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Tykes at Raintree School, a forest school situated on 11 wooded acres in Town & Country, examine a giant puffball mushroom. Is it an egg left by an alien? They proceed to dissect it. “And it starts a weeklong inquiry,” says head of school Ilya Eydelman.
The school’s students spend 30–50 percent of their time outdoors, whether playing in the campus’ natural playscape and wooded areas, gardening, or cooking lunch. The philosophy is driven by studies that link time spent outside to helping children excel socially, emotionally, and academically. There is, of course, a structured curriculum, but there’s also room to explore.
Such an approach is particularly timely—just as COVID-19 precautions were drawing people to restaurant patios and parks, many educators began holding classes outside. For some St. Louis schools where outdoor learning is already integrated into lesson plans, these precautions came naturally.
At Community School, which sits on 18 acres in Ladue, students head outside in all kinds of weather. They bring sleds to school when it snows, for instance, to take advantage of a large hill on campus.
Teacher and adventure education coordinator Kevin Parentin says a common joke at the College School in Webster Groves is that students always need raincoats and rain pants, regardless of the weather. This mindset of preparedness and adaptability existed at the school before the pandemic, but during the past year, it helped students seamlessly transition to COVID-related safety precautions.
It’s no different at the Waldorf School of St. Louis, where administrator Theresa Dobson says the philosophy is “there’s no bad weather, only bad clothing.” Students and teachers alike are taught to dress like onions—that is, to utilize lots of layers in the winter.
Prior to the pandemic, students at the Waldorf School’s early childhood program spent a little more than three hours per day outside. This year, though, naptime was really the only time spent inside. “Anything that they do inside, they do outside,” says Dobson. Students played in the campus’ meadow and garden and climbed trees. First graders learned their letters by jumping rope and singing songs on the tennis court while second graders took a similar approach to learning multiplication. A large tent was erected to cover an outdoor classroom that has individual sitting logs placed 6 feet apart and a cob oven to use in colder temperatures. Students practiced cursive with sidewalk chalk. Fifth and sixth graders learned how to crochet in nearby Ivory Crockett Park. Teachers also used this park for lessons and hiking opportunities, along with Whitecliff Park, Powder Valley Conservation Nature Center, and Emmenegger Nature Park.
The College School “has been rooted in experiential learning since it was founded,” says Parentin. The school’s 28-acre LaBarque Campus near Pacific also offers an eco-friendly learning center, outdoor classroom and pavilion, and a plaza that doubles as a solar observatory. Kindergarteners spend a day in the woods, where they’re guided through an exploration of nature. When fifth graders visit Shaw Nature Reserve, they carefully catalog and tag butterflies. Sixth graders learn both technical and soft survival skills. Eighth graders take an ecology trip, complete with whitewater rafting and hiking over a span of about nine days.
The education expands beyond the natural world; students learn about the city, too. Third graders discover the Hill’s historic Italian neighborhood and Cherokee Street’s Latin American community. Seventh graders conduct formal and informal interviews as part of a podcast series that explores such important issues as the Delmar Divide and recreational green spaces.
Community School has a guiding principle to “open a child’s eyes to the wonders of nature, the stars, the universe, and the world around them.” Close to the school are woods, a pond, and nature trails for students to explore. During frequent trips to the pond, second graders learn about ecosystems, for example. Students unearth the concept of vertebrates and invertebrates by finding the exoskeletons of small bugs or animals while hiking the trails. All grade levels use the new treehouse classroom. Along with traditional school subjects, students also engage in mindfulness activities, such as poetry and yoga.
This year allowed Community School’s sustainability committees, run by adults and students alike, to reimagine how sustainability looks on campus. In addition to everyday practices such as recycling and sourcing local food, classrooms implemented composting, born out of a cohort system for lunch that confined each class to their classroom. The service-learning student council also launched a community gardens initiative, which involved every student in some way.
The emphasis on the outdoors and adventure education at all of these schools aims to foster independent students who are equipped with a skill set that’s essential to leadership. Parentin often hears the same feedback about former students: “They all seem to carry themselves as leaders.”
Space for Innovating
To foster young innovators, schools are carving out space for students to develop STEM skills in engaging, hands-on ways. Principia School recently partnered with Creative Learning Systems to open two IDEA Labs rooted in project-based learning, where students can choose their own projects, whether developing a website or organizing a drone-flying competition. “If we’re going to be problem solvers, innovators, and creative thinkers, we’ve got to have more porous walls,” says STEM lab facilitator Melanie Shedd, head of the school’s science department, who looks forward to sharing the space with the community. New City School also recently opened its Tom Hoerr Innovation Lab, a space named for its former longtime head of school. The lab is equipped with 3-D printers, laser printers, sewing machines, a woodworking station, a teaching kitchen, and other tools. The space provides students with an opportunity, says current head of school Alexis Wright, to “build and tinker and dream and fail and pick themselves back up.”
