After over a decade of providing experiential outdoor education through mentoring programs, homeschool enrichment, and camp, we continue our mission to cultivate the next generation of naturalists and leaders through the Trackers Micro-School. Our unique 3-day-per-week program balances family flexibility with consistent outdoor experiences.
We are a school of community and nature. Students journey outside and into the forest every program day. They learn through collaboration with peers and alongside their mentors. Our interdisciplinary curriculum blends academics with hands-on learning, centered around observation in and participation with nature.
We dive into naturalist studies and life sciences, fostering research skills that last a lifetime. Journeying beyond nature play, we live with the seasons, forage for wild foods, and make forest tools and crafts. The students of the Trackers Micro School grow with the land, plants, and animals who share our world.
*Sibling discounts and Monthly payment plans are available.
Kindergarten
Kindergarten is where the adventure begins, and it continues throughout the early Elementary years. At this age, children are predominantly sensorial learners. From building a shelter to tracking an animal, everything they do builds their map of the world around them and how it works. This fluency of information gathering makes the forest setting a perfect environment with which to engage. The role of the teacher in this classroom is setting firm safety and community boundaries while helping children push their growth edges with new experiences and opportunities.
By the end of the kindergarten year, most students possess:
- The ability to identify the major flora of the Bay Area, including edible and medicinal plants
- Knowledge of animal tracks from the most common local mammals as well as their habits
- An intuitive understanding of how major local plant and animal systems interrelate and influence each other
- An understanding of quantity and symbols of the numbers 1 - 20 and simple arithmetic operations
- Beginning reading and writing of simple words and phrases
- The ability to plan and execute a simple multi-step project (i.e., locating and building a shelter, researching a simple topic and writing/drawing a summary, planning a meal for the class, etc).
- An understanding of sequencing and patterns
- The ability to work as a team within their classroom community
Elementary
Elementary grades build the foundations of learning. Students benefit from powerful hands-on activities and concrete experiences. They begin to develop a deeper understanding of the world around them. Our outdoor curriculum builds upon this enthusiasm by providing a diverse and profound educational environment.
Elementary grades develop:
- A deepening knowledge of local plants and their practical uses
- Ability to identify less common mammal tracks in our region
- Ability to identify common local birds by sight and sound
- The ability to work independently on a project for progressively longer periods of time
- Self-planning for longer-term or more complicated projects
- Increasing capacity in literacy and composition
- Comfort, resiliency, and competency out of doors in all conditions
Middle School
Students in middle school are ready to think about their connection to the wider world. They learn most effectively by using all their senses and immersing themselves in their work. They are most successful while developing and researching interdisciplinary study projects. Students learn to healthfully test their capacities and develop their own autonomy as a lifelong learner.
Middle School Curriculum
At Trackers, academic subjects are always taught using real experiences in the outdoors. We use state standards as a starting point and go beyond them with practical, hands-on curriculum. Reading and writing development continues through intensive natural history research and self-directed learning projects. History and prehistory can be a journey through sociology and evolutionary biology.
Our middle school students grow into articulate and thoughtful researchers able to delve into any topic they choose. Middle school level skills include:
- The ability to research, plot, and implement interdisciplinary study projects.
- Outdoor safety, wilderness medicine, navigation with mapping, guiding, and outdoor leadership
- Animal tracking, sensory awareness, and reasoning and logic.
- Botany, seasonal cycles, and geological science through biology, natural history, foraging, wildcrafting, and restorative gardening (permaculture).
- Ecology, systems thinking, and entrepreneurial strategy for sustainable livelihoods.
- Wilderness survival and forest craft skills such as fire by friction, shelter construction, bow making, and water—skills for full outdoor immersion.
- Folk skills such as green woodworking, carpentry, tool use, and blacksmithing.
- Intensive sensory awareness and movement arts for a lifetime of personal health and fitness.
- The thoughtful exploration of individual purpose, community responsibilities, and healthy livelihood (organizational and business skills).
Special Needs
Some special needs can be accommodated, please contact for more details.
A few classes offer the following text regarding special needs students:
"We believe all children should have an IEP! Every person learns in a different way, at their own pace. Individualized, project-based learning means being intensely familiar with all one’s students abilities and needs. We will trust our teachers to present curriculum in a way that provides the right level of challenge at the right time. When we observe that a student could benefit from additional support, we will work with the parents and call in outside resources as necessary to help provide the tools to succeed for that child."
Deals
Need-based scholarships and flexible payment plans are offered for those who need it. Please contact for more information.