It was just past the break of dawn and a few wide-eyed toddlers had gathered around a chicken coop. “Look, the mother hen has laid two eggs!” one child exclaimed, while another stretched out his hand, eager to feed the chickens.
They were not at a farm but at the lush backyard of Kids and Kins Child Care Centre, where children can get a taste of kampung living.
To foster real-world learning that goes beyond textbook methods, Dr Catherine Ong transformed the preschool’s outdoor space into an immersive environment that mimics village life. The garden boasts of 50 varieties of fruit trees, vegetables, and herbs, including papaya, banana and passionfruit.
There, preschoolers get to hatch and rear chickens, including Jungle Fowls and Silkies, harvest fruit when they ripen, and help their teachers care for the plants by watering them daily. The goal: To instill responsibility and care for the environment.
“As the children are exposed to this as part of their daily lives rather than taught through a one-off lesson, these values are inculcated more deeply. It becomes a habit, and with that, they become ambassadors about caring for the environment, even at home,” said Dr Ong, who is the preschool’s Director of Operations.
This focus on the environment extends outside of preschool grounds through excursions to nature reserves and parks, as well as neighbourhood walks where educators would point out the variety of flora and fauna along the way and encourage the children to ask questions.
EMBARKING ON THRILLING ADVENTURES
At Creative O Preschoolers’ Bay, children as young as four years old hike along unpaved mud paths, stepping over fallen branches and other obstacles as they are guided through nature trails.
Driven by clear links between physical fitness, brain development and holistic growth, adventure is the cornerstone of its curriculum. Kindergarten 2 children head out for three-day camps, pitching tents and tackling challenges to hone resilience, while K1 children get a taste too with park explorations and overnight stays to spark independence.
Creative O Preschoolers’ Bay regularly organises excursions to nature reserves like Chestnut Nature Park.
“Adventurous programmes and outdoor experiences have always been in the centre’s DNA,” said Ms Linda Armaya, who has taught English at the centre for more than two decades. “These experiences enable multi-disciplinary teaching, supporting integrated development in a natural and fun way.”
A lot of careful and detailed planning takes place behind the scenes for the programmes to happen, including site recces. As the outdoors is more unpredictable, educators are trained to be extra vigilant and to ensure that the children under their watch are under constant supervision.
EXPLORING NATURE'S CLASSROOM
A toddler trots barefoot in a sandpit while others listen intently to a story being told by a teacher, as the morning sunlight falls softly on their faces. On weekday mornings, the garden at Children’s Cove Preschool (Jalan Penjara) turns into an outdoor classroom.
Once an unutilised patch of land, it now features a structured playground, wet water play zone, sand and mud play areas, a garden with winding pathways reminiscent of Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, a boardwalk for outdoor lessons, and a fenced fish pond for observation.
Principal Yusliza Yusof shared how natural elements like sand, water, soil, and plants, for instance, aid sensory integration, help children modulate energy and sustain attention.
Children’s Cove Preschool (Jalan Penjara) has a vast forest trail that students will learn to navigate independently before graduating.
“We recognise the strong relationship between physical movement and cognitive development,” explained Ms Yusliza. “Open-ended materials encourage construction, negotiation, and problem-solving, while calibrated risks build judgment, confidence, and resilience.”
Educators at the preschool have observed that the children are naturally attentive to details when outdoors, such as noticing insects along the path and changes to the pond’s water flow.
For now, the final quest that the K2 children embark on just before graduation is a morning forest trail on the boardwalk in pairs — venturing “solo” after numerous guided trips — as their teachers hide behind the foliage to film this heartwarming milestone.
