorial materials such as seed pods, lengths of twig, and number stones gathered on sessions in the woodland. Claire is the European leader for the World Nature Collaborative and firmly believes that the environment is the third teacher, supporting children to learn about all aspects of the curriculum through connecting to and finding out about nature.
