PIC has a stunning new mud kitchen for the children to play with on our Nature Playground. Upon seeing it, children instantly swarmed to it to discover all the fun it holds. A mud kitchen is an outdoor setup for children to pretend to prepare and cook food using any combination of mud, sand and...

June 29 was International Mud Day. Each year PIC celebrates International Mud Day by creating muddy, messy spaces on our playground, blacktop, and tot lot for children to explore. We know the benefits of messy play - it allows for open ended exploration of materials, it stimulates children's natural...

Yesterday was International Mud Day and this year we got muddy in our cohorts! We celebrated with splashing and squishing, digging and cooking, crawling and sliding, and lots more fun. Take a look! But, before you go: Mud Day is not all play, it is a healthy physical and social-emotional activity...

From the Sustainability Committee Composting is nature's method for turning waste -- like food scraps -- into nutritious plant food for our gardens This winter, the Sustainability Task Force has been working on supporting and expanding composting at PIC. Right now, we're excited to report that four...

August Message from Deb Green I’ve recently returned from a trip that took me north to New Hampshire and south to North Carolina. The outdoors and nature were at the center of my travels. I was invited to New Hampshire to participate in the closing plenary panel discussion of the Natural Start...

International Mud Day is celebrated by thousands of children in dozens of countries worldwide to highlight the importance of nature play. On Monday, we connected with the rich earth in this most squishy, tactile way. These pictures say it all...

Last month, PIC early learning families met "out of school time" for a Sunday guided hike in the Wissahickon led by PIC Nature Educator Rob Wiest and PIC mom Marina Borker.Rob wrote about their journey. We set off from the Chestnut Hill Springside Academy parking lot to a trail on Hartwell Lane. Our...