At Apple Orchard, our mission is to build an environment of trust and instill a lifelong love of learning within our active farm community. We spend a substantial amount of time outdoors and believe the farm, animals, trees, and fields are central to learning and to the development of the whole child. We believe preschool children learn best through hands-on exploration and play, which is at the core of our curriculum. Play develops qualities such as empathy, flexibility, communication and capacity to collaborate which children need to lead happy, fulfilled lives. Play is a primary learning path at Apple Orchard School, and our unique farm environment provides unlimited opportunities for skills learned through play to be applied to classroom foundational learning. At this age, we believe that sitting and having a child count blocks doesn’t compare to jumping from stump to stump while counting or noticing how many ducks are on a pond one day compared to the next. We want to capitalize on what engages children at this age so that they are excited and interested in learning.