LAKEWOOD —Kids at Patterson Head Start will be the first in a city school to take learning into the outdoors.
Formerly a standard playground area on blacktop concrete, the space at 1480 S. Yarrow St. has been transformed to include a tiny nature trail winding through new landscaping, flower and vegetable gardens, a designated area for art, music and theater along with a water pump and kid-sized construction area.
“There is so much information about how being outdoors affects children’s behavior in a lot of ways, and healthy well-being has been connected to spending time with nature,” said Kathy Ireland, Lakewood’s Head Start coordinator. “There’s a calming effect for kids … the classroom has been designed to combine the outdoors with a quality preschool learning environment.”
The idea for an was hatched by Ireland about three years ago. The concept has gained traction at schools across the country,
She asked city landscape architect John Paliga if he’d like to design the first one for Lakewood.
“The concept was to have separate areas outside the central gathering area,” Paliga said. “There’s a formal entry where you come in and can do a circuit through the different classrooms with a grassy hill that ties everything together.”
In the theater area, small tree stumps serve as seats looking toward a pint-sized stage. A hand-operated water pump with a trough allows kids to learn about concepts like gravity and tending to the vegetable gardens. And at Patterson, playing in the mud is encouraged — students can use the water to build adobe bricks.
“A lot of these kids don’t know how to really be outside or how a tomato is grown,” said Patterson lead teacher Cherie Labelle. “This gives them a chance to experience nature.”
Lindsey Kortum, communications specialist for , the nonprofit Lakewood worked with on the project, said research shows a laundry list of benefits kids derive from spending regular time in nature. This includes stress reduction, improved social and physical development and a reduction of violence and bullying.
“They’re really becoming more and more popular as kids today are spending less time outside,” Kortum said of outdoor classrooms. “They’re not getting the types of rich sensory experience that research shows has lots of benefits to children who spend time in the natural world.”
During the warmer months, kids will spend about 2½ hours a day in the outdoor classroom. They can build their own tiny houses using logs and other materials, maintain gardens and take advantage of the space to apply what they’re learning in the classroom while working together, having fun and problem solving, Labelle said.
“It’s extremely therapeutic and gives them a chance to learn cooperation and work on solutions when they have disagreements,” she added.
Erica Gutierrez said her 4-year-old son, Eden, regularly comes home excited about what happened that day in the outdoor classroom.
“He’s always bringing new things home that he did in the garden and talks about what he’s seen, relates to things he sees elsewhere to what he did outdoors,” she said. “It’s amazing. I love it.”
