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A wild courtyardOregon schoolchildren enjoy
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- By Valeria Davis-Humphrey
- Suburban reporter
Every season offers a lesson in nature, and at Netherwood Knoll, squirrels and birds are teaching elementary students about life in the wild.
The children are guardians of the bold, chubby squirrels that have become permanent residents in the open courtyard that was created when the school was expanded five years ago, Principal Teri Mills said.
"They're used to kids coming and going and they know they're going to get fed,'' Mills said, smiling at the corn-flecked snow mounds.
The courtyard, or arboretum, is enclosed on all four sides with a kid's eye view of nature from seven classrooms and windows along a central hall. It's one of four areas evolving into outdoor learning centers, including a butterfly garden, a wetland prairie and the initial stages of a tiny North Woods forest with the help of the UW Arboretum Earth Partnership and volunteers.
"The whole purpose of this is to redesign the playground to encourage interaction with nature,'' Mills said. "A lot of kids no longer get to run through the woods or sit by a pond.''
"I've learned a lot about plants and how they adapt and animals and their instincts" |
The miniature habitats keep children from thinking the manicured lawns and shrubbery around their houses represent nature, said Judi Kinney, one of the teachers who played a key role in the project's development and continued progress.
Students still go on field trips, but the daily exposure is an opportunity for them to see the hibernation, migration and survival skills of birds, rodents and smaller animals that a one-day trip can't offer.
So far, the schoolyard conversion cost has been low because of community donations and student fund raising, Mills said. The outdoor learning areas don't count as classroom footage, but the teachers make every inch work to students' advantage, Mills said.
The project blossomed after architects saved a patch of pine trees, creating a small central sanctuary. Kinney, along with teaching partners Sue Berg and Lynn Kepper, enrolled in habitat restoration classes while Netherwood's head custodian, Tom Fischer, moved rocks, placed benches, dug "Turtle Pond'' and helped bring in the pond's key resident, Snappy the painted turtle.
In the fall and winter, Snappy "vacations'' inside the building because the pond freezes over, explained fourth-grader Michelle Grantin. This survival technique is common for domestic turtles, added classmate Melissa Coulter.
"I enjoy working with the kids,'' said Fischer, who has a son in fourth grade at Netherwood. "It's exciting to me. I light it up for teacher conferences nice and pretty so the parents can see what we're doing.'' In the process, Fischer has learned all about the plants and animals that inhabit the learning areas in order to protect and enhance them.
Children need to see what Wisconsin looked like just 150 years ago to understand how it has changed, Kinney said.
Teacher Jeanette Eichstadt has begun teaching the children how to compost materials for an heirloom garden, where seeds that haven't been altered for better farm production and market appeal show the children what pioneer corn, fruits and vegetables really looked like, Kinney said.
"I've learned a lot about plants and how they adapt and animals and their instincts,'' fourth-grader Mario Antonetti, 10, said.
The students helped to design their outdoor learning areas for literal creature comfort and are diligent about feeding the animals who now depend on them, Kinney said.
"The enthusiasm of the children is so exciting. It tends to make the children more sensitive not only about the environment, but each other, too,'' she said.
A "Learning Circle'' of stone benches also allows the courtyard to be used by classes beyond science.
"I like it when we go out to use the benches to tell stories or read,'' said Matthew Forsberg, 10. For those passionate about the outdoors, an environmental club has hatched.
"It's a good way of showing kids all sorts of facts without making it grueling,'' Kinney said. "They are the generation that will make the decisions that make or break the future of our environment.''
Posted January 26, 1999
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