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Five Forest Kindergartens to open in Busan in March

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Busan City will assign ten forest instructors to operate five forest kindergartens around the city, at Daeyeon Arboretum, Hwamyeong Arboretum, Mt. Baekyangsan Eco Center, Jaesong Forest Park, and Mt. Yunsan Ecological Forest, from this March.

 

A forest kindergarten is an outdoor education program in which children are encouraged to play, explore and learn in a forest or natural environment. The regular kindergarten chidren will be able to apply for the programs at the five forest kindergartens from February. Children who attend the forest kindergarten will take various forest experience programs one or two days in a week and the programs will take 20 children per class.  

 

Busan City and its different districts and county (gu/gun) plan to expand educational and other facilities at the forest kindergartens. 

 

The idea of a forest kindergarten originated in a small mountain village in Denmark in the mid 1950s and its popularity then expanded to Germany, Switzerland and other countries. Now, about 700 forest kindergartens are currently being operated in Germany.
 
A day care center affiliated with Pusan National University was the first in Korea to provide an ecologically based child education program, and has been doing so since 1995. Lately, the North Regional Forest Service in Daejeon and Jeollanam-do operate nature experience programs for less than 3 hours a day. This is the first time in Korea that forest kindergarten programs will be operated all day long, when Busan City launches the programs in March.

 

For more information, please contact the Green Forestry Division at 051) 888-6711.