Woodland Wonders Nature Preschool offers our students the best nature-based education possible with our highly-qualified teachers. Our teachers are passionate naturalists and dedicated educators, with strong backgrounds in natural resources and the outdoors and specializing in early-childhood education concepts and techniques.
Sarah Crim, Education Director and Teacher
Sarah has been dedicated to the environmental education of young children since 2009 when she co-founded Forest Friends, an award-winning preschool program offered at the Kreher Preserve & Nature Center. The program began after she searched for an experience for her own children that engaged them with the outdoor world. She has a B.S. and M.S. in Forestry from Auburn University and is currently working on her Ph.D. in Early Childhood Education at Auburn. She became inspired to begin a nature preschool after observing a nature preschool campus in her hometown of Nashville, TN. She has attended numerous conferences and workshops on nature-based education including working with Claire Warden at the Journeys into Nature Workshop. Sarah is first-aid certified and has had over fifteen years of experience working in the forest and over six years of professional experience working with children. She has served as the Education Director for the Kreher Preserve & Nature Center since October of 2017.
Sarah teaches Monday-Friday from 2:30-5:00pm.
Emily Howe, Lead Teacher
Emily Howe is an Auburn University Graduate of the Early Childhood Education program. In the program she learned of the many benefits and joys of a child-led approach that is used at the Kreher Preserve with the Woodland Wonders program. The capacity students have to lead the way in learning amazes her. This leads to incredibly meaningful early experiences in learning when returned with tangible resources such as nature. She has taught in traditional settings, in summer enrichment programs, and served in underprivileged schools as a student at Auburn in Preschool, Kindergarten, 2nd, and 3rd grade. She grew up in a nature loving family spending the majority of her childhood outdoors, exploring and enjoying all of beauty that comes from being outside. One of her favorite quotes from Martin Luther states beautifully, “God is entirely and personally present in the wilderness, in the garden, in the field.” She believes this to be true and the wonder students show when faced with this energizes her teaching. Her experience as a nanny and babysitter over the past 13 years inspired her to pursue a career that partners with families and is fully engaged in childhood. She believes early childhood is an entirely unique and precious time in development and is honored to be a part if that process with each of her students and their families.
Emily teachers Monday-Friday from 8:00am-3:00pm
Amanda Prince, Lead Teacher
Amanda Prince began preparing to be a nature educator as a preschooler herself. As a child, she attended preschool at High Meadows. Her earliest school memories are of pony rides, chicken coops, playhouses and trips in the forest with “Mother Nature.” While in middle school her dad joked that she had unlimited funds from being the most requested babysitter. As a high school student, she worked at a local daycare and realized she wanted a career working with children. In 2000 she arrived in Auburn earning a degree in Human Development and Family Studies where she spent as many hours as possible in the preschool lab, Auburn University Early Learning Center. God continued to lay out the path for her when she went on a fieldtrip with the lab school to AEEC (Auburn Early Education Center) and realized she would need a teaching degree to work at the kindergarten only school located in Auburn. So off to earn an Alternative Masters which would allow her to move from and assistant at AEEC to a classroom teacher. After marrying and have her 1st child 10 years ago she left the classroom before Auburn City Schools re-structed the elementary schools. Then a phone call with an offer to interview for the assistant director at Auburn United Methodist Church preschool occurred while she was pregnant with her second child. There she realized the joy of working with the youngest children and “graduated” with her daughter. Her passion is helping students learn hands on in authentic ways through play. When she came across the listing for a nature educator it seemed like the perfect fit. Amanda describes her family as project people. They are restoring a 1972 airstream, and camp whenever they can find free time. The rest of her time is spent cutting grass, taking care of their home, driving Fischer (10) and Sadie (8) to activities, dating her husband Larry, and teaching exercise classes.
Amanda teaches Monday-Friday from 8:00am-3:00pm
Elise Wilkins, Teacher
Elise teachers Monday-Friday from 8:00am-1:00pm.
