The Rain Trees approach is a breath of fresh air

Articles

By Rohini Ramadas, Principal, Rain Trees International Kindergarten.

The Rain Trees approach is a breath of fresh air, with 35,000 sq ft of outdoor space

Before I joined Rain Trees in Holland Village, I’d worked at a number of early years settings, both in Singapore and abroad. Many of them had outdoor areas — a patch of grass, a playground, maybe a small garden. But when I first visited Rain Trees Kindergarten and Pre-School, I realised this was something quite different.

Our Green Learning Environment

Every day, our children spend a meaningful part of their time outdoors. Whether it’s heading straight to the mud kitchen in the morning, digging for mini-beasts, or setting up an imaginative game in the Wendy house, learning outside is woven into the rhythm of the school day — and not treated as a break from it.

The garden offers so much variety. We have:

  • Digging zones and tree stumps for discovering insects
  • A pirate ship, slide on a slope, balancing beams and ride-on toys
  • A shared Vege Pod where the children grow plants
  • Wendy houses and a mud kitchen for role play
  • Open space for obstacle courses, running games and ball games
  • Sand play and a large area for water play on Fridays

In many schools, outdoor time is limited or scheduled around the rest of the timetable. At Rain Trees, it’s the opposite — the garden shapes the flow of the day. We don’t try to replicate our classrooms outside but use the garden to enrich learning in ways that are hard to achieve indoors.

Here’s how:

  • Literacy: through games and learning the names of all the areas and equipment
  • Physical Development: climbing, balancing, running and playing games
  • Problem-solving, Reasoning and Numeracy: spatial awareness, water play and counting.
  • Communication and Language: imaginative role-play at our ‘mud kitchen’ and in our Wendy houses
  • Expressive Arts and Design: allowing children to express themselves through painting and other art activities.
  • Personal, Social and Emotional Development: being kind, sharing and learning how to work together

It’s literally a breath of fresh air! And the impact is clear: in this precious window of time you can see their curiosity grow towards everything they come across, with a love for the natural world.

Rain Trees International Kindergarten & Pre-School is based in Singapore and was established in 1999 and attracts internationally minded parents working and living in Singapore.