Tree Frogs

Program Overview

White Pine’s Tree Frogs (ages 5-6) spend their days on explorations throughout Holliday Park as we exercise key components of our curriculum: free play, social and emotional learning, resilience, self-empowerment, and nature immersion. Our highly-trained, experienced instructors support their learning throughout the whole school year.

Our Tree Frogs program is an alternative to traditional preschool and kindergarten programs. We balance lots of free play with guided nature lessons using our unique, hands-on curriculum that focuses on deep connection with nature. We practice core routines throughout the year: crafting, wood splitting, sit spot, scouting, cooking, free play, tracking, foraging, plant identification, storytelling, fire-starting, bird language, and so much more.

Program Location

Our Tree Frogs program is located at Holliday Park, famous for it’s amazingly cared-for public land and one of Indianapolis’ oldest and best city parks. We explore the beautiful woods, hills, creeks, and ravines along the shoreline of the White River to connect your little ones to Mother Nature.

Through our partnership with the park management team at Holliday Park, we have the safety of a private, fenced-in space, lovingly called “Tree Frog Secret Base Camp”. A trail from this space goes directly into the established trail system of the park, where we use the whole 94 acres of breathtaking green space.

And what do we find when we adventure? Pawpaw trees, nettle, crawdads, sunfish, sticks, turtles, red-tailed hawks, mud, burdock, skunk cabbage, rocks, dogwood trees, and so much more.

Program Structure

Tree Frogs (ages 5-6) meet from 9:00am-3:00pm on either Tuesdays or Thursdays (some families choose both days!).

We meet at a consistent location, with the same group of peers and teachers through the whole school year. We have a teacher-to-student ratio of 1:5. We have 6 units per school year, centered around the changing of the seasons. Many families choose to stay the entire 6 units each year, but it is not required.

We are outside 99% of the time, with students only going inside in the case of restroom breaks, extreme heat or cold, or severe weather threats.