More Inspiration

These are pictures from Cedar Ridge Elementary in WISD. It was designed by Sandy Beck, who is a former Spring Valley teacher and a Master Gardener! (She is also a great piano teacher, summer swim instructor and pet sitter if you need any of these things!) Mrs. Beck came out and consulted with us in the very beginning of this process. We are very grateful to her! She was really sad that I was in her cedar Ridge Garden Classroom in the dead of winter when everything was brown, but it still looked great to me! Enjoy the views of Mrs Beck's Cedar Ridge Garden Classroom below!

Ms. Sandy has all sorts of critters in her Garden. She believes in making it fun for the kids and teaching them about the circle of life. We will have to stick with bugs and pretend critters at Spring Valley but what fun!

This hut is literally the "outdoor classroom" but like our own outdoor space, there is much, much more to it! It would be great to have a covered room like this in the Panther Patch some day!


The brightly painted "garden house" makes this space so inviting, even in the dead of winter.

Sandy also encouraged us to add a simple weather wall or station to outdoor space.

Winter plantings



These are just like the benches we bought for the Ampi-theater area at Sandy's suggestion. Cedar Ridge has used these for 3 years and they are like new!

I loved how she honored donors and filled up a plain brick wall with this wonderful "Tree of Life"

Next time you see Mrs Beck let her know how much we appreciate her inspiration and encouragement!

Launching Phase One ~ CONSTRUCTION!

Yesterday our wonderful Librarians snapped these pictures of the stone being delivered for the retaining wall and the butterfly bed in the triangle. Work begins soon!




Spring Valley we have BLAST OFF!

The PLAN

Here is a picture of the plan for the outdoor classroom. The picture will enlarge if you click on it. If you have any questions you can contact me.

The Vision

The Triangle



The trees in this picture are metal sculptures of trees that will be mounted on the brick wall. We are looking for ways to best create these. We have small park benches that will be placed on pavers but will not be mounted. The flags in this last picture are an idea in the works to make this area a bit more whimsical.



The Entrance


This is a sketch of what I hope the entrance will look like. The name has not been decided. We have a little suggestion box up and are urging the school to help us name our new Outdoor Learning Center.


Grade Level Planting Beds

There will be ten beds at 12ft by 4 ft beds. They will be straight, not angled as they are here.

The Ampi-classroom

Quarry block benches will sit on the pea gravel. The pea gravel will be kept in place by a curb or landscape material. The black powder coated chain link is in the fore ground.

Outdoor Learning Center Ideas

I am going to upload pictures of things we want to include in our Outdoor Learning Center here so that those interested can get a better idea of what we are planning.

This is an outdoor area at Woodway that was inspiration for the Outdoor Ampi-theater designed for Spring Valley.

Instead of using these flat natural shaped bolder tops buried in the ground, I hope to be able to obtain quarry block to use as benches arranged in two rows in a half circle. We need these block benches to accommodate 24 kids comfortably. Below are sample pictures of Quarry block.


Below is the bench I would like for the Stone Ampi-theater front. This is what Sandy back has at Cedar Ridge. Also if we can not find the stone quarry block, we may try to make the ampi-theater out of these. (from the ad) "It's a standard garden bench but flip the back to create a bench and desk setup for student journaling, or turn two benches into one picnic table. Made from heavy-duty white vinyl, this bench does not splinter and contains none of the harmful preservatives found in many wood products. It is termite- and rot-proof, and will look like new for years. 59"x32"h."
.


This is Woodway's entrance to their P.A.W. Our entrance will be smaller than this.
Our Columns will be brick and our sign will be black. More similar to what South Bosque has but with red brick instead of tile.


These are the beds that Home Depot built for South Bosque. Our beds will be similar to these but longer. We also hope to brace the sides of our beds so students can sit on them.

WELCOME

I am setting up this blog to be used as a reference for the SVE PTA Outdoor Classroom Exploritory Committee. Please use the links to the right to read about Outdoor classrooms.

Committe Overview

SVE PTA Outdoor Classroom Exploratory Committee Overview

This SVE PTA Outdoor Classroom Exploratory Committee (hence referred to as the OCE Committee or OCEC ) was appointed by the PTA executive officers and given the following objectives and guidelines:

1. Research and visit elementary outdoor learning projects.

2. Secure and/or develop workable outdoor classroom alternatives and recommendations to be presented to the SVE Executive board on January 7, 2009.

3. Secure bids for the outdoor classroom plans and form recommendations to be presented and voted on by February 2, 2009.

4. Act as an advisory panel to the executive officers and committee chairs as we contract and oversee the ground breaking and construction of the outdoor classroom.

5. Members of this committee are bound by the rules regulations set-forth in the SVE PTA by-laws. No member of this committee is authorized to negotiate contracts or commit PTA resources without the prior approval of PTA President, SVE Principals, and the approval vote of the PTA Executive Board.

The OCEC will be overseen by the SVE PTA Executive Officers and the Spring Valley Elementary Administration and will function primarily as a research, planning and designing body.

Committee will be composed of the following:

Stephanie Grosz, PTA Third Vice-President of Fundraising and OCEC Committee Chair will act as the executive officer liaison and contractor for this project.

Kristi Miller, SVE PTA OCEC Committee Co-Chair. Kristi's family owns Big Creek Construction and brings vast construction knowledge to the exploratory process.

Sherri Prather, SVE PTA Campus Beautification Chair and Master Gardener

Emily Christian, SVE PTA Second Vice-President of Membership who has a vision for this outdoor classroom and a very handy husband to boot!

Sarah Iannuccilli, SVE Parent and PTA member (As of Jan. 2009)