A small pink bicycle—with training wheels and pink ribbons—was parked outside the new Nature Preschool at the Chicago Botanic Garden. It was just a sign of things to come at the preschool, which opens September 6 at the new Regenstein Learning Campus, home to the Garden’s education programs.
Learn more about the Nature Preschool at the Garden on our website.
Open houses for the 2017-18 school year will be held this fall. Meanwhile, we talked to some of this year’s students at the orientation for 4-year-olds about their future career plans and other matters.
Gemma
Q. What are you looking forward to doing in school?
A. I like studying and putting all the things into baskets and seeing if the temperature is hot or cold and climbing trees and playing outside and looking at the stream and measuring and weighing things and to paint and do art.
Q. What’s so interesting about plants?
A. I like to see if a little walnut will grow into a walnut tree.
Q. What do you want to be when you grow up?
A. An explorer.
Ethan
Q. What are you looking forward to doing in school?
A. I like playing on the big hills and the rocks and in the garden and cutting the putty and working in the mud kitchen and ABCs.
Q. What is your favorite plant?
A. Cactus. [Why?] Because it has pointy things.
Q. So you already know things about nature.
A. I know a blue jay eats worms. I know that the cactus keeps water so he doesn’t need much.
Harrison
Q. What do you think the Nature Preschool is going to be like?
A. Awesomeness.
Q. What do you want to be when you grow up?
A. A scientist.
Erin
Q. Why do you want to go to the Nature Preschool?
A. I want to learn about plants. I like digging in the dirt. At home, I pull weeds. Mom does, too. I want to climb a tree.
Q. What’s your favorite subject?
A. I like writing and animals.
Serena
Q. What do you want to do in preschool?
A. Go down the hills, play in the water and splash, read things.
Q. What’s your favorite subject?
A. Science.
Q. What do you want to be when you grow up?
A. When fishes and sharks get sick, I’ll fix them.
Q. What else will you do?
A. Just that.
Come to the Regenstein Learning Campus’s free Opening Celebration, September 10 and 11, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; parking fees apply.
Enjoy live music and activities, take home a free plant, and more. Members can stop by the lounge for light refreshments and a commemorative gift.
©2016 Chicago Botanic Garden and my.chicagobotanic.org
How I wish I lived closer to CBG. Southeastern PA is a bit far for a day’s visit. The Nature Preschool is, as one of the students so aptly puts it, “Awesomeness”!!!