Green Schools / Green Schools Bali / Early Years

Early Years

Learning Through Play

Our Early Years program provides a three year curriculum catered to early childhood learners, with the third year being Kindergarten.

The Early Years campus is a cozy village in the heart of our jungle school — a nurturing space intentionally designed as a separate area for our youngest learners, our Children of the Earth. Circular bamboo classrooms, colorful play structures built from sustainable materials, and imaginative elements like sand pits, mud kitchens, and a bamboo pirate ship all contribute to a learning environment that supports wonder and exploration.

We believe in learning through play in nature. Our program sparks children’s natural curiosity and instills a lifelong joy of learning through singing, dancing, storytelling, cultural celebrations, yoga, mindfulness, green studies, and campus adventures. We foster holistic development — physical, social-emotional, language, cognitive, creative, and cultural — through thematic learning journeys, proficiency development (language and numbers), and experiential explorations (arts and projects).

We use the Green Literacies Framework in our Early Years program as our foundation for learning. This framework focuses on the four essential literacies in early childhood development: Belonging, Growing, Discovering, and Communicating. These guide how we design learning experiences that support each child’s development, helping them feel connected, curious, expressive, and rooted in a sense of self and community.

“The innumerable benefits of working in nature have always guided my approach to education. At Green School, we believe that nature is our best teacher — inspiring curiosity, wonder, and care. I look forward to exploring our campus alongside the inquisitive young minds of our youngest learners as they begin their journey of lifelong learning and discover their role in creating a regenerative future.”
Pana Asavavatana – Head of Lower School

The Green Literacies in Early Years

Our Learning in Action

Jalan-Jalan

Early Years children participate in our Jalan Jalan (meaning “walkabout”) program to develop an appreciation and awareness of the beauty of Bali outside of our school. The program is intentionally designed to be wall-less in that students and educators take advantage of our living campus and to strengthen local connections. Students explore the wonders of their surroundings through field trips and outdoor adventures related to the Thematics (integrated units). The courses give students valuable life experience by connecting them to local and global communities, and engaging them with people, projects and important environmental and human causes – local, national and global. In Early Years, students go on Jalan Jalan at least once per term. They leave campus to explore the island of Bali on field trips to places such as Bali Bird Park, Bedugul, Setia Darma House of Masks and Puppets or Yellow Coco Creative Nest.

Social Emotional Wellbeing

We believe that Social and Emotional skills, such as Mindfulness, play an integral role in self development. Mindfulness offers strategies for helping our young learners focus their attention, improve self-regulation skills, build resilience and develop a positive mind-set whilst at school and in life. Mindfulness is weaved throughout the day as a practice in the classrooms and school wide is a feature of each day. The entire school pauses each day at 2 PM as the gong sounds and invites each member of the community to bring awareness to their breath.

Yoga

Each student in Early Years participates in a yoga session every week in our peaceful yoga studio, built out of recycled shipwood. This space comes with a stunning view of the Ayung River and is perched above the bamboo jungle with a wild soundtrack of insects and rushing water. The students focus on mindfully moving their bodies along with an awareness of the breath. Yoga is dynamically introduced through songs, games, stories and asanas (traditional yoga postures). The children work collaboratively to experiment with partner yoga poses. In addition to the weekly guided sessions, yoga is spontaneously done in the classrooms and on the playground.

Teman-Teman

‘Teman-Teman’ in Bahasa Indonesia means ‘friends’ and ‘friendship’. This program is designed to foster relationships between grades and learning neighbourhoods. Students in Starlings (Ages 4-5), for example, meet and play games with their mentors from Primary School and Middle school. These relationships are important to our Early Years students as they learn to play and collaborate following our IRESPECT values.

Environmental Connection

We nurture in our youngest learners a love for nature and respect for the planet. We do so by immersing them in our natural surroundings, where they discover, learn, play, and explore. Areas like the campus Mud Pits, where the children play in the mud and experience the enjoys of getting dirty, the on campus Rice Fields where they play, plant, care for and harvest rice, the Animal Enclosures, where they play active roles in caring for and learning from our campus animals, and even help build the enclosures, or our on campus Gardens where they harvest vegetables and fruits and then cook using these organic ingredients are all areas that define the Early Years experience, and nurture our students into becoming true Children of the Earth.

Mystery Guests

In Early Years, one exciting feature of the experiential frame is the ‘Mystery Guest’ who visits weekly. These members of the Green School community provide a link to real-world experiences through their stories or activities. For example, some parents have conducted science experiments with students as other faculty members have come in to share stories about their work, projects, and passions. Other families have shared cultural traditions, including holidays, dance, language, stories, and cooking, with the Early Years community.