From All Outside to Functioning Outdoor Classrooms
Amy Warzybok
Amy has her M.A. in Early Childhood Education from Sonoma State University and her B.S. in Business from the University of Minnesota. Before Dodge, Amy taught preschool using a Reggio Emilia approach, managed family, preschool and camp programs in nature and environmental centers and was an Adjunct Child Development Professor.
In 2019, I joined the Dodge Nature Preschool team as the Preschool Director. Little did I know six months later I would be collaborating with an amazing teaching team to figure out how to move forward with preschool during a pandemic. After finishing our 2019-2020 school year with Zoom story times and car parades, we knew we wanted to get back to in-person preschool, but how? A team of eight brave teachers came together for three weeks in summer 2020 to figure out how to utilize our large outdoor nature playscape to meet the safety needs of preschool during the pandemic.
Our team had been discussing an outside model, which we adapted and adjusted as we learned more about the pandemic. We piloted strategies in a small summer camp program and landed on dividing our large outdoor space into three separate outdoor classrooms. We created tree swings, found loose part slides, built new sandboxes, added planter gardens, playhouses and much more. The teachers put a lot of love into designing these spaces so we could run an All Outside Preschool.
In 2023, we knew we wanted to continue this design into the future, but we had a hill that was sinking, creating some unsafe conditions. We partnered with Aune Fernandez Landscape Architects to create a design with input from preschool staff, preschoolers, preschool families, nature center staff, board members and other stakeholders in the community. After six months we had a design, and once funding was secure, we selected Parkos Construction and Natural Landscape Designs to help us with the build in summer 2024. We ran our summer camp amidst construction during which preschoolers shared their appreciation for the hard work of the construction team with artwork, cards, lemonade and tea with herbs harvested from our gardens and grounds. We wanted to allow these campers to experience the playground after the build so we hosted a summer playground celebration in September to bring them back to play. Preschoolers, siblings and grown-ups alike enjoyed a morning of playing together in the sandboxes, gardens and playhouses.
As we live in our new outdoor classrooms; I think of all the hardship and stress caused by the pandemic. The children taught us how wonderful outdoor classrooms could be as we experimented together, with different materials and designs. I wonder what Dodge Nature Preschool would be like today if we didn’t have the opportunity to learn with the children in 2020.
