New Outdoor Preschool

Boston Outdoor Preschool Network (BOPN) is opening an entirely outdoor early childhood program located at the Arnold Arboretum. We are committed to nature immersion, inquiry-based teaching, and play. The ever-changing landscape of the Arnold Arboretum provides endless opportunities to spark children's curiosity, discovery, and learning. (BOPN and the Arnold Arboretum are two separate organizations).

Co-founders Sarah Besse and Shela Sinelien met in 2016 while in graduate school for Early Childhood Education at Wheelock College. As educators in the public schools, we noticed that our preschool children felt most alive when engaging with the natural world. We began to dream about expanding opportunities for nature-immersive play and learning. Around the same time, Sara Murray began taking her students outside to learn and play. As a first grade teacher at a Boston-area independent school, she started the Forest Explorers after-school club; during summers, she taught at nature-based camps. Happily, we found each other and joined forces. BOPN arose out of our mutual desire to provide a joyfully muddy childhood filled with wonder, investigation, science, art, movement, and love of learning in the great outdoors.

We are inspired by “Grow, Bloom and Thrive” in Millis, MA, which is a forest kindergarten and the first program of its kind to become licensed by the state Department of Early Education and Care. We are also inspired by the nonprofit Tiny Trees, which has 12 outdoor preschool classrooms across Seattle city parks.

Learn more at www.bopn.org