Outdoor Classroom Planning

Learning with Nature Idea Book: Creating Nurturing Outdoor Spaces for Children

Field-Tested Principles for Effective Outdoor Learning Environments

Whether you are adding natural components to an existing outdoor classroom, or designing a new space, you will gain practical ideas for using nature as an integral part of children's learning. Incorporating concepts from leading ASLA (American Society of Landscape Architects) designers with easy-to-follow illustrations and photos, the Idea Book will help you put the results of Dimensions' field-tested principles to work in your outdoor classroom. Coming soon.

Safety

Nature Explore program is committed to having safe and natural products that will aid in youth development and bring children closer to nature. To do this, an outdoor classroom requires elements and areas that offer various educational activities for children. As you are creating your classroom with all its different elements, consider the different safety criteria as well. The best guidelines to follow can be found at the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), which can be reached in Washington, D.C., at 1-800-638-2772 or online at the CPSC's website.

Below are some helpful links to make sure your outdoor classroom is as safe as possible.

Playground Safety

The CPSC's Handbook for Public Playground Safety, publication #325, is the key reference tool for the playground industry, including specifications for the use of play equipment and recommendations concerning age-related designs and play components.

At the state level, lawmakers have passed legislation or regulations addressing playground safety. Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Virginia have adopted all or parts of CPSC or ASTM standards. State Regulations.

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Protective Surfacing

Although Nature Explore Classroom is a unique concept for outdoor play areas, this does not mean it is uniquely exempt from safety standards. It is very important to incorporate safety into every area of a classroom. In a typical playground, 70% of all injuries result from falls off equipment onto unforgiving surfaces, and because Nature Explore Classroom incorporates some items that will require protective surfacing underneath, how you handle surfacing is very important to your children's safety and risk management efforts. It is important to place playground approved wood chips or another protective surfacing recommend by the CPSC underneath those items from which children might fall.

The surface material under and around the raised natural balancing items in the Sourcebook is critical to preventing potential injuries. Hard surfacing materials, such as concrete or asphalt are unsuitable under and around play equipment. Grass or packed earth are also not recommended because they have poor shock absorbing properties and injury may occur from a maximum fall height. Please consult the CPSC, National Program for Playground Safety, or a local playground safety expert in your area to find out the recommended depth of the surfacing of your choice.

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ADA

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) guarantees that people of all abilities have the same opportunities for work, learning and growth. This is just as important in an outdoor classroom, where it should be a goal to help with the development of every child. Because nature education has been proven critical in childhood development, Nature Explore program offers many products that are ADA qualified.

Download ADA Accessibility Guide

This guide is intended to help designers and operators in using the accessibility guidelines for play areas but is not a collection of playground designs. Rather, it provides specifications for elements within a play area to create a general level of usability for children with disabilities. These guidelines establish minimum accessibility requirements for newly constructed and altered play areas.

For a complete copy of the U.S. Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board's guidelines, call 800-872-2253 or visit the U.S. Access Board.

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Budget

Your Budget

Your budget should include several expense categories that need to be considered in the planning stages.

1. Outdoor Classroom Materials and Equipment

   The cost of your material and equipment can vary depending on the size of your space and how many natural items you already have in place.

2. Site Preparation

   This can vary greatly, depending upon the amount of grading, excavation, etc. that is necessary to prepare for your outdoor classroom. Check with local building, design, and safety experts in your area.

3. Installation and Building Structures

   Determine if you will do your own installation using the instructions provided by Nature Explore or have a licensed contractor install them for you. Most Nature Explore items require little or no installation, but some items are recommended to be installed by a licensed contractor. Additional structures such as stages, paths, and platforms add value to your outdoor classroom, but also can increase the cost. Overall costs vary greatly by area, items purchased, and extra structures and paths built.

4. Plants, grass, and protective mulch

   Every outdoor classroom should have the look and feel of a natural area. It might be necessary to add grass, child safe plants, and protective playground mulch under certain items.

Budget Solutions

Phasing

One advantage of Nature Explore Classroom is that it allows you to add to your outdoor classroom over time, so that you include more materials and items in different phases. This can stretch your budget, allow you to teach more children, and give your children new natural educational learning experiences to help with their development.

Using a phased approach, you can:

1. Add components as your budget allows.
2. Keep students interested and excited about nature with new items.
3. Add new teaching and learning experiences.

Community Building

Creating a highly educational, safe, and natural looking outdoor classroom can be easy with Nature Explore program. Each item is designed for simple or no on-site installation. Schools, Child Care Centers, and Communities can easily create a great-looking and highly-educational classroom. By avoiding the costly professional installation and design, you can create a great outdoor classroom on any budget.

Fundraising

Many fundraising solutions are available from local to national fundraising opportunities. The Arbor Day Foundation offers a fundraising opportunity: Arbor Day Gift Trees

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