Schoolroom expands into the outdoors

Woodland boasts something that few schools can -- acreage. Behind the long school building is a sprawling acreage available for educational use. Teachers have used the space in several creative ways.

Tammy Fulenwider's kindergarten class followed up a science unit about seasons with a trip outdoors. Kindergartners took to the woods behind the school for a leaf hunt.

"We are thankful to have a school with great outdoor space," Fulenwider said. "The kids had a blast!"

A stream separates the woods from the playground area. High school science teacher Kaitlin Prasanphanich has plans to assign a patch of water and bank area to each biology student for investigation. This ecology lab will be hands-on and real life.

If teachers take students over the creek and down a gravel path, they will come to the campus barn, which has been used for various agricultural endeavors. Further down the path and up a hill into the trees is Woodland's own outdoor classroom. Benches provide seating for an outdoor lecture. Not too far away and just off the path flows a small waterfall when conditions are right. Health classes have made the trek there when talking about the power of nature for managing stress and achieving optimum mental health.

High school students mill a tree they harvested from the school property.Courtesy of Tobi Layton

Middle school is also emphasizing the benefits of exercise and getting outdoors. One of the tenets of the Leader in Me initiative the school has adopted is the idea of "sharpening the saw," or taking steps to improve mental and physical health. That principle has inspired several walking activities and even a Walking Club that treks outside twice a month.

With the change to block scheduling, several high school teachers also take their students outside for short brain breaks in the middle of the 90-minute blocks. They, too, have experienced the phenomenon of sharper minds after breathing fresh air and feeling sunshine.

High school drama and language arts classes take to the outdoors for a different purpose. Students in language classes use nature as inspiration while writing poetry. And they also go outside to spice up grammar lessons. They walk around and use their senses to come up with adjectives. ELA teacher Sharon Balzer had her class stand on the campus footbridge when she talked about analogies.

"We discussed 'bridge sentences' on the bridge. The kids thought it was corny, but they remember it," Balzer said.

Balzer also took the Drama Club to a different kind of stage to rehearse. She said the outdoor classroom "forces the students to project their voices."

ELA teacher Sharon Balzer discusses 'bridge sentences' while students in her class stand on the campus footbridge.Courtesy of Tobi Layton

Perhaps no one uses the outdoors more than agriculture teacher Joe Ridings. His students regularly learn outside. They practice identifying trees and use that knowledge to conduct succession and hard mast studies. The data from these studies help them determine what trees need to be cleaned out to best benefit the ecosystem of the area. They also learn valuable land management skills like bush hogging and clearing fence rows.

When students discovered that a sassafras tree had blown over after a storm, industrial arts teacher Jamie Boyer took advantage of a teachable moment. He loaded up the fallen tree and his shop students and took them on a field trip to his property, where they learned to use a portable band saw. The students milled the tree into usable pieces. Back at school, they will use their homegrown lumber to make a product many could put to good use.

"Sassafras is a light wood, but it's flexible and strong -- perfect for kayak paddles," Boyer said.

Woodland students benefit from much more than just a traditional school playground. They have vast areas of nature for refreshing their mind and learning about how the world works.

TOBI LAYTON is a family and consumer sciences teacher and FCCLA sponsor at Woodland High School.