Kindergartners from Merriconeag Waldorf School take to the woods to play.

The cold doesn’t bother little kids, providing they’re dressed for it. Or not.

The howling winds on the morning of Friday, Feb. 13, had wind-chill temperatures right around zero, but 19 kindergartners and their teachers at Merriconeag Waldorf School in Freeport made their weekly “Forest Friday” walk anyway. Jess Moore and Kristina Farm-Morrill bundled their students up – some with snowshoes, some just with boots – and onto the path that begins at the school and leads into the nearby forest. Moore had to make doubly sure that Lennox Moore (no relation) was ready for the cold walk.

“It is cold outside. You’ll need to keep warm,” Moore said as she bundled up the boy.

His reply: “I don’t like warm. I like cold.”

They got the cold all right. Taught that work is part of their day, they toted shovels to help clear snow from the path and off the logs in the woods, where they sit and snack.

“At Thanksgiving, they had a feast out there,” said Deeda Burgess, public relations coordinator at Merriconeag.

Forest Friday had not taken place for about three weeks, since the storms of late January and early February. But a few parents used their snowshoes to tamp down the trail on Thursday, and the kids had no trouble walking it on Friday.

Merriconeag began Forest Friday as a way to get the kindergartners outside more often. Teachers were looking for a way to expose them to the elements beyond the playground. The kindergarten curriculum at the school is founded on the idea that children need exposure to all of the elements – warm, cold, structured, unstructured.

As he got ready for the walk, Oliver Finn Audley showed an appreciation for the outdoors.

“I just like to smell trees, and find out what kind they are,” he said.

The energy of the kindergarten is noticeably different in the forest, teachers say. The area is spacious, but not significantly more than on the playground. The range is designated by trees marked with pictures and orange flags.

The teachers frequently walk in the woods, gathering wood and moving snow, and clearing benches. They work until it is time to gather the children for circle, snack and a story. On warmer days, the students might build fairy houses and add sticks to the fort they are building. They rake leaves and shovel snow. Mostly, they wander and play together, climbing over branches in the undergrowth.

Jonah Nathanson, a kindergarten student at Merriconeag Waldorf School in Freeport, is all bundled up as he and his classmates make their Forest Friday trip into the woods on Feb. 13. Courtesy photo