Wren's Nest Forest Preschool

We are now full for the 2024/25 school year. Please fill out the form at this link if you would like to be added to the waiting list for a fall 2025 start date (or later): Wren’s Nest Waiting List

We will start accepting applications for the fall 2025/26 school year in early January 2025.

Open House: Save the date. We will hold a prospective student open house on Saturday January 18th, from 9:00-11:30AM.

Overview

Wren’s Nest is a fully licensed, 5 STAR, nature-based program for preschool-age children. Students at Wren’s Nest learn by interacting with the natural world. We are excited to announce that we will be moving to our new forever home this fall of 2024. We are breaking ground on a new school house located just a mile from the current site of 195 Harvey Rd in Bristol where the school currently resides.

Wren’s Nest runs Mondays through Fridays, from 8:00AM - 2:30PM with an extended programming option from 2:30 - 4:30.

Wren’s Nest is located four miles south of Bristol and 13 miles North of Middlebury.

Wren’s Nest Preschool admits students and families of all socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, and disability.

DETAILS

The Wren’s Nest teachers are outdoor educators whose teaching styles are flexible and creative, allowing them to adjust plans in the moment to suit the evolving needs of the students. Their curriculum depends less on rigid structure and more on independent exploration—allowing each child to engage with their natural environment through play and with the guidance of trained instructors.

Wren’s Nest is a holistic, interdisciplinary, and sensory-based approach to learning, and a companion program to Willowell’s nationally-recognized outdoor high school program, The Walden Project. It is our goal at Wren’s Nest to foster students’ independence and an initial understanding of their interconnectedness with the whole world. Children come away with a deep level of comfort and love for the land they play and learn on. Above all, Wren’s Nest creates a space for children to cultivate their natural sense of awe and wonder.

The program incorporates specific themes rooted in the changing bounty of the land and the seasons. Areas of study include learning about wild plants, fire building, tracking, shelter building, sensory awareness, bird language, singing, movements, gardening, wetland walks, drawing, journal writing, clay work, nature sculpture, indoor and outdoor cooking, scavenger hunts, storytelling, special guests, dancing, singing, and an age-appropriate end of year rite of passage.

Wren's Nest runs with the Addison Northeast Supervisory Union calendar and accepts Act 166 Pre-K funding (first ten hours is paid for by the state).

CLASS TIMES

Monday-Friday
8:00 AM - 2:30 PM

Extended Programming

2:30-4:30 PM

LOCATION

508 Harvey Rd.

Bristol, VT

Phone numbers

Wren’s Nest: 802-453-2657

Willowell office: 802-453-6195

APPLICATION PROCESS

I. Download and complete the application form (or request a hard copy mailed to you).

II. Submit $50 (non refundable) application fee.

III. Mail both to The Willowell Foundation, P.O. Box 314, Bristol VT 05443.

IV. You will hear from us once we receive your application.

PAYMENT

Children who will be aged 3 or 4 by September 1, 2024 and who are enrolled for at least 2 full days per week are eligible to receive state preschool funding towards 10 hours/week of preschool tuition. Additional tuition costs are the responsibility of the family/guardian.

Wren’s Nest is a Pre Kindergarten partner. We have licensed teachers, our curriculum aligns with the Vermont Early Education Standards (VELS), and we record documentation for children using Teaching Strategies Gold. These three components were established by the Vermont Agency of Education (AOE) for participating partners.

For information about state subsidy for income-eligible families click here: Child Care Financial Assistance.

Please email us for a full chart of additional out of pocket tuition rates for 2024-2025 school year. Email info@willowell.org for more information or call 802-453-6195

Director: Jessica Curto

While being a director is a new role for me, I have over a decade of experience working in the fields of Early Childhood Education, social services, and nonprofits. Prior to entering the field of outdoor education, I taught preschool in a therapeutic classroom where I supported children with developmental delays and childhood trauma. While working in this setting I noticed that the children faced many challenges inside the confines of the classroom, but they thrived in an outdoor setting. This inspired me to pursue a longtime dream of mine and become a forest kindergarten teacher.

