Canning school takes learning into the great outdoors

Students at Glooscap Elementary School in Canning, N.S., are taking their lessons out of the classroom and into the great outdoors.

An empty yard has been transformed into an interactive outdoor spacecomplete with a shade structure, benches, gardensand tire mounds.

"The important thing to me was really having a place where kids could connect to nature," said Anne Marie Lewis, a teacher and parent at Glooscap, who was the driving force behind the project.

A similar project was launched two years ago at a school in Herring Covewith the goal of providing students with a better understanding of their surroundings.

The outdoor classroom in Canning opened in September with a ceremony that involved planting trees and wildflowers. Each class planted a tree and will care for it and learn about it for the rest of their time at the school.

Most of the trees and plants are native to Nova Scotia, Lewis said, so the students are creating a habitat right in the school's backyard.

Using the space

There's no schedule for the outdoor classroom. Teachers can use the space informally, bringing students out for lessons or just to read in the shade.

"One of my favourite parts is the shade structure, because sometimes at recess I can just bring a book or two out and read," said Alex Misner, a Grade 5 student in Lewis's class."Before this stuff was here it was basically just grass."

"It was really boring," said his classmate Jonah Pashley, whose father helped design and build the shade structure.

After the remnants of Hurricane Dorian swept through the province in September, Lewis brought her students out to learn about erosion.

"It's nice to make those connections to our curriculumright here in this natural surrounding," she said.

A water feature is the next part of the plan, Lewis said. It will be done by attaching gutters to the shade structure to catch rainwater, which will be fed tohand pumps the students can use to water the plants.

'Many hands make light work'

After getting the green light from the principal two years ago, Lewis reached out to other parents and community members to form a committee. Planning lasted through the winter months and digging began in August.

"It's just been a huge community project," Lewis said. "Many hands make light work."

Lewis said the project also got financial support from local Rotary Clubs.

For students in Lewis's class, seeing the project built from the ground up added to the excitement.

"I'm so glad they decided to make it[because] I got to watch it grow bigger and bigger and I was really happy when they finally got it done," said Sylvie Batstone.

In Herring Cove, William King Elementary has a gardenand a seating area made of natural materials for teachers to host lessons. Though it's not in the shade, it will be once the maple tree planted next to it matures.

"It'll be the thing that's going to outlive me," said Peter Reid, a professional landscape designer and parent who helped develop the project. "Someday I'd like to see the school still standing, and that maple tree 50 feet tall."

Students and teachers are welcome to use the outdoor classroom informally when it suits their needs, Reid said, whether it's for regular class, gym class, music class, or just to read in the sun.

The outdoor classroom has become popular among students and a big part of that success is because they were involved every step of the way, Reid said.

They take turns maintaining the space, and they also submitted ideas during the design process, and helped with building.

"We had some funny things like bubblegum machines, popcorn makers, roller-coaster was another one," Reid said. "So we couldn't get all the ideas in, but we got most of them."

Reid said he's heard from a handful of schools since, asking for advice on getting their own outdoor classrooms started. He thinks projects like these should happen more often, he said, because they get kids away from their screens and outside to better understand their surroundings.

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