Cottonwood Hollow Nature PreschoolWe are in our second year as a nature preschool! We’ve gotten great feedback from families in our first year, and expanded to 5-days-a-week in the 2025-2026 school year.
We maintain a small class size of 6 children and have two adults present, Miss Sarah and her assistant teacher. We have access to an extensive garden, forested environment and a built out play area with a mud kitchen, play house, dirt pile and collection of loose parts. We believe the natural environment is the best tool for learning and understanding, and children are involved in caring for ducks and chickens and often encounter frogs, different kinds of birds and insects as part of our day.
Our curriculum is a takes inspiration from Waldorf, Montessori and Reggio philosophies with play and child-led learning, empowerment and emotional intelligence being of utmost importance.
Meet Miss Sarah
Sarah Zinn grew up in a few different countries, but considers the midwest home. She obtained her bachelor’s degree from Indiana University in journalism, but fell in love with working with kids in her college job at the boys and girl club. Since then, she has been a camp counselor, preschool teacher for Head Start, and Americorps Vista for Franklinton Farms, where she helped build out a healthy living curriculum for Gladden Preschool.
Sarah holds a certificate in Nature-Based Early Childhood Education from Antioch University, where she’s been working with mentors to build out this school’s vision for years. She cannot wait to offer a space for children to discover themselves and the natural world. She is CPR & first aid certified.
