Little Wings Farm and Forest School

A Farm Based Outdoor Preschool in Greenfield, NY www.littlewingsfarmschool.com

Little Wings is a farm-based outdoor preschool new to the area opening in the fall of 2021 at Wing Road Farm, a 20 acre organic farm/homestead just 5 miles from downtown Saratoga Springs.

Founded by Aaren Harris, a homesteader, long distance hikers and a NYS certified teacher with a Masters in Early Childhood and 10 years of teaching experience, it will be a classroom without walls providing a unique blend of experiential learning focusing on local agriculture mixed with ample time spent in the forest to learn more about ecology, biology and environmental issues.

We believe children learn best when the curriculum allows for self-directed inquiry through playful explorations, hands-on experiences and freedom of movement in the outdoors. Many families would like an outdoor option that still includes a kindergarten readiness component.

This program aims to provide that. The program will run on the Saratoga Springs Calendar and will be held Monday through Thursday with Fridays reserved for occasional work parties, events or special field trips. There are 2 sessions offered- either 9:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. or 12:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.. We will take a field trip once per month to a variety of local farms to learn about different types of agriculture. Parents are required to transport and chaperone their child on those days.

After 4 years of teaching preschool students with special needs and 3.5 years of teaching kindergarten readiness skills to preschoolers in a UPK setting, Mrs. Harris has learned that all learners must be observed, met where they are, and moved forward at their own pace to avoid frustration and remain open to instruction. Children of all abilities and backgrounds are welcome here where individual differences are honored and respected.

Very few children will master every single expectation for kindergarten as almost every learner excels in certain domains and not in others. However, she is very familiar with the pressures of preparing all kinds of learners for kindergarten and has some creative ways of doing it through play on the farm and in the forest.

Some children will be learning how to read while another is learning their first letter. Some will be dressing themselves while some cannot put on their coat. Some will be comfortable speaking in front of peers and others will not. Some will need more of a focus on emotional self-regulation while some will appear to have their emotions in control. It is always the job of a good teacher to establish a trusting bond with a child through love, nurturing, observation and play.

From that place, we can begin our educational journey together, doing hard things and moving through challenges with a type of learning that feels more to the child like play. While Mrs. Harris uses techniques from Froebel, Steiner, Montessori, Reggio Emilia, and Lifeways but she does not follow any one curriculum and allows all good and creative ideas that work and are useful to be a part of her pedagogy.

Little Wings welcomes children who will turn 4 or 5 by or on December 1st and classes will have will have 1 NYS Certified Lead Teacher and 1 assistant with a class size of 10 students. If the Covid Metrics improve by August and we feel comfortable opening our doors to more students, we may increase the class size to 15.

There are many students who are born late in the fall who would benefit from 1 more year of preschool before embarking on their elementary journey. We welcome the gap year children! This program offers mixed-age groupings to allow for peer influence and growth, but to also provide learners with 2 years of preschool if they need it- what a gift! We also welcome children who may just need one year of Pre-k for their 4 year old year and then plan to move on to a typical kindergarten setting.

Little Wings is an attempt to provide a holistic, immersive outdoor experience on a farm to support the healthy development of children, and to revive, reinvigorate and support the local farming economy in Saratoga County, NY. We plan to partner with the Saratoga County Cornell Cooperative Extension to provide visiting educators to offer farming lessons and experiences throughout the year. We also plan to highlight the many diverse and wonderful local products created by farmers in our community by taking at least 1 field trip per month to a new farm. Little Winglets will know where their food comes from, know how to find and support the local farmers they meet through CSA’s and Farmer’s Markets and may even try their hand at farming someday. It is our hope that instead of just growing vegetables or mushrooms, we can grow strong and healthy children as well!

