Explore Our Play Grove
A garden enrichment program for 3 to 5 year olds
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Play Grove is a garden enrichment program designed for 3-5 year olds located here in San Luis Obispo at our central garden on Laureate Lane. As an extension of One Cool Earth’s seasoned learning model, we know that children grow best when learning outside through play. We are a nature-based and place-based enrichment program. This means we use the environment as our guide as we play, grow, create art, garden, and learn together. Play Grove allows young children to access this experience alongside enthusiastic playworkers in a nature-based environment.
Here are the details:
Interested in getting started with the Play Grove? Click the button down below! 
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Children will experience:
- Intentional, emergent curriculum that is guided by children's curiosity and exploration
- Nature-based connection in a beautiful garden setting at the base of Cerro San Luis
- High-quality, play-based curriculum with guidance from seasoned playworkers
- A low student to playworker ratio of 1:5
- Fun and joy - by infusing joy into all of our practices, children see the Play Grove as a fun and exciting place to be!
- Free play, prescribed games, intentional curriculum, art, and projects that are infused with laughter, curiosity and excitement.
- An introduction to gardening, harvesting, preserving, seed saving, preparing fruits and veggies, drying flowers and more!
Through nature-play they will develop:
- A deeper sense of curiosity as they ask questions to connect to plants and animals
- Confidence in their own sense of self
- Establishing a connection to a place overtime and connecting to the land which leads to a sense of belonging and trust in life needed to thrive
- The start of their learning process of recognizing letters, numbers, colors, and shapes (shapes found in the natural world, counting olives, etc)
- Language skills (in rhythms, rhymes, singing songs and storytelling) that prepare children for the next step in their learning journey
- Outdoor readiness skills (such as understanding hazards and looking out for each other) to prepare them for outdoor adventures
Our Curriculum Approach:
At the Play Grove, our days are centered around the children, using an emergent curriculum approach. Emergent curriculum is a process where our playworkers plan activities based on the specific needs of the children they are working with, taking into account their skills, needs, and interests. Children get the opportunity to engage in artistic play, imaginative play, risky play (with careful guidance of playworkers), musical play (with handmade instruments), collaborative play, and individual play. We encourage children to seek out new things and new experiences, such as getting their hands dirty, engaging in risky play, or tasting a new fruit or veggie. Our mornings might consist of making mud pies, saving seeds, watching birds, or creating art out of fallen leaves. Our wonderful garden space is part of our nature-based and place-based curriculum, allowing children to strengthen their connections with the environment.
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Pricing |
Daily Flow |
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For Pricing information, please go to our Pricing Page
We do offer scholarships - applications are reviewed on a rolling basis! |
For more information about the daily Play Grove Schedule, go to our Daily Flow Page
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Meet our Playworkers!
Marly Miller
Lead Playworker
Marly hails from San Francisco, California where she saw the value of outdoor education in her schools and spent hours in Golden Gate park building forts. She attended Cal Poly SLO where she was the Chapter Director of Sprout Up, an environmental education program, and graduated with a degree in Liberal Studies and a minor in Child Development. During her time at Cal Poly she taught preschoolers at Camp EDMO, an art summer camp, for four summers. She went on to teach third grade for two years where she enjoyed raising butterflies with her class. Through teaching she earned her multiple subject teaching credential and focused on children’s social emotional learning. As a garden educator with One Cool Earth she has been developing gardening and outdoor education skills. This passion for learning with children outside has led her to the role of Lead Playworker with Playgrove. She is ecstatic to begin playing with children outdoors and finds children’s curiosity and creativity infectious. To Marly there is nothing better than trying fruits and veggies and making art outside with kiddos! She loves growing wildflowers, roller skating, reading, thrift shopping, playing with her cat, and is currently learning how to sew!
Lead Playworker
Marly hails from San Francisco, California where she saw the value of outdoor education in her schools and spent hours in Golden Gate park building forts. She attended Cal Poly SLO where she was the Chapter Director of Sprout Up, an environmental education program, and graduated with a degree in Liberal Studies and a minor in Child Development. During her time at Cal Poly she taught preschoolers at Camp EDMO, an art summer camp, for four summers. She went on to teach third grade for two years where she enjoyed raising butterflies with her class. Through teaching she earned her multiple subject teaching credential and focused on children’s social emotional learning. As a garden educator with One Cool Earth she has been developing gardening and outdoor education skills. This passion for learning with children outside has led her to the role of Lead Playworker with Playgrove. She is ecstatic to begin playing with children outdoors and finds children’s curiosity and creativity infectious. To Marly there is nothing better than trying fruits and veggies and making art outside with kiddos! She loves growing wildflowers, roller skating, reading, thrift shopping, playing with her cat, and is currently learning how to sew!
