Submission Type: Practice-Based
Final Rating: Promising Practice
Date Submitted: Spring 2022
Focus Area: Child Development
Focus Population: Children, Teachers, Owners, Caregivers, Guardians, Administrators
Contact Information:
Mary Tepera-Jones
Architect
(918) 832-5544
Good Fieldwork
124 N. Peoria, Tulsa, OK 74120
Goals and Outcomes:
This submission is ideal for child care providers who understand that natural, outdoor learning classrooms help children develop a sense of wonder, foster creativity, imagination, and discovery for optimal brain development and child outcomes. It will also help those providers that need to enhance their outside space to improve quality and increase their capacity and rating on the state’s quality rating system.
The majority of the work is the design and construction. This is a detailed process that requires surveys, certifications, planning meetings and multiple trips to and from the child care location. To begin the process, the architect from GOOD FIELDWORK, consultant from EARLY EXPERTISE, and the construction manager from JONESPLAN meet with the individual providers’ to understand their needs and desires for their outdoor learning environment. At a minimum, the GOOD FIELDWORK team plans to meet with:
Leadership of the program.
A larger group to discuss cultural implications, ideas and receive input on draft design. This group will be determined by the program, but may include teachers, parents, neighbors, community leaders, etc.
Once the playground is surveyed and the programmatic goals have been finalized, the outdoor classroom is designed. A construction team then works with the program to schedule commencement of construction. Construction time will vary, but is estimated at approximately 10 days/nights for completion of a family child care home outdoor learning environment and 13 days/nights for completion of a child care center outdoor learning environment. The budget includes their travel expenses, such as mileage, hotel and meals. The budget includes all required equipment, construction materials, installation, clean-up and a final walkthrough. This is a long, but enjoyable process for the designer, consultant and construction team. The children love to safely watch the “workers” from afar, as they remove old equipment (if needed) and build and install new pieces. Many teachers have followed the lead of the children and adapted their lesson plans to “construct and create” or “building structures”.
Each Outdoor Learning Design will include the following nine elements:
1. Mud Kitchen: To include kitchen furniture. Area will inspire children to develop a sense of self, learn decision making and problem-solving skills, empathy towards others, self-discipline, and initiative as they play and role model with their peers. (for simplicity of this proposal, mud kitchen excludes plumbing work.)
2. Nature Art: To include fixed art equipment, such as easels or chalking areas. Area will inspire children to indicate their needs and wants, demonstrate fine-motor strength and coordination, and express themselves through their creative mind.
3. Gardening: To include raised gardening opportunities. Area will allow children to experience, try things out, think on their own, and form opinions based on their observations.
4. Climb/Balance: To include fixed climbing equipment made from natural materials. Area will help children develop physical skill performance with balance and coordination. They will discover concentration, body awareness, and hand/eye coordination.
5. Sensory Path: To include a natural pathway. Area will inspire children to explore the five sensessee, hear, touch, taste and smell.
6. Performance & Shaded Flex Space: To include raised stage & shade structure (as needed). Area will facilitate group time and performances and can be set up as a learning center for literacy, science, math, manipulatives, or gross motor that aligns with the curriculum, standards and goals of the program. This also helps children enhance their motor skills, including coordination, balance and agility as the younger children climb on and off the stage.
7. Music & Movement: To include fixed music instrumentation. Area will help children develop skills such as cognitive growth, problem-solving, self-expression, and social development.
8. Reading: To include comfortable seating. Area will allow children to focus on literacy and language which is essential to developing a strong sense of well-being and a healthier sense of self-image. It helps children develop the skills to communicate and to develop a love for lifelong reading.
9. Safe Space: To include a fixed hiding space made from natural materials (i.e. playhouse or similar). Area will enable a child to hide or have alone time for reflection with nature or to self-regulate.
During the construction of this project, providers and children will be encouraged to be involved. Because children love to watch things being constructed, the proposal includes a book for the children to look at that will show them the playground map and what the project will look like upon completion
Brief Summary:
This submission is an innovative idea to design new and/or renovate existing playgrounds at eight diverse early education programs across the State of Oklahoma into natural outdoor learning classrooms which will help promote the health and well-being of Oklahoma children and early childhood staff. Outdoor learning environments are important spaces for all children, and in the days of a global pandemic and endless connection to digital devices and the indoors, they become even more critical. This submission focuses on the developmental needs of children ages birth through twelve and the creation of age-appropriate natural outdoor classrooms to help meet those needs.
GOOD FIELDWORK has designed four outdoor learning classrooms at Tulsa Educare 4-Celia Clinton from the ground up and renovated the outdoor learning environments at the other Tulsa Educare schools. Tulsa Educare focuses on the most vulnerable children and has data that shows the improvements that the children have made in the program. The data is not specifically focused on outdoor learning environments but is focused on learning environments, teacher interactions and intentional teaching practices. These outdoor learning environments, along with training and technical assistance can bring stronger child outcomes to the most "at risk" children.
The challenges that we anticipate exist but are solvable. The first is selecting the eight providers that would receive this outdoor learning classroom because the ultimate goal is to provide the greatest benefit to the children they serve. The solution to this would be to develop a rubric that is measurable and those that are interested in applying would need to meet the highest criteria level. The best plan would be to ensure that these providers are spread out over the state, serve the neediest children and in child care desert areas or areas with a very few high quality providers. The second is adapting the overall programmatic goals to each of the eight providers' unique physical sites. While it is true that each site will vary, and each provider's needs will be different, every effort will be made to maintain the overall budget and programmatic goals of creating an outdoor learning environment that is appropriate for each provider's space.
Outdoor Classroom Design and Construction