Outdoor Afterschool

We believe that allowing regular time outdoors for children to learn, grow and explore helps them thrive in all aspects of their lives.

Outdoor Afterschool was designed with thoughtful intention to give the children the benefit of being outside. Each week will include different activities and lessons, based in, with, and for Nature.

Here is a little peek at what we will be diving into for 2024 Winter/Spring:

• In January our SEL (Social Emotional Learning) theme is “commitment.” It’s all about making a plan and putting it into practice. We will continue our look into mushrooms and how they grow and thrive with spawning projects, hikes, spore print art and identification. We will also be learning to safely whittle so we can build our hand-eye coordination, further develop our fine motor skills, and let our creative side take over.

• In February the theme is “kindness.” We will show the others in the group they are valuable in how we treat them. This starts with our summer garden prep. Kids will have the opportunity to get seedlings started in the greenhouse, begin our winter harvest in the garden, build new bird feeders for the permanent resident birds in the area, and soil test around the ranch. We will also be keeping a keen eye out for our bug friends and making sure they have a safe habitat to live in.

• March is about “patience” and there is no better way to learn patience than waiting on our wildflowers to grow. We will begin to see the blooms, identify the different flowers and even plant some of our own. We will have our final winter harvest and begin to set the garden up by planting our spring crops. 

• “Peace” is the theme come April. We focus on sharing and caring about each other and the earth! We will see the birds and reptiles come back to the ranch, leaves start budding on trees, the sheep get sheared, and we celebrate peace on our beautiful planet.

• May is about “honesty” and so we will explore integrity as we welcome back our pollinators to the ranch! With flowers blooming everywhere, we will have a wonderful opportunity to observe all the bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, and more close up. The birds are officially migrating back to the area and we will be able to hike out to find and identify them.

  Let your child experience everything Connolly Ranch has to offer! If you have any questions about the program email amy@connollyranch.org.