In 2019, I completed my Forest Kindergarten Teacher Certification with the Cedarsong Way in Maple Valley, WA and began teaching at a forest school in Bend, OR. In 2021, I earned my M.Ed with a concentration in Nature-based Education and a Certificate in Trauma-informed teaching from Antioch University New England. I am incredibly passionate about the forest school pedagogy and connecting children to the natural world. After moving to Vermont, I taught for two years in nature-based programs but felt myself longing to return to the forest school setting and step into a leadership role.

Giving back to the community I live in is very important to me. In my spare time, I volunteer with the Chill Foundation, supporting and empowering youth to face challenges as they learn how to skateboard and snowboard. I also volunteer as a Board of Directors with the American Forest Kindergarten Association and serve as the Community Building & Outreach Committee chairperson. When I am not working or volunteering, I try to spend as much time outside as possible. Some of my hobbies are surfing, snowboarding, skateboarding, foraging, hiking, and camping. I am an avid gardener and enjoy tending to my two community garden plots in Burlington, where I live with my husband.

Teacher: corinne goldman

For two years I have served with the VYDC AmeriCorps program at the Willowell Foundation, more specifically Wren’s Nest Forest Preschool. I am currently in my second year as one of the core teachers, working towards my early education license. I love spending my days hiking through forests, climbing rocks, following tracks, creating art and learning about the natural world with young children. I graduated from Castleton University with a BS in Environmental Science & Chemistry with hopes of working within the realm of environmental education and conservation. I was raised to love, respect and protect nature and I hope to instill that love and passion into the youth that I work with. 

Teacher: Emma Jackman

Hello everyone! I am Emma Jackman. I use she/her/hers pronouns, and currently reside in a small home nestled away in the forest of Lincoln, Vermont. I am a full-time student enrolled in Vermont State University's online education program and am working to receive my B.A. in Early Childhood Education and Teaching Licensure come Spring of 2025. In my time away from school, my greatest passions are creative writing, making art, wandering in the forest, and finding a warm spot for a summer swim! My partner Aidan and I also absolutely love to cook, and spent a great deal of time tending to our vegetable garden this past summer. I have always absolutely loved working with and learning alongside children as I am continually amazed by their resilience, creativity, and curiosity to explore and wonder in the world.

I first became affiliated with the Willowell Foundation as a student in the Walden Project during my junior and senior years of highschool. The Walden Project allowed me the opportunity to seek out community connections to embrace my interest in early education, so I reached out and began apprenticing at the Wren's Nest Forest Preschool in order to learn from and work with the incredible teachers paving the way for nature-based early education there. Since then, I have held the relationship with the Willowell community close to my heart as I have co-lead a plethora of Willowell Summer Camps across the bountiful valleys, woodlands, and natural spaces we hold space on, and have absolutely loved getting to know so many of the lovely local families! I now am proud to be a member of the Wren's Nest Forest Preschool teaching team, and work part time with the incredible class of preschoolers on the Wild Roots Community Farm land!

I lead my life with a deep love for the natural world and for those who bring kindness and light to it. Finding ways to scaffold and support young learners as they navigate a world so novel and with roots so deep has brought such joy and meaning to my days as an educator. I am so excited to endure the changing seasons alongside such a wonderful community of children, educators, and families!

teacher: Ian gramling

I served as an AmeriCorps member with the Willowell Foundation for two years and am now a fulltime staff member at the New Roots Project and Wren’s Nest Forest Preschool. I am a lifelong resident of Ferrisburgh, Vermont. I graduated from Willowell’s Walden Project in 2017 and studied military history at Norwich University for a few years. I love teaching children in the great outdoors, and have experience from volunteer positions at Ferrisburgh Central School, Shelburne Farms, and my service at Willowell. In my personal time, I enjoy historical reenacting, bushcraft, metal detecting, and playing Irish music. I’m excited for another summer of Wren’s Nest, and ready to explore the woods!

