Tour the campus

Little Explorers offers tours of our facility and campus Monday through Friday 7:00 am to 6:00 pm. Please call 837-6100 to schedule a personal tour.

Here is just a taste of what our campus looks and feels like.

Little Explorers Nature Center Preschool is conveniently located at 5218 Reiner road in the town of Burke just one parcel east of the Madison city limits. Our location is about 3 miles from HWY 151 and HWY 94.

Welcome to the Little Explorers Campus!

A picturesque canopy of trees covers the driveway leading to the new, state of the art learning center. There is a pasture area to your right which has goats, sheep and alpaca grazing inside a secure fenced in area.

Travel around the circle drive and up to our main entrance which has a sheltered drop off and parking area to keep you warm and dry during cold or rainy weather. (click on site plan for larger view)

Little Explorers new 11,000 square foot facility with sheltered drop off area.

Walking into the lobby you really get a sense for how different Little Explorers is. The spacious lobby feels like you are outdoors again with 20 foot ceilings, 12 foot palm trees and generous natural lighting throughout. Centered in the lobby is a 12 by 6 foot custom terrarium with colorful fish swimming around the perimeter, amphibians like frogs and turtles among the plants growing on the land in between and a gentle waterfall trickling down a sculpture of rocks. The main offices are to your right and left and look like grass huts. Wow, how fun! (click on building layout for larger view)

Our state of the art facility was designed to give our children the most comfortable exciting atmosphere possible to learn in. In floor heating is installed throughout the entire facility to keep our little walkers and crawlers comfortable. Real engineered wood floors are installed in the classrooms and the gymnasium. The many different exotic species of wood and gorgeous hand painted murals keep the feel of each room exciting and stimulating. Specially designed Amish furniture, "squatty potties" and custom built sink cabinets are sized just right for each of the classrooms age groups.

The Sahara classroom (nursery) and the Wetlands classroom (toddlers) are nestled in close to the main offices and decorated in with soft and warm colors throughout. All parts of the room face inward so that it is easy for our teachers to monitor the whole room from where ever they are. Soft area rugs provide a warm safe footing for our little crawlers and walkers. Age appropriate development areas are setup throughout the room for working on things like hand-eye coordination, language, problem solving skills and large motor skills. The cribs in the Sahara contain warm and cuddly cribs with canopies over them to dampen unwanted noise and light. Soothing music is playing quietly in the background.

The next room to visit is the Serengeti classroom which is our 2 to 3 year old classroom. This room is creatively decorated to look like the African Serengeti at sunset with landscape and animal murals painted on the walls. A miniature mountain and cave in the center of the room serve as a reading and group function gathering area. Two custom habitats are homes to two of the smaller animals that you find in the Serengeti; the collared lizard and the hedge hog. Many age appropriate development areas are located throughout the room for individual or group activities.

Just behind the Serengeti room is the Great Plains classroom for our 3 to 4 year old explorers. This classroom is filled with warm shades of browns and gold’s and has a beautiful mural of the Great Plains landscape on the south wall. A large tee pee is the central reading and group gathering area for the classroom. The two animal habitats in this room are the Richardson Ground Squirrel (mini Prairie Dogs) and the Bearded Dragon. The big widows in our exterior doors allow children to watch outside pasture animals, like our sheep or our horses, walk right by...less than 10 feet away! Learning centers throughout the room offer a wide range of educational and fun activities that are age appropriate.

Our last and largest classroom of the learning center is the Rainforest classroom. This classroom is decorated with rich green colors and has colorful murals throughout. Our 4 to 5 year olds have many areas to explore here including a central tree house which serves as the central group gathering and reading area. Our observable animal habitats in this classroom are the Sugar Glider habitat and the Dart Frog habitat (non-poisonous dart frogs). The classroom is also loaded with age appropriate learning areas for children to enjoy and challenge themselves with.

In the center of our learning center is our 1700 square foot main gymnasium and theater. The gymnasium is generously furnished with basketball hoops, hockey nets, and gymnastic mats for introducing the children to sports and fun large motor activities. Children love to be active and with our well equipped gymnasium we can get our exercise rain or shine! Our Little Explorers Theater is built into the east end of the gymnasium and provides us with a stage for introductions to the performing arts (dance, drama and music). We want to offer our children the opportunity to stay fit and healthy and learn about a broad range of subjects. Our integral gymnasium and theater gives us the facility to do just that.

If you thought the learning center was nice, wait until you see our backyard! Our campus is 7 1/2 acres of beautiful, lightly wooded landscape. Our large fenced in playground is attached to the back of the building and has equipment for climbing, swinging, riding and running. Just behind the fenced in playground is our animal activity barn which has stalls set up so that the children can safely watch, feed and interact with our wonderful outside animals. Only a hop and a skip away is our child tended organic vegetable garden. Children get to help plant, water and harvest these vegetables. We will also have fun making things out of our vegetables like strawberry or raspberry jam.

Finally extending further to the east is ¼ mile of nature trails with wild flower beds, prairie grass and lots of mature trees. Teacher guided nature hikes will provide lots of fun opportunities to learn about the many miracles of nature. A small hut will be located at the far end of the trail with windows for watching and learning to identify wild birds. So much to do and see!

We invite you to come see Little Explorers Nature Center Preschool for yourself. We would love to show you and your special child around!