Chavitos Nature School
Chavitos Nature School
Nature Inspired, Spanish Immersed
Covid-19 policies updated on March 2023.
Chavitos means children in Spanish.
We are a bilingual nature immersion school with two outdoor education programs.
Our preschool nature program, ages 2-5, is located in Central Tacoma.
Our K-8 farm school program is located in Puyallup, Washington.
Our mission is to provide a high quality childhood environment that holistically meets children's needs, while inspiring them to love nature and learn Spanish. We currently serve ages 2-5 and grades Kindergarten-Sixth. We have dreams of expanding to 8th grade, as our community continues to grow.
Check out the programs tabs for more information.
Chavitos Nature School combines the best of- hands-on outdoor nature education, Montessori and Waldorf teaching methods, and Spanish language integration with a fluent speaker- to help prepare your child for a successful and radiant life.
In both programs we commit to...
- An extended amount of time outside. Preschool is all outdoors. Elementary is outside as much as possible, with additional inside classroom spaces in our geodome and open aired gazebo.
- Utilized play and sparked interests to learn and explore. In the Elementary program we include movement in all lessons along with an intentionally unstructured movement period.
- A Spanish speaking teacher who primarily speaks in Spanish.
- A strong focus on community and doing life with a collaborative village mindset.
- Montessori principles- using a child's natural motivation and interests as a catalyst for learning.
- Diversity. We deeply value cultural, racial, religious, age, gender, sexual orientation and disability diversities when making our decisions. We believe students learn acceptance at a young age and need endless opportunity to be in community with those who are different than themselves.
- Social-Emotional Intelligence and Relational Wellness. Teaching self-awareness, moral intelligence, tolerance, acceptance and awareness through conversation, modeling and expectations.
- Honoring the original inhabitants of our land and teaching students how to honor the Puyallup Tribe and their home.
Tours
We understand the importance of visiting our programs before enrolling.
We desire families to make an informed choice, so we offer monthly tours of each program. These are held on the first Thursday of the month. And are arranged for multiple families to attend at the same time.
Community
Community
We like to consider ourselves a school with heart. We love to connect with families with intention and authenticity. We encourage enrolled families to join our monthly potlucks (in spring, summer and fall), this is a wonderful time to foster connection over shared food and stories. Parents meet their child's best forest friends, see them climb their favorite trees, swap parenting techniques, and laugh over our latest parenting struggles and strengths.
We also send enrolled families a monthly newsletter full of connection to the season, parenting strategies, developmental maps, and updates about school. Here is an example of one to give you an idea.
See our programs tabs for more info.