Elements The Urban Nature Preschool

Every morning, children make their way through the bustling streets of New York’s Lower East Side to a preschool tucked away on Suffolk Street: Elements, The Nature Preschool. A hidden oasis, Elements’ Open Air Outdoor Classrooms welcome children 1 to 5 years old.

An advocate of authentic, true, and child-driven play, Elements prioritizes community within the pillars of equity, determination, risk-taking, autonomy, and inclusion. Elements believes in the power of wonder and how it sparks with joy through an intentional environment cultivated amongst loose parts and growing plants. In an environment that feels like an extension of home, a space of child ownership and comfort, Elements guides the problem-solving and conflict resolution of early social development. With this guidance, children create honest and caring relationships with themselves, each other, and the outside world. Founded in 2015 by Shilpa Sethi, Elements was built on the core principle of “calling children back to their innate relationship with nature.”