It took filling out pages and pages to apply for the highest of four levels of state recognition through the Green and Healthy Schools Wisconsin program.
But third-grade teacher Emily Anderson is proud of the efforts to turn outdoor spaces into classroom areas at Oregon’s Netherwood Knoll Elementary School. The elements on the sprawling grounds include 16 raised garden beds, a hoop house, amphitheater, prairie, Monarch Waystation, rain gardens, marsh with cattails, fruit trees and a “mother oak” with a bench built around its massive trunk.
Netherwood Knoll Elementary School third-grade teacher Emily Anderson reads poetry to her class at the school’s arboretum.
But the hidden gem is the arboretum surrounded by the school building and easy access for classrooms to a natural world. The arboretum is being transformed section by section and contains areas such as a tree fort, garden, pond, compost area, standing wooden xylophone, sandbox, sensory area, sundial and nature art area. A patch of rogue milkweed has expanded as more teachers are raising monarchs in their classroom — an activity that aligns with new science standards.
Last Monday, Anderson’s students spent some time during one of their last days of school working in the arboretum on math workbooks and then having free-choice time.
“I know she (Anderson) likes being outdoors. Everyone in the class likes being outdoors,” third-grader Connor Reed said.
Third-grader Kalin Peterson works on math in a treehouse area in the Netherwood Knoll Elementary School arboretum.
Green and Healthy Schools Wisconsin is a partnership of the state departments of Public Instruction and Natural Resources, along with the Wisconsin Center for Environmental Education. Schools in the program receive support to reduce environmental impacts and costs, improve health and wellness, and prepare students to address sustainability issues. The program recognizes achievement in nine focus areas that include community involvement and extend beyond environmental and sustainability education and recycling to areas such as transportation, which could mean encouraging more students to bike to school.
Netherwood Knoll is the third school in the Oregon district to achieve Sugar Maple status. The next step is earning the U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools award, and Anderson said her school is on track to do that.
The outdoor education areas have been created and maintained through grants and volunteer time, except for the amphitheater, which was part of a parking lot referendum project. Teachers and volunteers plan garden activities for the whole school for Gardenpalooza Week in May.
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