Preschool Superorganism – ​Seeing community as classroom

•​ School Leverages ​Magical ​Wonders​ of Nature, ​Farm and​ Community​

• The Facebook page of a north-central Connecticut preschool proclaims: “A unique program where our farms, gardens, woods, meadows, streams and ponds are our classrooms” — yes, an intriguing model — read on to learn more •

By Amanda Hochschartner and Judy Kane

Special to Today Magazine Online

Our young children were on hands and knees investigating ants that scurried purposefully in and out of their anthill.

SEO: Preschool community classroom

Carmon website — Click This Ad

SEO: Preschool community classroom

We were in the meadow of our school — Granby Nature Preschool and Kindergarten — at Granby-based Holcomb Farm, established in the 1700s and now a sustainable community vegetable farm with some 300 additional acres of meadows and forests.

Ants work together for the common good, ensuring sustainable living and survival for both the colony and the individual members. The colony itself is referred to as a “superorganism” because all members work toward this common purpose.

The ants were not the only ones with purpose that day. Our children were learning about community and the roles of ants — as workers, guards, nurses and queen. The children were making important connections with the roles they have in their own communities of family, school and town.

Ours is an outdoor program and we are immersed in the magical wonders of the Holcomb Farm property through all the seasons and in all the sensory pleasures of the changing weather. Our experiences extend endlessly and are broadened to include not just the natural resources but also the special people of our town.

SEO: Preschool community classroom

Maher's website – Click This Ad

SEO: Preschool community classroom

Children learn important lessons of stewardship, service and love of the land, modeled by the professionals and volunteers in town who have embraced our program.

Granby Nature Preschool has been supported by the town of Granby — first the Granby Recreation Department, which enthusiastically helped us get our program started, and the Granby Public Works Department, which supported our administrative and functional needs.

We now work with the town to find a balance between the town’s financial needs and its support of the values of community living and learning together.

Farmers have taken time out of their busy lives to show us what they do and how it relates to the land and to us.

Our Granby farm excursions have included visits in the fall and spring to Lost Acres Orchard to learn about, pick and taste apples, and to visit the beehives and learn how they and apple trees support each other. We have also visited Emery Farm to feed the chickens and collect their eggs, and to see how maple syrup is made.

At Sweet Pea Farm our children have fed pumpkins to the chickens, brought their holiday trees to feed the goats, and bottle-fed the newborn kids. Farmer Kate Bogli from Maple View Farm worked with our children to show us farming techniques.

We have also visited farms of the families of our students to climb tractors, see the inner workings of a barn, and meet and feed animals. Our program has been enriched, too, by excursions to McLean Game Refuge — the refuge is located primarily​ in Granby and Simsbury, with a smaller section in Canton.

SEO: Preschool community classroom

SEO: Preschool community classroom

We feel fortunate to have been able to connect with the busy volunteers of organizations already in support of Granby’s greatest assets who also willingly support our young learners. 

The Granby Education Foundation has provided: planting tools, microscopes, pots, shovels, watering cans and catch-observe-and-release boxes. The Granby Drummer newspaper and now Today Online have featured our school — Today Publishing produces Today Online and Today Magazine.

Others have generously taken time from their primary mission in order to support us. Trustees of the Friends of Holcomb Farm have introduced us to the history of the land and the wonders of our immense, magical property. Volunteers from the Granby Land Trust have arranged hikes into the pristine woods of Dismal Brook Wildlife Preserve to view a porcupine nest, investigate its quills, and see beaver-gnawed trees and a beaver lodge.

After one such trip it was gratifying to see the children transform their understanding when they returned to our own forest to gather sticks and make their own beaver lodge. They were re-enacting community living on many levels as they worked together for a common purpose. 

Our excursions lead to further exploration and deeper learning, and to see important connections between communities of ants or beavers and our own. Like ants and beavers, the children had to work purposefully and cooperatively.

We know that communities everywhere become involved in the education of their young children. What we love about our own small Connecticut town are the ways Granby goes beyond supporting academic fundamentals. So many residents value the farms, land, flora and fauna, and sense of community and stewardship — and they want to actively participate in these aspects of our early-childhood education as well.

Like a fine-tuned ant colony where ants efficiently fill their roles for the greater good, Granby’s greatest assets — the townspeople and the land — inspire our young children to learn, grow and become informed and healthy citizens and stewards so they can continue this important work.

An ant colony is a superorganism — we like to think Granby is one too. +

SEO: Preschool community classroom

• Related News

• Giving Back – Three generations of gifted women invest in Granby

Amanda Hochschartner is the founder and director of Granby Nature Preschool LLC, and Judy Kane is the assistant director — Amanda is Judy’s daughter

They have visited many forest kindergartens in Europe — Amanda has completed the Reggio Emilia training, an educational model that encourages children to investigate nature, ask questions and be active participants in their learning

Featuring community news that matters nationwide, Today Magazine and Today Online aim to record Connecticut’s underreported upside — covering the heart of the Farmington Valley and beyond

Today Magazine and Today Online are produced by Today Publishing

• 5 Farmington Valley Towns • 1 Aim – Exceptional Community Journalism

• Avon • Canton • Farmington • Granby • Simsbury • Connecticut • USA