Two small hands reach high, and a body jumps feet first into ankle deep mud-water. Splatters of laughter erupt from surrounding friends. The tomatoes nearby catch little brown droplets of silky mud on their just orange skin. A teacher notices how the mud drips down the curved shape of the tomato, how the soil drinks the water in, and the children notice, as they always do, where more water can be applied. At Elements, we notice and harvest the power of cause, effect, and connection. How every action designs the next. How every child impacts the world. Elements emerged as a nature preschool 7 years ago. An all weather, environmentally driven program, we continue to believe in, and witness, the incomparable benefits of “natural world magic.” The snow we pack into buckets and serve to friends who always want ice cream. The assortment of ice cream flavors we create with the flick of a wrist. The outstretched tongue leaning forward to a small, gripped hand, lapping up a delicious treat of imagination.

Elements wants to eat pretend ice cream with your children. Elements wants to sky gaze through the overlapping trees with your children. Elements wants to use too many band-aids, hide-and-seek children who hide in the same spot every time, and sort teeny-tiny rocks with your children. Elements wants to give your children everything these months might have taken from them.

In 1911, the world turned to “open-air classrooms” to relieve their children from swooping cases of tuberculosis. Children could unite, learn, and grow together amongst the natural healing momentum of the outdoors, and adapt as children always do (Bellafonte, 2020). Elements has always taken this approach to education, and welcomes you to join us now when it matters most. To come home with mud on your clothes, a story to tell, and love in your heart.