Leila Daniel
Director of Education, Co-Playworker
Leila Daniel comes from a multicultural background and speaks four languages. She was born in Cairo, Egypt and lived there for six years. She has family in Germany, Egypt, Guatemala, Colombia, and the US. Her love of travel and learning about new cultures brought her to the education world. After getting her Master's degree, she became a bilingual elementary teacher and taught for six years at two bilingual schools. She loves working with children and their families and believes that outdoor play and garden education go hand in hand. As one of the co-founders of the Play Grove program, she is passionate about fostering environmental stewardship and creating community. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, traveling, and gardening.
Director of Education, Co-Playworker
Leila Daniel comes from a multicultural background and speaks four languages. She was born in Cairo, Egypt and lived there for six years. She has family in Germany, Egypt, Guatemala, Colombia, and the US. Her love of travel and learning about new cultures brought her to the education world. After getting her Master's degree, she became a bilingual elementary teacher and taught for six years at two bilingual schools. She loves working with children and their families and believes that outdoor play and garden education go hand in hand. As one of the co-founders of the Play Grove program, she is passionate about fostering environmental stewardship and creating community. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, traveling, and gardening.
Testimonials
"The Play Grove has been beneficial for my son, just being able to connect to nature, get outside, go on morning walks, identify wildlife, play in the creek and in the mud. I also really love the gardening aspect- planting a seed and being able to harvest what's been grown, learning how to cut and make it into a snack and actually enjoy and eat it!"
-Jessica (parent)
"My son is absolutely thriving at The Play Grove! He comes home each day with a calm confidence and so many stories about his time spent playing with friends in a safe, nurturing outdoor environment. Every morning, he's greeted with hugs from his new best friends, and it's clear that he feels truly at home here.
He’s learning so much, from identifying local birds and plants to recognizing animal tracks and scat. He’s even trying new foods like beets and summer squash! The Play Grove is giving him essential skills for kindergarten—he’s learning days of the week through their morning calendar, weather discussions, and songs, counting by tallying seeds and pumpkins, developing fine motor skills with nature crafts, and building gross motor skills by climbing trees and making seesaws out of logs.
But this program is exposing him to so much more than just kindergarten readiness, he is learning about the world around him and his place in it. During their "morning adventure," the children explore the property and lead their own discoveries. They build forts, hide among the Coyote Brush, and find animal bones and feathers, all while learning to work together and solve problems with their peers.
Leila and Marly are truly exceptional educators. Both are traditionally trained classroom teachers who have fully embraced outdoor, play-based early childhood education. They are warm, nurturing, and adventurous, and I can’t imagine two better guides for my son during this impressionable stage of his life. Thank you Play Grove for helping me raise a confident, kind, and adventurous little boy!"
- Katharine (Parent and Executive Director)
"Play Grove is such a positive space and I’m glad we can be a part of it. It’s truly been a challenge to find what was right for our family, I am so excited!"
- Leah (Parent)
My son absolutely loves attending Play Grove! He has made such wonderful friends and loves his teachers. It has been the perfect balance of outdoor adventuring with structure, art, play, learning and gardening. So glad we found it and can’t wait to send my younger son when he turns three.
-Hana (Parent)
-Jessica (parent)
"My son is absolutely thriving at The Play Grove! He comes home each day with a calm confidence and so many stories about his time spent playing with friends in a safe, nurturing outdoor environment. Every morning, he's greeted with hugs from his new best friends, and it's clear that he feels truly at home here.
He’s learning so much, from identifying local birds and plants to recognizing animal tracks and scat. He’s even trying new foods like beets and summer squash! The Play Grove is giving him essential skills for kindergarten—he’s learning days of the week through their morning calendar, weather discussions, and songs, counting by tallying seeds and pumpkins, developing fine motor skills with nature crafts, and building gross motor skills by climbing trees and making seesaws out of logs.
But this program is exposing him to so much more than just kindergarten readiness, he is learning about the world around him and his place in it. During their "morning adventure," the children explore the property and lead their own discoveries. They build forts, hide among the Coyote Brush, and find animal bones and feathers, all while learning to work together and solve problems with their peers.
Leila and Marly are truly exceptional educators. Both are traditionally trained classroom teachers who have fully embraced outdoor, play-based early childhood education. They are warm, nurturing, and adventurous, and I can’t imagine two better guides for my son during this impressionable stage of his life. Thank you Play Grove for helping me raise a confident, kind, and adventurous little boy!"
- Katharine (Parent and Executive Director)
"Play Grove is such a positive space and I’m glad we can be a part of it. It’s truly been a challenge to find what was right for our family, I am so excited!"
- Leah (Parent)
My son absolutely loves attending Play Grove! He has made such wonderful friends and loves his teachers. It has been the perfect balance of outdoor adventuring with structure, art, play, learning and gardening. So glad we found it and can’t wait to send my younger son when he turns three.
-Hana (Parent)