Highcrest Middle School

Outdoor Classroom Activities

Activities in the Outdoor Classroom

What Kids Can Do To Help

• Water anything (especially pots) with watering cans, not hoses!
• Sweep and rake leaves from sidewalks
• Pick up apples and dispose of them in the green compost bin
• Rotate the compost bin
• Coil hoses neatly, straighten the tool shed
• Wash the three work tables
• Fill the bird feeders from the aluminum bucket in the shed
• Weed, plant and prune - with PTO maintenance supervisors only!

What Kids Can Do Just For Fun

• Explore freely on garden paths!
• Find bugs, butterflies, birds, and worms
• Sketch, watercolor, and other art
• Identify prairie and woodland flowers with books
• Read, chat, and just relax
• Special craft activities described on laminated sheets
• Dig with hand shovels in the designated dig tree stump area
• “Paint” on paper with Pokeweed berries in the Fall (in one designated area)

What Kids Can’t Do

• Run, shout, “hide and seek” or other forms of energetic physical activity!
• Tread on plants (yikes!) by walking off the paths
• Walk close to classroom windows
• Use magnifiers to try to start a fire!
• Spray each other with the hose
• Harm any plant or animal - including bugs and insects
• Weed, plant or prune without a PTO maintenance supervisor present
• Catch bees
• Move wood branches and stumps to other locations
• Roll or jump on stumps
• Eat any berries, leaves, or roots (few plants are poisonous in large quantities)
• Make and fly paper airplanes
• Build a structure, e.g. a fort or habitat
• Climb up on tables or chairs