Outdoor Learning
academics
Discover the Joy of Learning from God’s Natural World
We believe time outdoors is critical for our students and view students exploring the outdoors as children considering God’s creation. We provide ample opportunities to explore the outdoors and consistently see the benefits. The Outdoor Classroom broadens our students’ educational opportunities and supports them as they explore how God as created them.
See how The Outdoor Classroom benefits the students of Covenant Christian School
Broadening our students’ educational opportunities.
Consistent with Covenant’s commitment to educating the whole child, our Outdoor Classroom extends academics, promotes long-term observation, develops student confidence and provides opportunities to work with and learn from natural resources. The whole curriculum is enhanced through student interaction with God’s natural world.
Applying God’s Natural World in the Classroom.
Our Outdoor Classroom includes elements that promote student learning and includes more than 10 outdoor areas for our students to explore, such as various gardens, windmill, Covenant’s Outdoor Learning Lab, fire pit (Council Circle), and weather station.
Supporting Covenant’s Integral, Experiential Curriculum
Our Outdoor Learning Lab is a single-classroom building with covered outdoor space in the midst of the Outdoor Classroom. We have modified its curriculum to be more purposefully experiential across all grade levels and well-balanced across the curriculum as well as in the areas of the life, Earth, space and physical sciences. Our outdoor classroom coordinator supports experiential education as well as works to help make the school’s Outdoor Classroom integral to the curriculum.
Why Outdoor Learning?
Each of the elements of our Outdoor Classroom ties directly to our school’s learning goals. Each grade, 3rd and above, plant seeds in their classroom’s garden space that are associated to a lesson they are learning in their class. For example, sixth grade plants seeds that would have been used during World War II.
This integral style of teaching can do four things for our students:
Enhances our academics through interaction of God’s natural world.
Promotes long-term observation.
The opportunity to share the joy and anticipation with our students as they observe their seeds development into fruits and vegetables each week.
Grants a greater understanding of how effort impacts environment.
Our outdoor classroom provides opportunities for us to discuss how small things can impact the environment.
Provides management of natural resources.
Each of the elements of our Outdoor Classroom ties directly to our school’s learning goals. Each grade 3rd and above plant seeds in the garden space that associates to a lesson they are learning in their class.
