One recommendation would be to ensure that you officially gift it to the school via a gifting letter. This would also end up going to the town's School Committee and would be officially filed by the town. This would take all liability away from your group. This is similar to what should be done when a group constructs a new playground. This was all saftey inspections/requirements, repairs, etc. fall on the school/town and not you.
I teach in Mexico. Everyone of our class rooms has it's own outdoor enclosed garden. Apart from being useful as a "time out" area - a student can be removed from the class, but still participate - these areas can be used for lessons outside.
This is not such as advantage as it may sound, however, as we all miss the fans & the shade!
For some activities, English language arts, or drama, however, these areas can be extremely useful.
We also built ours when we applied for and received a $5,000 grant from Lowe's. Since we're in Arizona we don't have to worry about rain. We leveled an area of ground, added shade over the top and purchased new picnic tables. We use it as an outdoor classroom as well as a place to eat lunch and a place for parents to gather when picking up kids. We embellished it with a pond, native plants that attract hummingbirds and butterflies, and a few park benches where our students can journal. We have a large thermometer, spider web frame, and container gardens for the teachers to use. I highly recommend the website www.kidsgardening.com
for ideas. Good luck-- this beautiful area has quickly become a favorite of our students, teachers, and families!
We just finished our pavillion. We applied for and received a $5,000 grant from Lowe's to build ours. It consists of a metal roof, ceiling, wooden posts wrapped with metal (no splinters!) and a concrete floor. One of our parents volunteered his companies workers to construct it, but unfortunately, our city has strict regulations about who can design and construct a building to be placed on school grounds and lots of liabilty issues. So, after months and months of waiting, we finally ended up buying a pavillion from a company (BBL) and they built it and have insurance that will cover any liability. It will also have 6-8 picnic tables in it.
We plan on using it for an outdoor classroom, special events such as Lunch Bunch, etc.
If you go to brentpto.com you can see ours. The raised platform is not readily evident but it is there. The spokes of the "sun" lead into it. We also use the area for outdoor eating on nice and or special days...d
Has anyone ever built an outdoor classroom? That is our big project for the year we are try to come up with some plans. I would love any ideas. We want something like style of a pavilion. thanks
