How Anchorage’s Natural Beauty Inspires Learning at Northern Lights Preschool

Here in Anchorage, we’re lucky to live in one of the most beautiful places in the world. At Northern Lights Preschool & Child Care, we love using Alaska’s incredible outdoors to spark curiosity, creativity, and joy in our little learners every day.

For us, nature isn’t just something to admire — it’s part of how we learn, play, and grow together.

Wildlife All Around Us

It’s not unusual for our kids to spot a moose walking through a nearby yard or an eagle soaring overhead — and we use those magical moments to bring learning to life.

In our classrooms, you’ll often find:

• Animal crafts: Making bear masks, moose tracks, or colorful salmon out of paint and paper.
• Story time adventures: Reading books about Alaskan animals and pretending to stomp like bears or swim like otters.
• Nature talks: When someone spots a bird or a squirrel outside, it quickly turns into an impromptu lesson about who shares our neighborhood.

Watching children light up when they recognize an animal they’ve learned about is one of the best parts of our day.

Learning Through the Seasons

We celebrate every season in Anchorage — because each one brings something special for children to experience.

• Fall: We crunch through colorful leaves, talk about why trees lose their leaves, and collect treasures for art projects.
• Winter: We bundle up and explore the magic of snow, looking closely at snowflakes and learning about animals that hibernate.
• Spring: When the snow melts, we look for signs of new life — the first buds, chirping birds, and tiny sprouts.
• Summer: Longer sunny days mean even more time to explore and play outside, soaking in the midnight sun.

Instead of reading about the seasons in a book, we live them every day.

Nature in the Classroom

We find so many ways to bring the outside world into our classroom:

• Hands-on science: Sorting pinecones by size, building with sticks, or watching how ice melts during a science experiment.
• Art inspired by nature: Painting with mud, creating collages with dried leaves, or using found objects to build sculptures.
• Outdoor discovery: Sometimes our best lessons happen on the playground, chasing shadows, spotting clouds, or counting bird calls.

The more children explore with their senses — touching, seeing, hearing — the deeper their learning goes.

Caring for the Land We Love

From a very young age, we teach children that we have a special responsibility to care for the land we call home.

We practice simple habits like:

• Recycling and reusing materials in the classroom.
• Talking about protecting our forests, waters, and animals in ways young children can understand.
• Sharing stories and traditions from Alaska Native cultures that honor the deep connection between people and the land.

It’s important that our little ones grow up not just enjoying nature, but loving and respecting it too.

A Place to Grow, Wonder, and Explore

At Northern Lights Preschool, we believe nature gives children the perfect start — a chance to wonder, to discover, and to grow with confidence.

Every day here feels like a new adventure, whether we’re watching the first snowfall, spotting a raven outside our window, or planting seeds for a spring garden.

We are so proud to help your children fall in love with the world around them — and we can’t wait to keep learning and exploring together.