Early education and family services nonprofit Carpinteria Children’s Project wants to add four outdoor classrooms to its campus to support its preschoolers with hands-on, nature-focused, bilingual learning.
Through the “Plant the Future” buy-a-brick campaign, community members and local businesses can purchase customizable engraved bricks that will be displayed in the Gratitude Garden at the front of CCP’s 5201 Eighth St. campus.
“We really wanted to have a piece of the campaign where the community could participate,” Director of Development Ari Rodriguez said.
The campus has secured most of its $750,000 funding goal, and hopes to bring in the remaining $100,000 through the buy-a-brick campaign.
Two outdoor classrooms are finished and have been in use for a week.
The other two are slated for completion by the end of the year.
“It is a tremendous opportunity for children to learn and have direct contact with nature,” teacher Lourdes Cordero said in Spanish. “It makes a real impact on them, and they can experience a completely different kind of development.”
Each outdoor space was redesigned in partnership with Nature Explore, a national firm that specializes in outdoor learning environments.
Teacher feedback brought in elements such as rocks lining sandboxes to contain mess, and more shaded areas.
“Every section of the yard has been thought about,” Director of Early Learning Guadalupe Perez said. “Everyone was really putting their whole heart into this transformation.”
The completed yards include defined spaces for various activities, with sandboxes, an extended track for riding scooters and tricycles, a painting space and a swingset.
“It is important that they can explore and experiment,” Cordero said in Spanish. “They can access all the different areas, socialize more, and have faster mental and physical development because of their contact with nature.”
In the first week of use, students from 18 months to 5 years have displayed creativity in how they use the outdoor spaces, Executive Director Teresa Alvarez said.
For example, Alvarez observed a student utilizing the tricycle garage as a shaded calming corner.
The yard’s design also gives students enough space to take time away from play to self-regulate, encouraging conflict resolution and problem-solving, Alvarez added.
Students have been starting the day outdoors, and spend six to seven hours of their more than nine-hour days there, Perez said. Features such as an outdoor changing table allow classes to remain outside comfortably for extended periods.
They have enjoyed the outdoor classrooms so much that educators have seen students cry when they return to indoor classrooms, Perez said.
“Being outdoors just naturally in that space, that brings comfort to them,” Perez said.
The classrooms expand upon CCP’s commitment to outdoor education, Alvarez said.
In an ongoing partnership with the Wilderness Youth Project, preschoolers would go on field trips into nature once a week.
Now, preschoolers can enjoy elements of nature while staying on CCP’s campus.
This outdoor time is especially important for young children in a world increasingly centered on technology, Alvarez said.
She observed that especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, students who came to the bilingual care center struggled with language.
“Sometimes families come in with the child in a stroller with a phone or an iPad, and so we’re also doing information and education around that and the impact of screen time on children,” Alvarez said. “We do a lot to really encourage families to spend time outside.”
The benefits of outdoor spaces extend to educators, providing a calming natural environment during care hours, Perez said.
“We know that the students reflect a lot of the energy from the individuals that they’re working with, so we know that is equally important,” Perez said.
The buy-a-brick campaign has already seen “a lot of interest,” Rodriguez said.
Construction on the remaining two outdoor areas will happen over holiday breaks, with a big reveal planned for January, Alvarez said.
