children building with branches

Kickapoo Valley Forest School engages each student with place-based learning embedded within a Forest School Model.

child playing on ice

KVFS will eventually grow to 4 classrooms of children:

Two classrooms will be mixed aged groups of 4 year old Kindergarten (4K) & Kindergarten.

Two classrooms will be mixed aged groups of 1st & 2nd grade students. 

Place-based learning brings schools and community together on a common pathway dedicated to stewardship and life-long learning. It is teaching by using landscape, family, and community surroundings as the educational foundation. Significant learning takes place outdoors and in the community. This community expands outward from local landscape and home, to regional realities, and ultimately, to international issues. In coming to know one’s place, one comes to know what is fundamental to all places. 

Our Curriculum is built upon six components:

The six components of our curriculum form the culture and fabric of our school and inform the way concepts and lessons are introduced. Additionally, we recognize the importance of having our students be able to enter and succeed in any learning environment when they leave KVFS.

Each monthly unit and all lessons, learning materials and skills will be carefully aligned with Wisconsin Model Early Learning Standards (WMELS), Next Generation Science Standards, Wisconsin Standards for Social Studies, and Common Core Standards for Math and English Language Arts.

Additionally, our teaching guides will keep careful records of student learning and proficiency. A KVFS Skills Assessment will be kept for each student detailing when and how a child achieves proficiency within grade-level learning standards. 

“If a child happens to show that he knows any fact about astronomy, or plants, or birds, or rocks, or history, that interests him and you, hush all the classes and encourage him to tell it so that all may hear. Then you have made your schoolroom like the world.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson  

child peeking from behind a tree