Play Garden is our new outdoor program, Monday mornings this fall. Take a look!
1225 Fulton Road, Santa Rosa, California 95401, United States
Outdoor Learning Community
100% Outdoors • Part-Time • Unique by Design
A new way to start the week outside.
A nature-immersed program for children ages 2 to 5, Unique from our Preschool program. A place to explore, create, care, and connect in nature, together.
What is the Play Garden program?
Play Garden is our newest offering: a part-time, 100% outdoor learning community for children ages 2 to 5. It unfolds entirely in our Tire Swing Yard, a living outdoor space with garden beds, fruit trees, chickens, an art studio shed, and a season's worth of things to discover.
Each morning, children move through gardening, animal care, art, sensory play, and imaginative exploration, guided by Fulton educators within a small, mixed-age community that meets together across an entire season.
Play Garden has its own rhythm and its own purpose rooted in nature, reflection and reciprocity.
2026 Fall Session
8 Mondays
September 14, 21, 28 · October 5, 19, 26 · November 2, 9
9:00 AM to 12:00 PM
- 100% outdoors in our Tire Swing Yard
- Mixed-age community, ages 2 to 5
- Farm-fresh, seasonal snack included
- Garden, animals, art, nature play, and more
- Small group. Big experiences.
No lunch is provided. A substantial, farm-fresh seasonal snack is included each morning.
Standard Enrollment
$480 for the 8-week session
This is a drop-off program. Fulton educators lead the full experience, and your child joins the Play Garden community each Monday morning.
8. Community Steward Enrollment
$325 for the 8-week session
Community Steward Enrollment includes adult participation. An adult chosen by your family joins your child for 4 of the 8 Mondays as part of our learning community.
This is meaningful participation in the life of Play Garden, an opportunity for a caregiver to share in the season alongside your child.
Why Outdoor Learning Matters & What Children Experience
What Makes Play Garden Unique? How Play Garden Differs from the Preschool program
What Makes Play Garden Unique? How Play Garden Differs from the Preschool program
Time outdoors gives young children something a classroom cannot fully replicate: direct contact with weather, growth, decay, and the rhythms of a living place. Tending a garden bed, caring for a chicken, or watching fruit ripen on a tree teaches patience, responsibility, and wonder in ways that stay with a child.
Play Garden is built on the belief that children are active meaning-makers. Given time, space, and a stable community, they build understanding through their own play, inquiry, and reflection, and through their relationships with the people and the land around them.
In the Tire Swing Yard, children move freely between:
- Gardening among the beds, hollyhocks, honeysuckle, and clover
- Animal care with our chickens
- Art in the outdoor studio shed
- Sensory and loose-parts play in the sandbox and garden
- Movement on the tire swing and throughout the yard
- Nature observation among the apple, plum, and fig trees
- Imaginative and investigative play, shaped by the season
Children are given long, uninterrupted stretches of time to explore. This unhurried pace lets curiosity lead and lets relationships, with peers, with adults, and with the natural world, take root.
What Makes Play Garden Unique? How Play Garden Differs from the Preschool program
What Makes Play Garden Unique? How Play Garden Differs from the Preschool program
What Makes Play Garden Unique? How Play Garden Differs from the Preschool program
Play Garden is unique from our Preschool program in several ways: it takes place entirely outdoors, it runs part-time on select mornings, it is seasonal rather than year-round, and it is built around a small, stable community centered entirely in one living outdoor environment.
Play Garden offers three full hours of sustained play, relationships, and continuity across the season. Nature every day,. care and stewardship. play, wonder, and discovery. community and connection.
Fulton's regular Preschool program is a broader, school-year experience with indoor and outdoor classrooms and a range of attendance options.
Who Can Be a Community Steward & What Community Stewards May Do
Who Can Be a Community Steward & What Community Stewards May Do
Who Can Be a Community Steward & What Community Stewards May Do
The participating adult does not need to be a parent. Play Garden includes all caregivers who play a meaningful role in a child's life:
- Parent
- Grandparent
- Nanny
- Au pair
- Other authorized caregiver
Your family chooses who joins.
Community Stewards take part in the daily life of the program alongside Fulton educators and children.
. A Community Steward might help with:
- Preparing snack
- Gardening
- Animal care
- Studio and art
- Documentation and projects
- Caring for materials and the outdoor environment
- Other community contributions, as the season calls for them
For the safety of all children, participating Community Steward adults are required to complete a background check and provide proof of a current TB test before participating.
FAQ
Who Can Be a Community Steward & What Community Stewards May Do
Who Can Be a Community Steward & What Community Stewards May Do
Is Play Garden the same as Fulton's Preschool program?
Play Garden is unique from our Preschool program: 100% outdoors, part-time, and seasonal, with its own rhythm and community.
What ages is Play Garden for?
Children ages 2 to 5, in a mixed-age community.
Is lunch provided?
No. A farm-fresh, seasonal snack is included each morning; Play Garden runs 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM.
What is the difference between Standard and Community Steward Enrollment?
Standard Enrollment is drop-off, with Fulton educators leading the full experience. Community Steward Enrollment includes an adult chosen by your family joining for 4 of the 8 Mondays as a participating member of the community.
Who can be our family's Community Steward?
Any adult meaningful to your child's life: a parent, grandparent, nanny, au pair, or other authorized caregiver.
Is there a background check for participating adults?
Yes. For the safety of all children, participating Community Steward adults are required to complete a background check and provide proof of a current TB test before participating.
Where does Play Garden take place?
In Fulton's Tire Swing Yard, our outdoor learning environment with garden beds, fruit trees, chickens, and an art studio shed.