Getting everyone suited up in the winter may be a bit of a production, but if they can help it, the students of the Denison Pequotsepos Nature Preschool go outside every day to climb on rocks, play with sticks in the creek and explore their surroundings.

Being outside is a critical part of the preschool and something that director Davnet Schaffer and the other teachers are committed to, even if it’s just to go across the parking lot to the Nature Center’s main building on very cold days.

Schaffer developed the Nature Preschool 10 years ago from existing early childhood programs she had been teaching at the Nature Center, as well as research she had done on the forest kindergarten movement in Europe.

“Basically the idea was that children can learn through their time outside, so I said, ‘We really should have a nature preschool,’” she said. “I wrote and created a whole curriculum that expanded what we were already doing to suit all the needs of preschoolers.”

The first Nature Preschool class was started in January 2006 with 12 students, and the half-day program has since expanded to about 32 kids a year with a growing waiting list.

Each week’s theme follows the cycle of the seasons from September through June, so students learn about seeds and new growth in the spring, leaves and turkeys in the fall, and hibernation and animal tracks in the winter.

“Things that they can actually observe when we go outside is what we try to bring into the theme,” Schaffer said. For the turkey theme, they go outside to see if they can find areas where turkeys have scratched in the dirt, though usually the group is a little too loud to find any actual turkeys, she said.

During a recent class about animal tracks, Schaffer gathered a class of 15 for circle time and sang songs about animals, handing out scarves so the students could “swish their bushy tail” like a squirrel or flap their wings like owls. She drew various animal tracks on a whiteboard, making sure to show the difference between cat tracks and dog tracks. The students raised their hands to give answers to clues from “In the Snow: Who’s Been Here?” a book about the animals students might encounter on a snowy walk in the woods. Before snack time, each student gave their best impression of one of those animals, including a few waddling porcupines.

Once everyone got their snow gear on, Schaffer and teachers Mame Courtney and Lori Edwards led the class out onto the Nature Center trails to see if they could see any tracks in the snow. A lot of the snow had melted, however, so the group stopped at one of the creek bridges on the property and the kids were free to play around the clearing.

The ability to run around outside was one of the appeals for Jason Hine and Amy O’Neal of Mystic, whose sons Sam and Jack, now 8 and 5, both attended the program. Hine said he loved the fact that the boys would come home muddy and tired because it showed the dedication to going outside no matter what, and O’Neal said it was a lot like how she and other parents would have grown up.

The rest of their school lives will be spent inside, afraid of going out in inclement weather, getting hurt or encountering an unfamiliar bug, they said, and this is the one time they’ll be able to go outside and get dirty.

Because of the program, the kids were well prepared for kindergarten and have developed an adventurous spirit and appreciation for the environment. Hine said Sam hardly paid attention at his own preschool graduation ceremony because he and a few classmates were enchanted by a caterpillar on his arm. Hine has had to pull over on the side of the road because the boys saw a salamander or turtle that needed rescuing.

The Nature Preschool is open to children 3 through 5 with a family membership to the Nature Center. Tuition ranges from $2,700 for Tuesday/Thursday classes to $6,750 for Monday through Friday classes. More information can be found on the Nature Center website.

a.hutchinson@theday.com

Twitter: @ahutch411