Teacher: Jen Olson

I’m thrilled to be joining the Wren’s Nest community. I’m Jen Olson and I live in Hinesburg with my husband, Josh, and our 2 cats, Cat Cat and Tengo. Through winter we love to take walks in the woods, snowshoe and snowboard, and in summer, enjoy camping, gardening, and time by the river. We enjoy taking care of our old house (built in 1850), learning its history and many “how to’s” one project at a time. I also enjoy cooking and have recently begun practicing yoga. 

I’ve spent most of my adult life in Vermont, having spent summers at Camp Hochelaga in So. Hero, and my undergrad years at UVM. I love calling Vermont home (even if I was raised in CT). At UVM, I received a B.S. in Early Childhood Education, and later, a M.Ed in Educational Leadership. I have a VT Teaching License and have spent 12 years teaching infants, toddlers, and preschoolers, with the last 8 years having been at the UVM Campus Children’s School. 

 I’m a social constructivist - meaning that I believe we (including children) create our own knowledge through experiences and interactions with the world. In my work as a teacher, I observe and seek to understand what children know and think about the world, others, etc. and scaffold learning by providing them with authentic opportunities to deepen and extend their own learning, making the work of any learning community unique!

Since I began working with young children, I have always been enamored by their sense of wonder and the relationships they cultivated with the natural world. It deepened my own curiosity and passion for interacting with and exploring the outdoors, and influenced the role of natural materials in learning inside and outside of the classroom. I’m eager to get to know all of the students and the spaces, critters, and experiences that bring Wren’s Nest students joy! 

Teacher: Sherry crawford

I am delighted to return to the Wren's Nest Community. I originally volunteered and substituted in the fall of 2019 before I left to spend the next 11 months in Seattle. Once I returned to Vermont in October 2020, I resumed substituting and am now overjoyed to be here every Monday and Friday.

My background is primarily environmental education and agriculture. My family owns an Ayrshire dairy farm in Whiting Vermont, where I grew up exploring and playing on the 300 acres of fields, swamps and woods with a core group of 6 kids living on the farm. It was definitely a child initiated unstructured play based background that I experienced as a child. I raised my 2 children, Galen and Brianna in the same manner- with the outdoors and nature exploration as key components; and as adults, the natural world and environment are integral to their way of life. And now I have a 1 year grandson, Alden, who is being exposed to the wonders of our beautiful natural world of the Pacific Northwest. Currently back in Whiting, I just moved into a new small house consisting of windows galore and book shelves filled with field guides and other nature oriented books. My days are spent outdoors as much as possible enjoying every season and observing the phenology of plants and animal behavior.

After graduating from Castleton State College with a degree in Environmental Science, I worked for the Nature Conservancy in the stewardship division recruiting and leading volunteers (which included many youth camps) in the field and on the water. Then for about 10 years I taught Biology and Animal Diversity labs at Castleton. I've developed and led multiple summer camps for both MALT and Castleton Recreation. For a number of years I volunteered in the elementary school classroom with the Environmental Learning for the Future (ELF) program and the current version, the Four Winds Nature Institute. I've also worked in a public school library, which provided lots of experience with kids and books, as well as a couple of months in Honduras volunteering at a school. And last year while in Seattle, I volunteered with the award winning Tiny Trees program, a nature preschool located entirely outdoors on the grounds of the city's parks.

In my other life- the agricultural world- after growing up on a dairy farm; while in my 20's we bought a dairy farm in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont . Years later, after returning to this area, I started a family farmstead artisan cheese business, although it was a popular alpine style cheese it kept me inside, too much for my liking. Thus I moved on to work for a progressive organic vegetable farmer working in the greenhouses, fields and farmstand.

After being aware of the forest preschool movement for a number of years, I'm thrilled to combine two of my passions, young kids and the natural world by being part of Wren's Nest.