Outdoor learning gains traction in Union County

While the average student experience means sitting at a desk a majority of the day, more schools are trying to bring variety to a student’s daily life. For a handful of schools in Union County, outdoor classrooms are the solution.

An outdoor classroom is described as an outdoor space that combines academic lessons with hands-on learning experiences for all ages. Creston’s Trinity Lutheran Preschool and the East Union Early Childhood Center both utilize outdoor learning spaces, something they they see as a great tool for their students and teachers.

Trinity Lutheran Preschool Director Joy Brown said major work on their outdoor classroom began after the tornado in 2015 and has grown in size and popularity ever since. Meanwhile, East Union’s space is a slightly newer acquisition, running for about eight years.

St. Malachy Catholic School is now working to join the Union County schools boasting this offering. Religion and social studies teacher Brea Ramsey has been spearheading the campaign for this addition to the school, a project that was first planted in her mind a couple years ago.

“My daughter Briar was born 10 weeks early and we spent three months in the hospital. The doctors were preparing me that she could be developmentally behind, either physically, academically, and so I tried to work with her as much as I could just to bridge that gap,” Ramsey said. “Then when I was doing research on how to help her to bridge that gap, it really started to click that this could be beneficial for all kids. And of course, [St. Malachy kids] are my kids too, so I started to do research on what could I do for these kids? That’s how I came across outdoor classrooms.”

Planning

Now with a 2.5-year-old daughter, Ramsey’s outdoor classroom idea is growing too. She brought the idea up to St. Malachy Principal Jennifer Simmons last year and was given the go-ahead. That’s when she started planning with the older students.

“When she first talked about it, I was like, wow, because we’ve never really had an outside classroom. I was like, ‘That’d be so cool to do,’” eighth grader Taelyn Pokorny said. “Plus she said that it helps with people with ADHD and anxiety. I know some people in the school have that, and I think it would be really an exciting experience for us to do.”

Students were able to give input and help with fundraising, hoping to create a special space for their younger peers. But what will be involved in this outdoor learning area?

“We’re going to have learning stations. We’ll have water tables, sand tables for STEM activities and we’ll have a water feature for science classes, so kids can actually get in and use their hands,” Ramsey said. “We’ll have garden beds, outdoor furniture, bird-houses, gardening tools, microscopes, magnifying glasses, etc. It could just be a nice outdoor space, or it could be a nice structured space for learning.”

While these outdoor classrooms are often pictured for use by the younger students, Ramsey said this space will be useful for all ages.

“Right now we’re learning about the Oregon Trail,” Ramsey said. “How fun that they could build, have a STEM activity of building a wagon and then we could go out to the water table and see if it floats and put weight on it to see if it can float across and simulate the Oregon trail a little bit.”

Hands-on learning isn’t the only way students will benefit from the outdoor classroom.

“All of the sunshine is just fantastic for your mental health, vitamin D levels. There’s a huge surge of anxiety in children and teenagers since the pandemic, so outdoor certainly will help with their mental health as well as their physical health,” St. Malachy parent Stephanie Anderson said. “I’m assuming that there will be a lot of like different stone pathways, different types of seating, raised garden beds so that they can have ownership and growing plants. Areas for reflection. I know they will have a St. Mother Mary garden.”

Fundraising

Community members have shown their support for the project in more than one way. While it’s important the families want the classroom, it also must be funded.

“With Iowa weather, we need something sustainable. That’s why the achieve-for-the-stars goal was pretty high with $20,000,” Ramsey said. “The outdoor furniture is expensive, but it has a 10-year or a lifetime warranty on it to withstand some of those Iowa winters and things like that. It’s a little expensive, but it’ll be worth it if it can withstand a lot of snow, rain, wind.”

In order to raise the $20,000 needed, the St. Malachy family put together a number of ventures. The simplest was asking supporters to donate, and while helpful, that only goes so far.

This year’s annual auction and gala also raised money toward the classroom. The event featured more than 70 auction items, including projects made by each of the classes.

However, the fundraising opportunities that most excited the students were smaller, in-school projects run by the older grades.

“I put on a sweatpants fundraiser. Every other Friday here, you can pay a dollar to wear sweatpants to school,” eighth grader Sam Anderson explained. Normally, sweatpants are banned through the school’s dress code. “So instead, for the month of December, since we’re only in class like 19 days, you could wear sweatpants every day, but you had to pay $20.”

The sweatpants fundraiser brought about $2,500 to the outdoor classroom fund and had participation from students and staff alike. For staff, rather than sweatpants, they were allowed to wear jeans when they paid.

Another in-school fundraiser students enjoyed were candygrams, which included participation from students’ families as well.

“Candygrams were where they would pay like $3 for just like two suckers and then people, parents could write on these little tiny notes that we got,” eighth grader Vada Wieland said. “And then us eighth graders, we would put them on the suckers and then we’d give them to their classrooms, put their little notes for the kids.”

Staff and students have also worked to find grants and larger community donations, including $500 from Creston Kiwanis and $1,000 from Union County’s YACC.

Construction and landscaping on the new classroom will begin this summer, with students utilizing the new space this fall. Despite not being able to use it themselves, many of the eighth graders are happy have helped make a difference for the younger kids.

“[I want] to give them a better learning experience so they can be more hands-on and they can have more opportunities to learn things about outdoors,” eighth grader Kinsley Knutstrom said.

Not only will students get to enjoy outdoor learning, Ramsey said the space will also assist in religious education.

“This is just a sustainable project that’s going to have a lasting impact on tons of students,” Ramsey said. We’re going to obviously bring religion into it as they will be painting the stations of the cross and we’ll have saint statues. So it’ll be a dedicated space for prayer and devotion and then of course learning. Overall it’s just going to be a well balanced area for us."

While there are enough funds for landscaping, the school is still looking for donations to fill the space with various learning tools. Those interested in donating are encouraged to send checks to St. Malachy with “outdoor classroom” written in the memo and delivered to business manager Kim Cohen.