Jessi Byrd, Teacher
Jessi Byrd grew up in the Black Hills of South Dakota where she came to love the outdoors, swimming in lakes, climbing rocks and snowboarding on the mountain. Snowboarding led her to the Rockies where she attended The University of Colorado at Denver and studied Behavioral science and Sociology. When not with the tadpoles/raccoons, Jessi is with her 2 intriguing children exploring family fun events in the area. Her philosophy is that each child is different, therefore, she believes in our little ones learning and thriving at their own pace. Jessi is so honored to be a part of the Woodland Wonders family and truly feels it’s such a wholesome environment for individuals to begin their fresh adventure in life with young and curious eyes at the Kreher Preserve!
Jessi teaches Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 8:00am-1:00pm
Genny Brown, Teacher
Genny grew up in a family of campers and began her love of the outdoors at a young age. Her childhood consisted of camping, both with her girl scout troop and with her family, exploring the wooded area around her house on “adventures” with her sisters and going on day trips to different state parks. In college she graduated with a BS in Accounting but ultimately became a stay at home mom after having her daughter in 2018. Thankfully her search of activities and things to do with her daugher, Erin (4), led her to the KPNC when she joined Nature Babies. She continued the Nurtured in Nature series and eventually became a teacher for Tree Tots and Forest Friends. Last year, she started subbing as a teacher for Woodland Wonders when they needed an extra hand and is excited to be a member of the team this year!
Genny has thoroughly enjoyed watching not only her own daughter but the other children grow from babies to preschoolers in the woods. She believes that play and imagination are the best ways to learn and loves to see the ways they use just the outdoors and maybe a bit of string or containers to fuel their adventures every day. When she’s not at the KPNC she enjoys playing with her daughter, learning new crafts, and spending time with her husband.
Genny teaches Tuesday and Thursday’s from 8:00am-1:00pm.
Holly Shaner, Teacher
Holly Shaner (she/her) grew up in northern Illinois and has her B.S. from University of Illinois. She attended culinary school in Vermont and cooked professionally, then worked at public Montessori schools in Florida and Arizona for 10 years. She also worked for the University of Arizona experimental farm, leading field trips and teaching agricultural lessons. In addition she worked for the Children’s Museum of Phoenix teaching cooking classes.
Holly enjoys swimming, hiking, baking , and visiting her three grown children. She loves working with preschoolers and the forest with friends is her happy place!
Holly teachers Monday-Friday, 1:00-5:00pm.
Aiden Calderon-Wyant
Aiden Calderon-Wyant is a student at Auburn University’s College of Forestry, Wildlife, and the Environment, majoring in Wildlife Ecology & Management. She grew up in Fairhope, AL, and plans to stay near the Gulf Coast for as long as she can. She’s worked as an outdoor educator and nature camp counselor for four years and has recently joined Kreher’s Woodland Wonder team as a teacher. At KPNC, she also teaches in programs such as Critter Caravans, field trips, and birthday parties. She loves being outdoors, observing wildlife, and cultivating curiosity and kindness through play and exploration. She is greatly interested in birds, digital art, cooking, practicing sustainable living, and lifting at the gym. She also loves watching animated television shows, spending time with her friends, and learning about the environment around her and teaching those around her about it. Once she graduates, Aiden plans on pursuing a career in outreach programming as a naturalist to continue educating people about the importance of nature and conservation while also providing people with enjoyable recreational experiences outdoors.
Aiden teaches as a sub for Woodland Wonders.
Melanie Brown, Teacher
Melanie Brown is a lifetime lover of learning, and nature. At an early age she could have been considered a “Martha Stewart” of mud pies and stick soup. She was guilty of taking eggs from the fridge to make the pies better. She now prefers to use eggs in cookies, but is an avid gardener so is really still playing in the yard all the time. As the mother of seven children she has been working with and raising children for the last 30 years. She has run a small in-home preschool/daycare business and served as Children’s Music Chorister in her church for many years. She has been teaching theater classes for Auburn Area Community Theater since 2008. In addition to teaching classes, she is AACT’s Children’s Education Coordinator and Children’s Director. In addition, she is the founder of AACT Academy Summer Camps. While theater education is not based in Biology, or Botany, she believes teaching children to learn through “play”, to cooperate, collaborate and to communicate with confidence are universal, essential skills to have. With her passion for teaching children, and love of nature she is looking forward to teaching at the Woodland Wonder Nature Preschool and using phrases such as, “I am liken some lichen”, and “Dirt is what gets on your clothes, but soil is where things grow.”
Melanie teaches our special programs!
