Nature in Your School Yard is about welcoming nature back to the grounds around a school.

Nature used to be there – wildflowers, trees, small animals like squirrels, many birds and insects – long before the school was built and the fields around it were used as natural playgrounds. Then, most schools covered their school’s grounds with asphalt or cement so that students could have dry, clean shoes when they arrived inside the school building. People thought the dry, hard surfaces looked neater and tidier.

Today, students and teachers realize that “greening” their school grounds once again will have many advantages. Plants and trees will attract wildlife like insects and birds, butterflies and chipmunks. All of Nature becomes material for study. “Natural” grounds are more interesting and relaxing for the students, too. Plants and trees enrich the quality of the air as they produce oxygen. They provide shade, beauty and fragrances. Green spaces can be a link to literature as the students at Gretna Green Elementary School have discovered in their Story Land Park. Beaconsfield School used their school yard greening project to learn about computer-aided design, model building, the importance of understanding geology and measurement.

This feature will give you some ideas about how school grounds can be returned to natural habitats. It involves more than planting some trees and flowers. Students learn about community partners and networking. If you will share the ideas that worked for your school grounds, we will add them to this feature. Send them to our mascot, René the fox, through the Ask René feature.

All nature sounds used in the School Yard Tour are © Lang Elliott, Nature Sound Studio.