About Acorn School
Our Mission:
Nurturing the Whole Child
Acorn School provides preschool and kindergarten children active learning experiences rooted in nature, guided by play, and designed to encourage exploration of the world around them.
Our Programs
Preschool – Chipmunks
Age: 3 Year Olds
Class Size: 10-12 (two teachers)
Days: Tuesday & Thursday
Times: 8:30-11:30 or 12:30-3:30
Preschool – Chickadees,
Woolly Bears & Tadpoles
Age: 4 Year Olds
Class Size: 10-12 (two teachers)
Days: Monday, Wednesday & Friday
Times: 8:30-11:30 or 12:30-3:30
Kindergarten – Mighty Oaks
Age: 5 Year Olds
Class Size: 10-18 (two to three teachers)
Days: Mon, Tues, Wed, Fri – 8:30-1:30; Thurs 8:30-11:30
The TimberNook program is about getting outdoors, stimulating the senses, and encouraging children to experience the joy of nature-based play. The program gives our students the opportunity to experience unrestricted, child-led, free play.
Children acquire creative, physical, social, emotional confidence, and gain deep practice in collaboration, communication and conflict resolution in our “100 Acorn Wood”.
These TimberNook sessions are offered 1-2 times a month for each program and are lead by TimberNook certified instructors.
The TimberNook Experience
Learning Spaces
At Acorn, the outdoors is our favorite classroom! We believe that play in nature creates opportunities for big adventures and everyday magic, and each of our learning spaces offers something unique.
With boulders galore, The Treehouse encourages climbers to practice risk-taking.
In Hammock Hollow part of The Woodland Theater, the gentle swinging motion provides rhythmic input that aids in vestibular development–responsible for balance and spatial awareness. The hammocks are also used for SQUIRT (Super Quiet Uninterrupted Individual Reading Time).
The Garden opens right onto the nature trail. And when snow falls, The Nook turns into the ultimate sledding hill.
Our History
In 1972, Rebecca (Hayden) Shepard founded a unique school where children develop and learn together in an atmosphere that is encouraging and cheerful – Acorn School. The school’s original location was in Hampton Falls, NH. It then moved to Exeter for a short time before the Stratham property was purchased and became its permanent home in 1975.
Acorn School became a non-profit preschool and kindergarten run by a volunteer Board of Directors in 1987. The school is dedicated to the memory of Becky’s grandmother, Jeanie Richardson Kerns, and in honor of childhood, that fleeting but significant period in life that needs to be filled with confidence building and free imagination.
For over 50 years, Acorn families have enjoyed and celebrated the school’s beautiful and natural surroundings that significantly contribute to its curriculum and philosophy.