Surrounded by a wooded area and nestled behind the John Cary Early Childhood Center and Beasley Elementary School lies the Mehlville School District’s hidden gem: its outdoor classroom.
“There are so many studies on the benefits of outdoor classrooms. It helps kids retain. The way that they behave when they go back inside (improves), self-regulation, social skills. It gets kids into nature, keeps nature in the forefront,” Gerry Spitznagel, Mehlville’s head groundskeeper and master naturalist, said.
“A lot of our families live in apartment complexes where they don’t readily have access to outdoor spaces,” Erin Amador, the district’s Parents as Teachers and early childhood coordinator, added. “This is where our kids come out to regulate. Being outside is so crucial.”
The outdoor learning space is open all four seasons. It has constantly changing activities, with curriculum incorporated, suitable for all abilities — from storybook trails and musical instruments to sandpits and swings — as well as a treehouse constructed by Mehlville High School’s geometry in construction students.
“Our curriculum, our science curriculum in particular, is designed to be hands-on learning and exploring. Science curriculum is really best done outside,” Amador said.
The outdoor classroom was created 14 years ago, though some trails have been around since the early 1980s. It started as a “very small area,” but has grown to include more trails and the lower space that was once partially swamp land.
A big goal of the district was to keep the space accessible for all; to do this, chat rock — a fine, gravel-like material — was put down in the upper and lower learning areas and throughout the trails, allowing students in wheelchairs, walkers or strollers to use the space without a hitch. The Kiwanis Club of South County financed this project; now in its third year of support, Kiwanis has donated over $7,000.
Amador went on to list other instrumental groups, including the district’s teachers, PTO and Mom’s Club.
“I know this sounds cheesy, but the word (to describe this space) would be community. One organization didn’t do it; it was truly a group effort from our community, and it’s been all of those forces working together with lots of momentum to do this,” Amador said.
“We’re getting more and more people interested. They come out here and they see the kids learning and engaged, and they just want to contribute,” Tiffany Schwaegel, the Mehlville School District’s early childhood director, added.
Due to its location, the space is primarily used by John Cary and Beasley. MOSAIC, another elementary school in the district, has also begun using it monthly.
“Every single day it’s being utilized in a different way,” Schwaegel said. “We are offering field trips district-wide. We’ve worked with our science coach through the district, and he’s really worked with the team to see how they can embed standards out here.”
As far as future plans, a fence will soon be added, allowing the learning space to be expanded and safe for kids to explore without worrying about dangers such as sinkholes. To help further grow the space’s use, Spitznagel has additional ideas.
“The next phase for us is to create stations with signage to help the teachers as they come out here to identify a fallen tree … mushrooms, all that kind of stuff. That’s kind of the vision, to have this really be a destination for science,” Spitznagel added. “I’ve already identified probably 35 different trees in here, so we just have to put signs on them now. There’s just so much cool stuff, there’s probably 20 deer … and we’re right on the major flyway along the river, so we get all the birds migrating, we get insects migrating, we get animals migrating.”
Additional goals include adding a viewing area for the nearby Jefferson Barracks Cemetery.