At Little Wings we will enjoy a field trip each month to a different farm highlighting a different type of agricultural product. Trips are planned to Saratoga Apple, Fossil Stone Vineyards, Featherbed Lane Farm, Native Farm Flowers, Pitney Meadows Community Farm, Nettle Meadows Farm, Merck Farm and Forest, Stoney Meadows Farm, and Greenfields Forever. We will also make many short trips to Native Farm Flowers to do crafts and activities. We hope to enjoy surprise visits from our elders, guest speakers and volunteers in our community to share their talents. These will include artists, musicians, bakers, biologists, yoga teachers, foreign language instructors and other farmers. Our hands will be busy making nature crafts and learning bushcraft skills such as making bramble rope, weaving, making ornaments, wreaths, bird feeders, stick crafts, yarn and paper crafts and other natural delights. Our storytime ritual will include a cup of warm organic herbal tea of various flavors with farm honey and a snack each day. We will have a short meditation at the beginning of each story time to help calm us and get us ready to listen. 

COVID-19 Information:

Little Wings was founded in part as a response to the current Covid crisis. Mrs. Harris and her family spent a total of 39 days in quarantine after she contracted Covid while teaching last fall. We wanted to create a school without walls and provide an affordable Farm and Forest School experience for the children in our area, but we also wanted to be outside to keep ourselves and our little ones healthy and safe.

Please see our Covid Policy on our website. We ask that all parents read it and sign a statement on the application that they are in agreement. At Little Wings, we will be following the protocols determined necessary by the Saratoga County Public Health Department at the time the school year starts. We feel that class size should be determined by the Covid metrics observed during early August 2021. A class size of 10 is a cautious and safe number, but if we feel the pandemic is more under control at that time, we may increase class size to 15.

We expect each parent to answer health screening questions daily at Sign-In and to sanitize or wash their children’s hands upon arrival on our farm. As we will be outdoors almost all day, every day, we hope to allow children to play without masks while outdoors. All staff will wear masks at all times unless deemed unnecessary by the NYS Department of Education at the time. The Office of Children and Family Services suggests that children in daycare programs below the age of 6 do not have to wear masks, but we will leave it to individual parents in each cohort to vote on these matters. Children will need to wear masks when indoors, when toileting or in the case of an emergency that would require close contact such as providing first aid, so for that reason, each child will need to bring 2 masks daily.

We believe communication is at the heart of a safety plan, so encourage questions, thoughts and opinions about protocols and procedures that would make everyone feel safest. We need to support one another and help one another get through this challenging time in history by staying well informed and staying in our small little bubbles, but also by creating a sense of warmth and community for our children. We believe we can do this by staying outdoors as much as possible. You may spend a little extra on gear to keep your child warm and dry, but it may be the best money you have spent in a long time as the health benefits will be evident. Our children will be at home outdoors with daily access to farm animals, forest bathing, the germs in soil that keep our immune systems working properly, sunlight and vitamin D, fresh air and a pure environment with no chemicals, and ample time engaged in gross motor, fine motor and sensory play. Keeping our children healthy and strong is our first line of defense. 

Open House and Admission Information:

We will offer multiple Open Houses throughout the year where parents and children can come tour the farm, interact with their teachers and participate in a farming activity. Our Winter Open House will be Saturday, March 13th from 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. Bundle up and come see how we boil our maple syrup each winter! Enjoy a tour, a hot drink and a sweet treat. Spring Open House will be Saturday, May 13th from 10 a.m. - 12 p.m.. The farm is waking up! The greenhouse will be full of vegetable starts and plants, the garden will be ready to plant, and the orchard will be in bud. Will the leaves be unfurling on the trees? Come play in the woodland playground, tour the trails, meet the baby chickens, check out some tadpoles and plant some seeds. For more information, please visit the website or use the Contact Form to send us a message: http://littlewingsfarmschool.com

 Registration for the 2021-2022 Academic Year will begin on April 1st, 2021 and will continue until all slots are full. We will begin accepting Applications on April 1st and they will be accepted in the order they are received. Individuals will be notified by email of their acceptance and a $500 deposit for program fees will be due at that time. Individuals placed on the waiting list will be notified immediately if a space becomes available. A New York State Health form and vaccination record filled out by your pediatrician must be received prior to September 1st.